Wants vs. Needs when buying - my story

I think one of the toughest parts of buying a home for me was coming to terms with all the wants versus the needs and which took precedence.

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..