Everyone is familiar with the real estate saying, “location, location, location.”
It’s used in the context of the value of a piece of property, where the three things that most impact the value of a home are the same thing – where it is located.
There is some truth to that, though the attributes of a home have a lot to do with the value of a home within the area it is located.
There is actually a much better interpretation of that saying, however. Location is the most important aspect of your living situation, not because of how much it costs to buy or how much you can sell it for, but because where you live is how you live.
The number one factor in dissatisfaction with your current home is location. Whether it’s too far from your work, your friends or your family, or too close to noise, traffic or something unpleasant, people most often move because of the location. If your home is too small or too large for your needs but the location works, you can renovate or simply live with too much space. If you don’t like the location though, you can’t fix it with a bigger kitchen.
Here are our three rules to follow when considering buying so you don’t end up regretting the decision and calling us to help you sell and buy again!
Rule #1 – Bigger isn’t better.
We’ve helped hundreds of clients get ready to sell their homes and move to a new place. The one constant with all of those homeowners is that over time, they’ve accumulated things in the home they don’t actually want or need.
It is amazing how easy it is to keep things you don’t want when you have the space to forget about them. Whether it is an attic, the basement storage room or the garage, if you have enough space to not see some of the junk you’ve collected over the years, it tends to stick around.
The same principle holds true for when you move into a larger home with more space and rooms than you had in your last home. Perhaps you need to buy another bedroom set as you’ve got an extra bedroom now, and it can’t hurt to have space for guests if they’re visiting town. It might be the case that your new place has a nook that your old place didn’t, so you need to buy a bookcase, or a cabinet or a chair and side table and lights to fill the space.
It is easy to say that you shouldn’t buy a place that has more space than you actually need, but homes aren’t modular in that sense. You can’t find the perfect house in your favourite neighbourhood with a great backyard for the kids and then ask the sellers to take the extra bedroom with them when they move.
Despite this, we always have conversations with our buyer clients about what they truly need and want in their next home. While having too small a home can absolutely make your daily life difficult, once you’re in a place that exceeds the space you need, it doesn’t continue to add value.
We can think of many examples where clients bought in a location based on the size of the home, only to regret it and decide to sell a short time later. One client purchased a larger home in cottage country so that they could host large family get togethers, only to find that it rarely happened. Some family members had their own cottage they used when they wanted to take a break from the city, some lived far away and didn’t come to the area often and some were too busy to make the trek out to the home. They sold the place and purchased a small home near their kids and have enjoyed easy and frequent visits and time with their kids and grandkids.
Rule number one is therefore bigger isn’t better. Find a home that is big enough to allow you to live well, but don’t prioritize a larger home over the location of the home.
Rule #2 – Don’t drive. Well, don’t drive much.
Our second rule is a bit harder to grasp given how most cities and towns force people to be car dependent.
If you look at a map and see the distance between what you need to do in your life and how you want to spend your time, it can look very doable. A commute to work on a highway doesn’t look too far on the map, and on paper the distance to the homes of your friends, your family members, your gym, your favourite restaurant, your grocery store, your doctor, can all appear pretty reasonable.
Maps lie. OK, they don’t lie, but distance isn’t just how many kilometres away a place is located, it’s traffic, it’s clearing snow off your car, it’s bad weather, it’s lack of parking – and so many more inconveniences.
A 5 km trip that looks easy on a map can be an exercise in frustration that takes way longer than it should. Crucially, the journey is not typically the goal; it’s the destination.
We greatly underestimate the importance of convenience in what we do in our lives. If you can think of a restaurant you go to regularly because it’s close by – rather than because it’s great – you know what we’re talking about. Consider the friends you rarely see because the 90-minute door to door drive to them (regardless of how far away the map says they are) is just too much after a long day of work.
We all know the importance and benefits of walking and if you live in a location where you can walk to some or most of the things you need or want to do, your life will be easier and better. Whether it is walking to your dentist to get your teeth cleaned, biking to your gym to meet your trainer or heading out on foot to meet friends for a drink or meal, being able to avoid driving can make your life so much more enjoyable.
Rule number two is therefore don’t buy a place where you have to drive for most of the things you do in your life. We know that having everyone you want or need to see within walking distance is not feasible, but trust us when we say that the clients who have been least happy with their purchase are people who didn’t prioritize being close to friends and family. A lovely home that you never leave starts to feel more like a prison than a sanctuary.
Rule #3 – Pick who you want to be.
Our last rule sounds very philosophical, but it’s actually very practical. Where you live dictates how you live and you should make your next purchase decision with that in mind.
If you want to be more social, you need to live in a location where people are socializing and you can join them. If you love nature, parks and walking trails, then buy a place close to parks and walking trails. However you want your life to be, a home that is aligned with that life makes it so much easier for you to achieve it.
While it is true that willpower, determination and focus can allow you to be who you want to be regardless of where you live, it is a lot harder to do so if your home and location are aligned with some other way of living.
We’ve cautioned clients in the past against what we call aspirational moves, such as a person who decides they need to live in a building with a great gym because they would then start going to the gym consistently. It is true that you are you, regardless of where you live, so a new place doesn’t automatically make a new you.
Despite that, the chances of you establishing new habits that turn you into the version of yourself you want to be are much higher if your living situation supports it. When you think back to times of your life when you were doing or acting in ways that you find difficult to do now, we wouldn’t be surprised if where you lived made that version of you easier to be.
If you’re thinking about making a move, we would love to sit down with you and figure out what location best allows you to enjoy your life. We know real estate, and if we work out what aspects of a location suit you the most, we can find you a place that you’ll love. If that sounds appealing, get in touch with us so we can meet up!
