What’s Love Got to Do With It? 5 Things to Consider Before Buying Your Dream Home

Written by Diane Luebbers

Congratulations! You’ve finally found your dream home! It has everything you’ve always wanted. It’s just perfect. But wait! Before you sign on the dotted line, here are five things you should consider.

1. Lifestyle

Yes, it may have spectacular mountain views, and yes, it may have all the privacy you could ever want and then some, but is that what you really want? Think about your lifestyle. If you’re somewhat of a hermit and don’t feel the need to go to town except once a week to stock up your pantry – great! A remote location may be perfect for you. But on the other hand, if you’re the gregarious type, and want to hop in your car and be at a local coffee shop in 10 minutes, you may want to rethink that mountain aerie.

I understand this scenario all too well. Matter of fact, I lived it. Years ago, my husband and I fell in love with a house outside of Bozeman, Montana that was two miles up a steep mountain road. Every time we went to town, it was a 40-minute drive one way just to get a gallon of milk or a tank of gas. If we needed to do errands, it ended up being an all-day affair, not just a quick trip. Make sure your dream home fits your real-life activities.

2. Resale

You swear this will be your forever home, and you love the basement-level family room that has been remodeled to look like a sarcophagus (true story!) You are Goth to the core and love it just the way it is. You’ll never move, you say, so what’s the problem? Never say never, my friend. Never say never. I’ve lost count of the stories I’ve heard about home owners who bought their forever home thinking that they would never need to sell. Then a few years later after a life-changing event of some kind, these same homeowners had to sell and take a loss on their beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder home that only appealed to a very small pool of buyers. Always consider the resale value.

3. Neighborhood Culture

If your dream home is in a development that has a lot of restrictions and covenants and you’re the type of person that doesn’t like to be told what to do, that dream home may turn into a nightmare. What is important to you in your everyday life? Do you want to park your camper in your driveway? Plant a garden in your backyard? Put pink flamingos in your front yard? Purchasing a home in a community that doesn’t allow you to do what makes you happy won’t make you happy. And no, getting forgiveness instead of permission is not a recipe for a happy life either. Before you buy what just may end up being your forever home, make sure you can stand living there forever.

4. Growing Pains

Consider the long-term ramifications of purchasing a particular home. Don’t assume you can easily sell your home when the need arises to upsize due to a growing family or downsize when those fledglings leave the nest. The real estate market is cyclical and may not suit your timing if you do need to sell.

5. Yard Work

That cabin in the woods that you fell in love with online looks like the perfect home for you. Look at all those majestic, 100-foot trees! So beautiful…so private…so much work! Unless you plan on hiring a landscaper, think about what it will take to maintain that beautiful property. Those gorgeous trees, so vibrant and green in the pictures, will shed all those leaves come fall. Are you up to raking or leaf-blowing for 10 hours at a time? Can you afford to hire someone to do it for you? And if your 100-ft trees are anything like mine, (Yes, I’m the one that fell in love with that cabin in the woods) they also like to self-prune. What does that mean? It means that after any storm, you may end up with a yard full of downed branches and limbs, some of which can be big enough to make you glad you weren’t walking underneath them when they fell. Now you have even more yard work to do – hauling all those branches to a safe, central location in your yard to burn them. And if your HOA doesn’t allow burning in your neighborhood, you will then have to pay to have them hauled away.

I’m not suggesting that you don’t buy your dream home. I’m instead encouraging you to think about the big picture, and the life you will be living in that dream home before you make a final decision. There are additional things to consider besides the five I’ve mentioned here. If you’d like to know more, please feel free to give me a call. If I don’t pick up immediately, leave me a message and I’ll call you back. There’s a pretty good chance I’m out doing yard work.