Puppy love, condo love
I have buyers who made a big mistake in their house hunting; they fell in love. This happens to some people, and it usually happens in regard to a property that was too expensive for the buyer. Sometimes, they are in love with “the one that got away.” The home someone falls in love with is usually the first one they can fully imagine living in. Something charms them about the idea of living there. It is often irrational, but it is always important.
Invariably, when I question the buyers about the flaws in the beloved property, they have forgotten them. One of my buyers rejects all homes with no bathroom on the first floor which have no good place to add one. However, he is looking for a place to make him forget W____ Street. Right, you guessed it; W____ Street had no first floor bathroom and no place to add one. But W____ Street is now perfect in every way.
This all sounds like my love life in high school. Very sad! Aren’t there self-help books written for people who fall in love with unattainable (love) objects?
When I was house hunting, I fell in love, too. It was an antique house which needed work. I was smitten. Since I was representing myself, there were three of us in the transaction -- the agent, the wife, and the husband. The agent told my husband that it was overpriced and needed more work than we could afford. The wife told the husband she loved it. Mrs. Fischman was mad when her husband sided with the agent.... We bought a house that was much better for us.
If I’d married my first love, I’d be divorced by now.
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Rona, I think you hit the nail on the head with the phrase, "Someplace a buyer could imagine themselves living...".
The state of the MetroWest housing stock is so poor and delapidated, when you run into a home that you could imagine living in (without putting in a ton of renovation), you tend to fall in love with it. Then you run into the problem that the sellers want an unreasonable amount of money for it. It is very frustrating.
Its like when your dating and most of the people you have to date are complete losers, then you meet someone who you would have thought was completely below your standards, but better than the rest so you forget about searching for good and accept, "not so disgusting". What a sad state of affairs to be stuck in when you want to raise a family in Massachusetts.
In retrospect, glad that my first love bidding experience didn't' work out; we would have definitely overpaid (blinded by love, I guess).
My husband was insistent that the kitchen was pretty terrible; I was willing to overlook it for the yard, 4 square bedrooms, and separate dining room.
I'm so glad it didn't work out.
sometimes, like real relationships, one party is more in love than the other. my wife has difficulty b/c she gets her hopes up w/ a listing and then is brutally disappointed by reality. she also looks back longingly on a house that we decided that repairing would be too time consuming for our growing family. i often think she forgets the $100k we would've had to put into it. i feel like a consoling mother telling her there are other fish in the sea.
I can't imagine being blinded by love for any of the properties I've seen in eastern Massachusetts.
Rona, I think you hit the nail on the head with the phrase, "Someplace a buyer could imagine themselves living...".
The state of the MetroWest housing stock is so poor and delapidated, when you run into a home that you could imagine living in (without putting in a ton of renovation), you tend to fall in love with it. Then you run into the problem that the sellers want an unreasonable amount of money for it. It is very frustrating.
Its like when your dating and most of the people you have to date are complete losers, then you meet someone who you would have thought was completely below your standards, but better than the rest so you forget about searching for good and accept, "not so disgusting". What a sad state of affairs to be stuck in when you want to raise a family in Massachusetts.
BubbleBoy and Marcus are right on.
The "love" is definitely RELATIVE - it's the feeling you get when *finally* seeing a house that's "not TOO bad" and doesn't have two sump pumps running 24/7, termite damage and exposed wiring hanging down from the bathroom ceiling.
It's what you feel when your expectations have been lowered so much by the sad state of homes in eastern MA that your heart leaps at the first place you're able to spend more than 5 minutes in, without turning around on your heel and hightailing it out of there.
"I can't imagine being blinded by love for any of the properties I've seen in eastern Massachusetts."
Sounds like you're probably in the wrong income bracket then.
no comment ! haha
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