"The Home"
Understanding and finding your inherent value is the key to all of this. Knowing your unique wants and needs are how you are able to get the most inherent value out of a certain home.
Whether you are in a multiple offer or not, far more often than not, you are technically paying more money for that home than anyone else. So, the question becomes: "Why would you want to do that?" ...but if you nail the criteria, you will be closer than you have ever been to "THE HOME". Truth be told, I don't believe in the generic great deal on the open MLS market.
...Why Pay More?
Realtors are taught in their Real Estate courses the principle of "value in use" – telling us that certain features or elements of a property only have significant value to the people that own them. Truth is, those items also have value to the folks that want them, as well, and it's up to your professional Realtor to understand your criteria well enough to provide you with the insight to rationalize your heart's decision.
The National Association of Realtors (US based) conducted a study of Buyers' expectations of their Realtor, and the Buyers surveyed said that their main expectation of their Realtor was to find them "the home". To do this, a Realtor needs to understand what makes "the home" that special home for you. Really, the idea is to identify your unique wants, needs and requests, and narrow your focus on those criteria. In the event that we aren't in a multiple offer, you'll know why it might make sense to pay the money the Seller wants: to get a home to love for a long time, 'cause moving is a pain and paying one extra land transfer tax will offset a price push, let alone the cost of a quality professional Realtor like yours truly to sell that existing home.
6 Most Important Factors
So here are the SIX factors that we need to get a handle on, to find you "THE Home" – Are you in?
1. Location - why you'd would want to live there
- Considering proximities to the areas that you visit most (and I love my cars)
- For time savings: extra time to do other things that make you happy
- For vehicle savings: every recurring $100/mth savings means you're paying off an appreciating $20,000 of mortgage value
- Future neighbourhood values *
- We heat map for you
- Taking heavy stock on urban trends and their suburban ramifications
- Hedge the LRT
2. Style - what you like
- Know your style and other's opinions will not sway you towards their style
- Style is relatively cheap to create (and can be financed)
- See through the staging
- Find what you like on Pinterest and www.Houzz.com
- Know what you want, to see through the staging for true value
- A failure to plan, is a plan for failure (or at least a lot of wasted money)
3. Lifestyle - what you like to do, when you can do whatever you want
- How do you see your ideal Saturday morning/night playing out?
- Having a limited carbon footprint – enjoy driving places
- Chef or patron?
- Elevators or stairs?
- Open spaces or conveniences?
- Is your work play?
4. Layout - how you live
- What frameworks and mental models have shaped your perceptions of what homelife should look like
- Planning ahead: children or aging parents?
- Open spaces vs formal spaces
- Smartly laid out means less $$$ on square footage costs
- Demo/Renovate, tweak or build new
5. Features - what makes you happy
- Some features can be added, and some features can't
- Try to buy seasonal features off-season (pools, porches, decks and fireplaces)
- Hard to replace - custom, one of a kind built-in millwork or retro tile
- Irreplaceable - greenspace, desired sunrise/sunsets, huge yard
- In a multiple offer,
- ...if a home is nice but full of unneeded features, let it go and don't bid up the neighbourhood
- ...if it has all of them – Buy it and leave no questions!!
6. Feel - what you appreciate
- Where the sun rises and sets, and how that affects you
- Trees kissing over the top of the street or sun drenched neighbourhood?
- Quiet mature neighbourhood or lively, active participant neighbourhood?
- ...neighbourhood culture
This Is How You Find "The Dream Home"
In Summary
I love what I do, and I'm proud of this process, so I hope you don't mind the extra time I'll take to whittle down the oodles of information out there to give you my relevant insight and state my informed opinion for your wants, needs and dreams...
If I'm not giving my opinion, then I'm just a taxi driver with keys to houses. That might be a decent negotiator by industry standards, but why should you care about that?
I'd rather be a Dream Merchant.
* When you're blessed to be the son of a Director of Urban Planning.