Falling In Love...with a House

Speaker 1: [0:10] Hello, hello, and welcome to the Awesome in Seattle podcast. My name is Christian Nossum, here with the Awesome Nossum Group at Wilson Realty, and I am sitting here today with…

Speaker 2: [0:18] Charlotte Reynolds

Speaker 1: [0:19] And Jason Saldarriaga, as

Speaker 3: [0:21] always.

Speaker 1: [0:23] And Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. Today's episode is all about falling in love- Yay with a house. Not someone else, a house. Yes, it's weird, but it's true. And we're gonna tell you the pitfalls, but also the benefits of falling in love with a house. Um, so, Charlotte, let's talk about that a little. When you're searching for a house, you can sometimes fall in love with it.

Speaker 2: [0:45] Yes. Um-

Speaker 1: [0:46] Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes that's a bad thing

Speaker 2: [0:49] I feel like also most of the time you're looking for a house, everyone falls in love with one because- Mm-hmm … they end up buying one.

Speaker 1: [0:54] Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2: [0:55] And hopefully it's the one they fell in love with. Um, but-

Speaker 1: [0:58] Good point … Speaker 2: you know, sometimes there are situations where it's not good to fall in love with a house. Mm-hmm. Um, one of the biggest ones is before you're pre-approved, you know, you go out looking at homes and you don't really know what your budget is, and all of a sudden you go into this house and you're like, "This is the one."

Speaker 4: [1:14] Mm-hmm. " Speaker 2: The one I've been looking for my entire life." Um, and then you kind of go and speak with a lender, and you get your kind of financing figured out, and you realize, "Oh, it's not within my budget. I can't buy this house." Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: [1:27] Um, and then it's ultimately stuck in your head, and you can't afford it, and now everything that you're gonna look at that you can afford, you're just gonna be comparing to that the entire time.

Speaker 4: [1:35] Yep.

Speaker 2: [1:35] Um, and it's gonna make it a lot more difficult for you to find something. So we definitely recommend always getting your pre-approval done before you go shopping. Get your budget in line, um, to try to avoid that. Um, another thing is when you're shopping for a home and you fall in love, it's really easy to put blinders on and s- only see the good things. Um, no resale potential issues are on your mind. You're just seeing the good things. Mm-hmm. Um, and we want you to make a good investment, and considering resale is a really big part of that, so we try to help people kind of, um, see past just the good and make sure that they're aware of, like, the red flags and things like that.

Speaker 1: [2:12] Yeah, and that's, and that's when having a good real estate agent that's truly looking out for your best interest will help, 'cause we will talk people out of buying houses a lot.

Speaker 2: [2:21] Exactly.

Speaker 1: [2:22] Because, uh, that does happen. You put blinders on- Oh, yeah … and you're like, "Oh, but no, you probably shouldn't buy this." "And here's all the reasons why."

Speaker 2: [2:29] Exactly.

Speaker 1: [2:30] All right, so let's talk about negotiating and how you can sometimes fall in love while negotiating, and that can be either a good or a bad thing.

Speaker 3: [2:39] Yeah, this can definitely be one of the more emotional aspects of the home buying journey, right? There's a lot of back and forth. There's a lot of unknowns. You don't know if you're gonna be outbid. You've already seen the house. You've fallen in love with it. So there's a l- a lot going on emotionally, and, uh, it's stressful, and so it's really easy to make bad decisions during that. Mm-hmm. You know, if you're in love with a house, there is a risk that you'll pay more for it. Mm-hmm. So with my clients, I definitely, uh, with our clients, we like to really educate them as much as possible so they understand the market, and we guide them through that. And so they, you know, you have an idea of what the house is worth, and you're less likely to make a rash decision. And then of course, if you lose out on the house, that's gonna be heartbreaking. You've already fallen in love with the house most likely, that's why you're putting an offer in on it. Mm-hmm. Um, it- you might have, for the last few days or even weeks, been dreaming about it. Mentally, you've already moved in. Um, and so it can be really emotionally draining to lose out. This is a really positive Valentine's Day message. I

Speaker 4: [3:39] know, geez. We love you

Speaker 2: [3:43] It's like you're basically describing my love life.

Speaker 3: [3:45] Yeah, the solution for all of this is some pinot. I mean- Some pinot gris. Um- But yeah, y- I think all of us, our experience with our clients, at the end of the day, sometimes you do lose out on a house or two. Yeah. You know, it happens. You

Speaker 1: [4:00] kinda have to anticipate it, especially in a market that's this competitive. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4: [4:04] Absolutely.

Speaker 3: [4:05] But, uh, at the end of the day, you do end up with a house that you're very happy with. Mm-hmm. And v- I've never had a client say, "I wish I would've gotten that other house."

Speaker 1: [4:12] Exactly.

Speaker 3: [4:13] Um, there might be aspects to it that they kinda miss. Maybe like- Mm-hmm … "Oh, it had that view that- Yeah … the house I ended up wanting."

Speaker 1: [4:19] That one unique

Speaker 3: [4:20] thing- Yeah, exactly … that that

Speaker 1: [4:21] house had.

Speaker 3: [4:21] But the house they end up getting also has aspects that- Exactly … the other, the house they m- missed out on didn't. So it, it kind of, it works out.

Speaker 1: [4:29] I mean, I've seen it so many times in my 15-plus years of people, you know, seeing or falling in love with a house, making an offer, thinking that it is the one, and losing it, and then being devastated. And then eventually, they actually find a house that's even better, and it happens- Yeah … every single time. Mm-hmm. And I don't know how, because they are dead set on that first house. "I love it. This is the one." Um,

Speaker 3: [4:52] hello, it's identical. My boyfriend in college- He was the one. But he wasn't. Yeah. I found something better, much better views.

