Buying Your Family Home
Your home is the place where you come to relax. It’s your own personal retreat in the vast and hectic world we live in. It’s the place where you, your spouse, and your kids will make memories. It is also the single most expensive financial decision you’ll ever make and one that no one takes lightly. Finding a balance between practical and emotional factors isn’t always easy.
Any realtor can help you buy a house. Asking the right questions to understand what matters most in your life and what is influential in your buying decision beyond mere house statistics is what’s sets a good realtor apart from the others.
What qualities do you feel you must have for your home? What aspects would you like to have but are willing to compromise? Are there restrictions on proximity a particular school or are you looking for the best schools in a particular area? Is public transportation an important part of your commute or used by a family member? Is it likely that an elderly family might move in and need an in-law suite or a bedroom on the main floor?
Picture what family gatherings for holidays and birthdays might be like. Imagine playing catch with your son in the backyard or reading to him in his bed at night. Dream about seeing your daughter walk down the staircase for her prom dressed, for the first time, like a woman instead of the girl you previously knew her as. These are the qualitative aspects of your buying decision that the right realtor intuitively comes to know about you when helping you with your search.
Life is complicated and everyone’s situation is unique. Work with a realtor that understands you and your unique situation; one that personally connects with your circumstances and works as if they themselves were a member of your family.
Selling Your Family Home
Selling your home is an emotional decision. Your home isn’t simply the house that outsiders may view it as. It was your home for many years. It’s where you spent many good times and bad. It welcomed you after extended trip away. It’s where you raised your family and made so many memories with those you loved. The kids’ growth chart marks are still in the doorway. It seems like not so long ago that they could barely stand straight enough to measure. Your home is the framework where all these rich and vivid memories were made. It has been an extension of your family and walking away from it is a difficult decision no matter how excited you may be for the move.
Selling a family home can be unnerving and stressful. Opening your doors to strangers and their criticisms can be agonizing. Hearing critiques about the wall colour that you so painstakingly picked, or disparaging the ‘dated’ fireplace where your children posed every Christmas morning can feel like personal attacks and are difficult to accept objectively. Your home is not just a commodity. So much of its value lies in the wealth of emotion that it has graciously helped to nurture over the years.
This is where a professional realtor can be of great assistance. The right realtor delicately balances your attachment to your home with an impartial eye grounded in the realities of the current market. They are someone that can help stage your home in a way that respects the sentiment you have while enhancing its features allowing it to sell it quickly and at the best price the market will bear.
Let your realtor buffer you from the critiques of perspective buyers and address the unique quirks that made this house your home. Let your professional realtor do the work of selling your home while you close out this chapter of your life and look forward to the next in your life’s journey.
