Residz Team 3 min read
Ever thought about how much compromise plays a part in buying or selling a home? You know, she wants an old house with chooks and veggies…he wants cutting-edge modern design, clean lawns, and hedges. She wants to downsize, she wants to stay put. He wants to buy now, they want to wait until later in the year. It shows you can’t be inflexible when buying or selling property! Here we ponder over how much compromise turns up in the property market.
Deciding where to live depends on any number of factors. They include where you grew up, where your friends and relatives live, where you work (or if you can work remotely), which place aligns with your lifestyle, where you can afford, and where your children go to school. You have to weigh up lifestyle with risks and you won’t get everything on your wishlist, so it’s likely you will need to compromise on an aspect of where you live. Tip: Look at the amenities of the affordable area with a fresh eye using Residz.
Armed with your pre-approved loan, you and your loved one head off to inspect 3-4 houses and apartments for sale in a suburb with a good investability score. Somehow, the further you move away from your desired area, the bigger the houses for sale. The nearer you get to the ideal position, the smaller the home in your price range. Welcome to the compromise equation: house minus x bedrooms and hopes = budget and dashed dreams. Tip: Look at the benefits of heating and cooling, cleaning, and maintaining a smaller home.
You’d love an historic home with character, otherwise something modern with everything sparkling new and working as it should. Instead, your limited budget reveals quickly that you will have to compromise on your dream home, including the age of the home you buy. It will be old enough to smell and need replumbing and rewiring, but not old enough to attract admiring looks from the street. Tip: Embrace the era in which your home was built with vintage decor items.
To buy the house you have your heart set on you need a blue-whale-sized mortgage, but your bank says you qualify for a dolphin-sized mortgage. Armed with your dolphin amount, you re-enter the fray of home buyers. Everything on the market calls for humpback-whale-sized finance at the very least. Very few homes can be had for a dolphin. With interest rates expected to rise, you may well have to compromise on the size of the mortgage you can get. Tip: Practice gratitude. You are lucky to get the dolphin!
With interest rates under scrutiny, should you sell now, or wait and sell later? You think the market will fall, but your partner expects it to remain buoyant with big things expected from the return of international visitors to Australia. Tip: If you buy and sell in the same market you are likely to balance out any win or loss.
You swear the last thing you will ever do is to go to the bank of mum and dad. After months of missing out on properties, and losing hope of ever getting into the property market, you compromise and go to the bank of mum and dad for part-financing. Or, you try grandma, or Uncle Ankit, or your boss. Tip: Speak to professionals about all your financing options before locking in the bank of mum and dad.
You want to scour the streets for council hard rubbish furniture. Your better half wants to max out the credit card on new furniture. You want to bring over dusty items in your parents’ garage, your partner is adamant none of it will cross your threshold. Furniture seems innocuous but it’s a major hotbed of compromise. You want a green leather sofa, they want to keep their mauve velvet one. It just goes on and on. Tip: Decorate a room each in your unique style, and compromise on the rest.
Perhaps one aspect of owning property calls for more compromise than another. This is whether you rent out your home when you go away for holidays or weekends. One partner might love the idea of holidaymakers paying to enjoy your home while the other partner might treasure their privacy and hate the idea. Finding a happy balance will mean give and take on both sides. Tip: Perhaps you could rent to people you know, or just once per year?
Compromise is there from the beginning when you enter the property market. It’s part and parcel of buying or selling a home, and so anyone considering taking the plunge should take a deep breath, understand the end game, and understand it’s a niggly little global issue that has been around for centuries.
Image: Paul McIlroy / Front doors / CC BY-SA 2.0