Speaker 1: [5:03] Yeah.

Speaker 3: [5:04] Much, and a bigger bathroom.

Speaker 1: [5:06] All right. On that note, we're gonna talk about sellers. Now, when you are selling your home, it's a different mindset than when you're buying, and sellers often make their house their home. And what I mean by that is they buy the house, then they personalize it. They make it perfect in their mind, but that isn't always perfect for the next buyer. So sometimes sellers can get a warped perspective of what their house is worth. You need to have an agent that you trust, that understands the market, that can gently guide you through the process of depersonalizing or telling you that your seven different paint color walls need to be muted a little bit because most buyers aren't gonna want that exact color of, I don't know, lavender puce, whatever weird color sometimes people use. As an agent that you hire when you're selling, you need to trust their judgment on what you need to do to get the most value for your home when that time comes. If you don't wanna do anything with your house, that's fine, but you need to understand that you might not get top value. So having an agent you can trust is important in that regard. Um- And as a buyer, when you're dealing with sellers, you need to realize that often, not always, but often sellers are kind of sad about moving. It might make sense for them to move, but that doesn't mean that they're always happy about getting rid of the house they've lived in and loved for the last however many years. So you need to show them, especially in a competitive market, that you are also gonna love this house, you are also going to take care of this house, and you are going to be a next good caretaker of this house for many, many years to come. And you can do that in numerous different ways, a letter, a video, whatever you can do, and this will often help your offer get accepted in a multiple offer situation. When it comes to buying What about protecting yourself?

Speaker 2: [7:04] Okay, so we've been talking a lot about not falling in love with a property at the wrong time. Mm-hmm. So some of the ways that you can kind of prevent that from happening, um, is really just setting yourself up good from the get-go. So doing a strategy session, making a plan at that session, and then following through, um, with your plan.

Speaker 4: [7:23] Yeah.

Speaker 2: [7:23] Um, making sure that you're only shopping within your budget. It's so tempting to just be like, "Well, what if I go a little bit over what's out there?" Mm-hmm. I mean, those homes are always gonna be more appealing than what is right within your price range. Yep. Um, and then just hiring a good agent to- that's gonna help you make good decisions. You know, like we mentioned before, finding an agent who's gonna help you look for, like, potential resale problems, um, and things like that.

Speaker 1: [7:44] Yeah. Let's go over a strategy session. What is that exactly, and how does that help people?

Speaker 2: [7:49] So a strategy session is a one-on-one meeting with us and a lender, um, and there's two big takeaways from this meeting. So, uh, basically what'll happen is the lender's gonna ask you a couple questions to figure out what your desired monthly payment is and what you have budgeted for a down payment. And from those two, we'll work backwards and figure out what kind of purchase price that's gonna put you at. And then from there, we're gonna take that, um, us on the agent side, we're gonna take that information and help you figure out where you can afford to purchase what it is that you're looking to buy.

Speaker 3: [8:19] Yeah, I think it's really helpful through this whole emotional process that we're talking about today that, you know, you have a plan, and that's really what the strategy session does. Yeah.

Speaker 1: [8:27] Mm-hmm. Yeah, and it's, it's really hard and very unusual for a real estate agent and a lender to be sitting next to each other- Oh, yeah and having this one-on-one meeting with you. As a buyer, you don't know who to ask the question to.

Speaker 4: [8:41] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [8:41] Financing and purchase price, they're both numbers, but one person is the agent dealing with the purchase price, like how much is this house gonna sell for? The other one is, how much can I afford, and it's confusing who you're supposed to ask that to sometimes. So having both of us sitting down with you at once, you leave that meeting and you have a very clear roadmap of what you need to do, what you can do, and if it's even feasible to, to purchase.

Speaker 3: [9:07] Sweet. So that is all up until getting the house, basically. And so now you got the offer accepted, you're buying the house, and this is, this… Gosh, this reminds me of dating. You know, you keep looking, you keep going on Tinder. You keep swiping. What is it, right? Is it right for yes?

Speaker 2: [9:27] It's always, it's always left . Speaker 3: Left is no. Yeah. Left is the no, right? Yeah, exactly . Speaker 3: But you keep looking at those houses, and that's not necessarily the best idea. Mm-hmm. You know, you've already committed to something. Don't, don't put blinders on, but don't put yourself through the emotional- Yeah … wringer by continuing to look at houses. I do recommend once you commit to a house, you, you're under contract for it,

Speaker 1: [9:49] delete

Speaker 3: [9:49] the apps. Put, put your focus on that house- Yeah … and, and move forward from there.

Speaker 1: [9:53] Yeah. I've had people say, "Wait, we just saw this one pop on the market. Can we go look at it?" I'm like, "You're already under contract." Plus, remember we saw one that was very similar to, similar to this, and when we actually looked at it in person, although it looked great online, in person it has all these faults. So do yourself a favor, delete the apps, stop your search emails coming through. Just stop. It's only gonna help you. So that is how to fall in love and protect yourself at the same time when buying a house. Happy Valentine's Day. If you are interested in setting up a strategy session, it's very, very simple to do. Just go to awesomenossum.com/schedule. You can do it right there, super easy, no obligation, doesn't cost you anything. We're not gonna pressure you to do anything, but you will walk away with a very clear idea of what you can afford. If you are interested in learning more about the home buying process, our next Beers and Home Buying class is on March 5th at Stoup Brewing in Ballard. Uh, you can go to beersandhomebuying.com to sign up, and, uh, yeah, and feel free to follow us on Instagram. Thank you very much for listening, and we will see you next time.

Speaker 2: [11:05] Happy Valentine's Day.

Speaker 1: [11:06] Woo-hoo. Bye.