Solano Real Estate Scene: For some, a home represents 40 to 50 Christmas mornings

If the house you are going to buy is going to be your family home for the next 40 to 50 years, then it is totally OK to be a little bit picky and selective. It’s OK to be emotionally excited and anxious about what could be your final resting place. If this home is going to be where you celebrate all your children’s and grandchildren’s graduations and birthday parties, then it is totally reasonable to take your time and make sure it feels right in your heart. It’s even OK to pay over appraised value if there are multiple offers because it is not an investment. Caring and professional real estate agents and loan officers want you to be happy and secure in the long term because happy clients will refer their friends and family for a lifetime. Successful sales people care more about the long-term gain of having a raving fan customer than the compensation from this one sale. Yes, top producers sell dream homes and safe mortgages and they get paid based on these sales and support their families because of their salesmanship and service, but great real estate people analyze the personal goals of their dream homebuyers before they show them a house because when buying your long-term home you are buying much more than a lot, foundation, framing and a roof. When selling a home that their client is going to celebrate 40 to 50 Christmas mornings in, the pros know it’s a real big deal. If the house you are buying is a home that you will be selling or converting to a rental in three to five years, then I consider this an investment or an alternative to renting and not an emotional purchase. The key on this type of purchase is making sure you are buying a house that will be easy to sell or rent to a large pool of buyers or renters when your income and assets justify the move up to the dream home. A buyer who is going to move in three to five years should be open to a structurally solid house that needs some cosmetic work because painting and cleaning is not expensive while the houses in which you can eat off the carpet, smells like a five-star hotel spa and has front and back yards right out of Sunset magazine will occasionally get five to six offers over appraised value because for some buyers, this will be their home for 40 to 50 years.