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How to Beat Buyer’s Remorse
By Kerry Oman | May 17, 2011
Buying a Utah County home can be exhilarating. It’s a great feeling to finally be able to buy your first home, or to come across your dream house after a long and tiresome search. Perhaps you’ve spent months in the process of finding the perfect home, taking every option into consideration and weighing it over in your mind. Or maybe the home came as a result of a last-minute decision that was simply too good to pass up. But regardless of how much time and effort you put into your decision, it is quite common to have strong feelings of regret soon after a purchase of this magnitude. It’s called “buyer’s remorse,” and it’s the feeling many people get when they first realize that they’ve just made a considerable commitment to a new home.
If you find yourself second-guessing your purchase of a house in Mapleton or a condo in Utah County when it’s too late to go back on the deal, just remember to take a step back and evaluate the situation as a whole. In nearly every case, buyer’s remorse is not a permanent feeling, and it can be overcome in just a few easy steps.
- First weigh the positives and negatives of your newly purchased house. Ideally, you should do this both before and after you make your Utah County real estate purchase. Regardless of how old it is or where it is located, every house is going to have its pros and cons. Just remember not to focus too much attention on either side. Both the good and bad aspects of the house will combine to turn it into a home.
- Next, be sure to personalize the space at the first opportunity you get. Many times buyer’s remorse is simply a mind game—Usually the reasons behind your regret have little to do with the house itself, and more to do with your feelings about it. You’re living in an unfamiliar place, with few of the comfortable associations that you’ve grown accustomed. Turning a house into a home can seem like a daunting task at first, but the best thing you can do is to start with a single room. Make it yours. It doesn’t matter whether you do it with paint, family photos, or a bookshelf full of all your favorite decorations. Having at least one place where you feel completely at ease will do wonders in helping you feel better about the house as a whole.
- Now you can proceed to address the flaws one at a time. Maybe you just realized that the hot water tank only offers five minutes of hot water. Or perhaps incorrectly measured the living room, and your favorite leather couch set won’t fit in the space you slotted for it. Maybe you even failed to notice that the dark patch on the ceiling is actually a plumbing problem. Even the best house inspection won’t find every single little flaw in your home. So forget about the “what-ifs” of your home purchase and focus on the aspects you can control. With a clear head, figure out the costs associated with repairs Look at your options for how you can adjust your setup to make the space livable and more comfortable. Many of these types of problems will arise over time anyway – no house is perfect, and even the best houses will wear and tear.
- Do not keep hunting for other Springville homes. For perhaps months you’ve most likely been devoted a good chunk of your precious time pouring over magazines, looking up real estate listings online, and even hitting the streets themselves so that you could find the perfect home for your circumstances. Now you don’t have to worry about that, so don’t! It can be a hard habit to break, but it will go a long way to avoid the temptation to keep looking. Chances are, those houses you’re looking at aren’t as perfect as you think they are. They’re just holding you back from loving your new home.
- Lastly, take time to relax and enjoy your new purchase. The process of buying a home is a big step, and it can also be very taxing. Take a brief vacation from home improvements or from moving your belongings. Try to remember why you fell in love with the house in the first place.
When you finally get settled into your new home and your regular routine, all feelings of buyer’s remorse will be long gone. As long as you do your homework ahead of time and work with a Springville real estate agent, you can rest assured that your home will be the right one for you. Before long you’ll be wondering why you ever took the time to look elsewhere.
Topics: Mapleton Homes for Sale, Springville Real Estate, Utah County Real Estate | No Comments »