How Cable Home Shows Give Home Buyers the Wrong Tips on What to Look For
Buyers have been roped into thinking that not only should they believe new homes are better, but that when walking through a home they plan on purchasing, everything inside the home should look the way they want it to look when they move in. Most people ready to purchase in their late 20s or early 30s who are new to home buying have been raised on a steady stream of designer home magazines or cable television home improvement or home design shows.
The reality is that most new home buyers are completely unprepared when it comes to deciding what makes a home a good home to purchase.
To begin with, no home up for sale is ever going to look the way you want it to look once you have moved in. On one cable TV show that features home buyers walking through a home up for sale, the negative comments have to do with aesthetics. For instance, people will comment on the ugly paint job or how they hate the tiled walls in the bathroom. None of this matters when you are buying a home.
When you are purchasing a home, you have to look at the amount of land you are buying, number of bedrooms, kitchen space and other things like that. Do not look at chipping pain and ugly carpet as things that break the deal. Cosmetic things such as those can be fixed or replaced once you move in.
Obviously, it would be great if the home you move into looks the way you want it to look, so that all you have to do is bring in some furniture and your other things. However, with homes, especially older homes, that will never be the case.
What should be important to home buyers is whether the space they are looking at will fit their needs. If you have a lot of kids, you want a lot of room. If you need office space, that’s something you need to look for. What you don’t need to look for is whether all of the walls have a fresh coat of your favorite color paint or whether the windows have shutters rather than vertical blinds.
Another misconception some first time home buyers have, is that they should be looking at newer model homes. This is a death trap if you confine yourself to that sort of mentality. The reason for this is that new does not always mean better. This is especially true considering many of the new homes being built today are on smaller lots than homes built a couple decades ago. This is due to the fact that there is less land to build on than there was only a short time ago.
Thus, if you are someone who wants more square feet and more backyard, your best bet is to go with an older home.
While this may not have given you tips on how to financially prepare yourself for taking that step from renter to buyer, it should help you to refocus your mentality on what is most important when looking for your home. Remember, look at the skeleton of the house, because that is your foundation. Everything else is incosequential and can be changed later on.
