No Home You Buy Will Be Perfect … But There’s a Solution for Everything So You Will Be Happy!
Here are some questions that may come up for you when you purchase your next home. I certainly had to figure out what I thought were issues when I purchased our current home 4 years ago.
Why is the laundry /mud room so small? I’m constantly knocking into drying racks and tripping over piles of shoes on the floor. I hate our laundry room!
How are we possibly going to childproof our main living area? The once-glorious sunken living room with major expanses of space is now a threat to my unborn children. Oh My!
For a house that’s on the larger side, why are there only three bedrooms? Where are we going to put our family and guests who visit? In the oversized, useless foyer? Ridiculous!
The many beautiful windows that bathed your new home in natural light now may annoy you because, let’s be honest, how can you possibly keep them clean? You wish you had fewer windows!
Why did the builder design the “chef’s” kitchen with a teeny little island with no seating area? Do I have to redo the kitchen, too?
You may have to take a step back to remember your house is still a dream. It just needed a little re-figuring to fit the new stage of your lives as busy, homebound you may be.
No home is perfect. But not everything needs to be solved by major renovations. Sometimes, even the gnarliest of problems can be solved in an easy way.
So let’s commence with the advice.
First, get organized. Get rid of clutter. Streamline your possessions and dispense with things you don’t need. This will allow you to more accurately take stock of your living situation and the flow of your home. It will also help you prioritize what projects you need to do, and on what scale.
Repurpose rooms you are not using into rooms you will use. Not everyone needs a formal living or dining room, or a large home office. Is there a better use for your home’s existing assets?
Before you do anything major—a gut job or the like—live with it for a while. Really see how you use the space. Are there less expensive ways you can solve the problem? Either by better organization, or using after-market storage tools or structures? Will a simple cosmetic refresh do the job?
Your time is valuable. Sometimes it’s worth it to outsource some of your home’s upkeep. Be selective and outsource that which will give you the greatest return on your time.
If you have done the above and truly need to do a major project, get multiple bids. Put together your requirements so they are organized. Seek best practices from the myriad of home improvement and design resources out there first.
And most importantly: take into account the way you will also live in the future before you do anything! If you are about to have a family, perhaps you would do a bathroom renovation differently than if your kids are going off to college. Ditto for mud rooms, garages, kitchens, and basements.
I gave away a ton of stuff we didn’t use: duplicate items that were collecting dust and taking up our valuable storage space. I organized everything according to the way we live. Made important things accessible. Stored things that we didn’t use in nicely labeled, clear containers. Consolidated three junk drawers into one. Attacked it all. And I’m trying desperately to keep it that way.
We turned our third floor, originally intended as an office, into a fourth bedroom.
As for the natural light? I had window washers come and deal with the grime – too many windows in the house for me to attempt. It’s an indulgence I will need to do every couple of years, so I’m budgeting for it. When it was done I felt like I had LASIK surgery. It’s a wonder how sharp your vision can be when you’re not looking through years of film!
We are doing a full-scale renovation of our laundry room. There was no way around it. I am more excited about that – weirdly enough – than any other home improvement project I have ever done. We ripped out the kitchen island and replaced it with something appropriately sized for the space, with tons of storage and plenty of spaces for seating. This saved us from having to redo the kitchen. We also designed it in a style that would blend in with any future kitchen renovation we wanted to do.
There is no such thing as a “forever” home – always keep resale in mind
Any Realtors’ first mantra is “location, location, location,” and our second mantra is “resale, resale, resale.” Regardless if you found the perfect home that you never intend to leave, please keep resale in mind.
Some buyers aren’t satisfied unless a house meets their every requirement – and they often have a long list. It might be the right neighborhood, size, price, floor plan, yard, and pool, and they really love the kitchen, but they can’t sit in the LR and look out at the back yard, so it won’t work. Or it didn’t have a closet in the home office, so it’s off the list even though it meets their other needs. Their expectations are unrealistic. There are probably many houses that they could live in happily, but they demand perfection, down to the last detail.
Some of these buyers get discouraged and frustrated when they don’t find the right house by the third showing and decide to wait a few years to buy. Others are sure that they’ll find the perfect house that meets every requirement and won’t give up until they find it. They continue to look for months, and in extreme cases, years.
A good agent will help their customers understand that even though it’s a buyer’s market, it’s not likely they’ll find a house that is perfect in every possible way for their lifestyle, tastes, and needs. Rather, if they focus on the top 2 or 3 must-haves, they will probably find several houses that are suitable and then be in a good position to negotiate for the one they like best.
