Are buyers struggling to find the perfect home?

Buyers come to agents with the idea of a perfect home. It has to have the exact measurements, bedroom count, or home features (i.e., pool, patio, and/or kitchen island). The challenge is finding the perfect home. Buyers expect this home in their mind to exist somewhere in reality, and those buyers will not settle for anything less than perfection. The entire meaning of a perfect home needs a redo.

Is there a perfect home?

No matter how many articles buyers read about real estate, no perfect home exists. A truly perfect home fits the specifications with no faults. That’s impossible since no two homes use the same construction blueprint in size and shape. Older homes in any price range will have major and/or minor issues. Therefore, searching for an imaginary image as a real-life home is problematic. Additionally, no two buyers view the perfect home similarly. This image is an opinion and preference conjured up in a person’s mind that culminates all buyer specifications into one property.

The meaning changes based on life events such as marriage, divorce, family growth, empty nests, and relocation. The perfect home now may change years from now due to living in several homes. Buyers will move up and downsize. As the buyer’s tastes change due to world experience or just because, each new home will get decorated, renovated, and landscaped in unexpected ways.

Is there an excessive emphasis on the perfect home?

An image doesn’t paint a realistic picture. Even if the home does fit specifications, buyers don’t imagine surroundings when picturing the perfect home. The neighborhood, local amenities, and commuting time could ruin the perfect home image. Public services like police stations, fire stations, hospitals, and libraries gravitate toward thriving neighborhoods. In fact, a lack of local amenities separates thriving neighborhoods from declining ones. With commute time, the time it takes driving back and forth to work, school, and daily errands is the difference between spending hours at home and hours in a vehicle. Crime, noise, neighbors, encroachments, easements, foreclosed homes and boarded homes taint the perfect home image too.

The consequences of believing in a perfect home

Searching for the perfect image can turn into an obsession. Buyers refusing to select a home because they hate the wall color or loathe the dust on windows are meticulous clients, and those buyers are hard to please. The endless searches for the perfect home always come up empty (the endless cycle of insanity) Perfectionism, a second side effect, occurs during home improvements after buying a home with potential. The buyer understands the perfect home doesn’t exist, so the buyer will purchase the home and transform it into one. Expect to sacrifice finances and time to hire countless professionals to turn it exactly like the dreamed up vision. Both obsession and perfectionism leave buyers drained and stressed with many losing more than gaining.

Solutions

Separate the deal breakers from the deal benders. Buyers must compromise on some requirements while standing firm on the main features. The deal benders are compromising features that aren’t bothersome or easily solved with a contractor’s help. Deal breakers are unchangeable must-have home features, and buyers are willing to walk if the home doesn’t have it. The home layout, garage, foundation issues, and # of bedrooms/bathrooms are examples. Write the pros and cons of every home viewed. Focus on the negatives. Are they deal breakers? Keep the less bothersome homes on the list. Bid on two to four favorite homes and accept the best offer.

An alternative to searching for move-in ready homes is to make a home. Custom homebuilders can personalize the perfect home using buyer specifications. Agents know the homebuilders who will do the job correctly, so take their advice.

The variety in home selection gives buyers permission to create a perfect home image. The difficulty is distinguishing which parts of the image to overlook and which parts to keep. Agents understand this. The buyer must listen, accept, and adapt to reality.

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DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation for writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.