I’m a major fan of The Bachelorette on ABC. If you don’t know the premise of the show, one girl has approximately 25 guys vying for her heart. The ones that she likes pass to the next round when they receive a rose. It’s a dramatized love story about finding “the one.”
The simple love story got me thinking about how we narrow down our home choices in hopes of finding “the perfect home.” Just like with human love, house love has a similar trajectory. So how do we decide which house will get the final rose?
Since the makers of eHarmony specialize in how people fall in love, I turned to their blog for more information on its stages. Not surprisingly, there are parallels in how people fall in love with others and with how they fall in love with homes. Here’s a look at the love story of deciding which house to make into a home.
The Butterfly Stage
You know that feeling when you meet someone and you can’t get them off of your mind? And when you think about them you get butterflies? I see lots of house hunters do this with homes too. They see a home online and become obsessed, checking the status constantly to make sure it’s still available.
The Building Stage
In relationships, we strive to learn more about our partners. For homebuyers, as a property becomes more desirable to them, they will often study up on the home, scouring the Internet for more info and analyzing photos to learn the floor plan. They might also do a drive-by, get a feel for the area, talk to the neighbors, etc.
The Assimilation Stage
In dating, this is when people will try to see if they are really compatible. And for house seekers, this is the stage where buyers try to picture themselves living in the home. They want to figure out what daily life will be like – from where will they place their furniture to how long will it take to get to work, and so on.
The Honesty Stage
Honesty is the best policy so after getting so excited about a person, or in this case a home, it’s important to get real and figure out if you truly love it. Or, are you caught up in the whirlwind of the high, electrified feeling that comes with the butterfly stage? House hunters have to decide if the facts they learned about the home and their lifestyle line up.
The Stability Stage
A deep commitment to your spouse, partner or house takes over in this final stage. In real estate, this is when house hunters symbolically give a house the final rose and make that house their home. They bond with the home, decorate it, and claim it as their own.
Holly Schwartz is a Realtor with Villa Real Estate who lives in Eastside Costa Mesa. She can be reached at HSchwartz@VillaRealEstate.com.
