Home Buying Pitfalls and Process – A Berkeley Realtor’s Journey to Home Buying
Often we want a house to solve all of our problems. We want it to be a great investment and make us money, we want it to LOWER our monthly expenses (at least long term), we want it to improve our lifestyle, make us happy, situate us in an ideal neighborhood, and wag it’s tail when we walk in the door (Ok – maybe not that last one).
I am as guilty of this as any other buyer.
Here’s the thing:
You get to want what you want. No one can talk you out of it – not even you.
Slowly, over the time you spend putting your body in houses what you want might change…
What started out as an investment might become MORE of a lifestyle upgrade.
With home buying, for most of us, there are barriers to entry – cost being the first and foremost – but also… committment.
Even a good choice excludes other choices. Once you are in, you’re typically in for awhile. In for a penny, in for a pound, if you will.
Personally, I keep looking at multifamily properties that are good investments, where I can make the numbers work. Yet, at the end of the day – I want to love it. As someone who has transformed many spaces, I realize you can turn *almost any* house into a home you love.
In my case the sticking point is truly about how urban these properties are: I want a backyard, a garden, trees outside my window, and SET BACKS.
The last property I prepped an offer on in Berkeley had 8 other offers come in – Good thing I decided I didn’t want it at the last second or else I’d be mired in the oh no competition will eat me alive feeling so many Berkeley buyers struggle with…
The ultimate reason I pulled back was the set backs. It felt like the neighbor’s windows were 4 feet away. Maybe it was 6, but either way – it was a person length away and that affects the sun, the sound, your life as a whole.
For die hard city folk, it’s no matter. For me, who grew up on the side of Mt. Tam, and later near wildcat canyon, and went to college in rural northern california and vermont… It’s just too much.
My ideal city location will always be up high, a corner unit with high ceilings. Expensive taste, I know.
In the end, you get “lucky” when you find the one. For me, that hasn’t happened yet.
I’ve been at this long enough to know it is not a moral failing on my part. This – for bettter or worse – is all just part of the proccess.
The one offer I’ve put in isn’t rejected per se, but it isn’t accepted either. The seller would prefer cash and prefer to do nothing to the property, yet a LOT of work is required to get the property to pass appraisal for the loan, so it is at a standstill.
Onwards and upwards… When the time is right, the house appears. 🙂
