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Has any of you guys ever been very undecided between a few houses/apartments, and eventually decided to choose/not choose one of them for one specific reason?
If so, what made you decide to choose/not choose it?
I was lucky enough to be able to choose from a number of homes in my price range and location requirements. I eventually chose the house I bought because it was the most attractive outside and inside and we did not have to do anything (other than painting) before we moved in (another house was bigger, but didn't have a landscaped backyard, a different home was next to an ugly end of the road sign and fence, and a third home needed to have the air conditioning replaced).
Once we had narrowed down our choices based on all of the real criteria, we were left with two homes in the same development. Both had essentially the same floor plan and amenities. One had a fireplace the other did not. One had a breakfast room addition, the other only had a nook. Both houses were priced the same.
We ultimately chose no fireplace with the breakfast room. The fireplace was interesting, but not something we felt we would use all the time. The breakfast room on the other hand, made the kitchen much larger and had enough space to put a full size table with seating for 8 as well as a server. Since we are a family of 5, this has given us a great place to enjoy family meals and allows company to "hang out" in the kitchen without getting in the way. It also allowed my wife to turn the dining room into a truly formal dining room...so formal in fact that no one is ever allowed to eat in it, lol.
First sort is always schools and house size. Then, we look at the actual lot.
What does the house backs up to? Can something be built there we would not want in our backyard? Is there privacy or can we add something to give privacy? Only then do we start looking at other factors.
Once we nailed down the location we picked our current house based on charm. Totally impractical. Totally emotional. We just fell in love.
One gets to do that at least once in life, right? We'll make a nice solid practical decision next time.
I'm with you. Real Estate experts forever advise that one should never be emotional when choosing a house and that makes sense for most folks, but for me, well- if I'm gonna sign my life away for 30 years I better damn well love it.
If you are in the 'burbs and choosing model "A" over model "B reversed" then absolutely there is not going to be much of an emotional component in selecting, but for us in classic older urban neighborhoods where each house and garden has a certain personality- after making sure the location, lot layout and overall floor plan will work then which house speaks to you the best?
Then your house has the rare quality of evoking a bit of joy in your heart every time you see and enter it.
The heck with practicality, I like having a little cottage and garden which often causes folks to slow down or stop when driving or walking by and point and comment- and it also happens to be in a neighborhood that has held its value better than almost any other in the city.
We are in process of buying a home (close on it next month). I fell in love the moment we turned into the neighborhood. It just felt right. Then I saw the house and it was beautiful. Then I went in it and was in "Awe" of all the nice finish work. Last, I saw the yard and the potential it had to be something really incredible. It was a done deal. This house won hands down.
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