Needs -
- A home in a good school district for my soon to arrive son (some years ago)
- Ideally not too far from my parents who would help with babysitting and who often needed my help on some things.
- Affordable, both in operating costs and a mortgage that would not cause excessive strain.
Wants -
- Biggish back yard
- Driveway (optimistic)
- Detached
- Snazzy and done up
When
it came to the time to put the offer in I was in a market similar to
this, bidding wars were the norm and prices were going up weekly. I
soon realized that the needs outweighed the wants. The most important,
as a new mom with all the new expenses that entailed, was affordability
and in the areas I wanted that was fast disappearing, so I "overpaid"
and won the bid on the third house I went after. It had none of the
things I "wanted," but it was bright, some were very dark, it was in
decent shape and as my father said at the time, how much did you want to
clean anyway (inside and out). Truer words as toys find themselves
everywhere...
While
many people out there are at various levels of the economic spectrum I
think similar tales can be told everywhere. The trick is identifying
what is really a need vs. a want and where are we willing to
compromise. In the end, I am in a great area and a school that has been
incredible and while I might have "over paid" several years ago the
value to me in terms of both the value of the home itself and the life I
have in the area makes it look like small change now.
Helping
people find the right deal is what I do with mortgages so that when my
clients go out to find the right fit for them in term of homes, they are
ready to move when the perfect home comes along..
