Most of us remember the old adages…. A home is a man’s castle… Home is where the heart is… and of course Dorothy and her red slippers clicking together while she thought… There’s no place like home.
For the past few years the real estate market, and the buying and selling of it, hasn’t been unlike that of the dot.com companies of the past. Buy low. Sell high. Find the right fixer upper. Watch Flip This House. The list is endless on what to do and how to present your home to the buying public. All of which has changed our thinking on why we buy real estate. To say the least, raising the bar if you want to have that ever so coveted sold sign posted in your front yard.
While the real reason to purchase real estate is an old one, it has never been truer than it is right now. We buy real estate so we have a place to live, a place to call home, to have a sense of belonging and to be a part of a community. The best part? We happen to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, making it a great place to call home, while at the same time being an excellent investment in our future.
Sure the market has its ups and downs. How many times have you heard, “If only I had bought that property last year,” or “It was only $36,000 in 1976, I just can’t justify paying $195,000 in 1997”. Now let’s look ahead to the future; you can bet people will still be scratching their heads with the same hindsight “$500,000 ... why didn’t I buy in 2008 for $375,000?”
What we have to remember is, real estate prices are relative to the economy of the time. True, the sooner you invest, the more equity you will build. However, the ladder of equity will continue to rise. It will never be too late. You can get on the first rung, the third or the ninth. It really doesn’t matter, there will still be an infinite number of rungs to that ladder above you. In the meantime you’ve enjoyed the benefit of a great place to live.
If I were to ask you or anyone else for that matter, “How many homes have you purchased throughout your lifetime and how well have you done in the buying & selling of them?” The answers are generally the same. “We’ve always done well”. “We may have had to ride it out a time or two, however we’ve always come out on top!”. “In the interim, I couldn’t have asked for a better place to raise my family”. The same holds true today.
So there you go. At the end of the day Dorothy is still right. There is no place like home.