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KELLEY’S MARKET TRENDS 35 FLOOR SPACE 35 Real Estate
Highs and Lows of House Hunting
TBY YUQING PAN
HERE’S SOMETHING DESPER- ately missing in your life. You decide to do something about it
now, and so you sign up for one of a slew of websites that aim to help yearning hearts like yours nd a match. You ip through pro les late at night, and certain phrases or well-lit photos make your heart skip a beat. And when you think you may have found “The One,” you gure it’s time to make an assessment in person.
Dating? Or house hunting?
It could be either.
Neither buying your dream home nor
nding true love comes without e ort. But just how deep does the comparison go? To nd out, we pulled together some data about both – the emotional highs and devastating lows that people experi- ence on their journeys. You be the judge.
Before you even begin to look for homes, you’ve probably heard all about rising home prices, bidding wars, strin- gent mortgage standards, and other rough-and-tumble tales. If you feel a lit- tle disheartened, you’re not alone. A lit- tle over half of home buyers (52 percent) believe they will nd their dream home in their price range, while 48 percent say it’s impossible, according to a 2014 survey by BMO Harris Bank.
People are way more optimistic when it comes to love. A 2011 Marist poll showed that 73 percent of Americans believe that they are destined to nd their soul mate.
But while some say that positive think- ing is the key to success, thinking alone won’t get you there. It’s all about the numbers, baby! Which leads us to ...
Life would be so much simpler if the rst house you ever visited, or the rst person you ever kissed, was The One – but
you don’t live in a fairy tale.
Home buyers, be prepared for the
long haul: Buyers typically search for 10 weeks and look at 10 homes before pur- chasing, according to the National Asso- ciation of Realtors.
The Internet has made nding a home much easier than ever. The NAR report shows 92 percent of home buyers use the Internet at some point during their search. Online websites are deemed a very useful information source by 82 percent of buyers.
Although there’s been a sea change in the way that people view online dating (the idea of nding love on the Internet once fell somewhere on the scale between dubious and pathetic), people aren’t quite
as quick to jump online to seek a mate as they are to look for a house.
A 2013 Pew Research Center survey showed 38 percent of Americans who were single and actively looking for a partner had used online dating sites or mobile dating apps. But among those who have, the majority say dating sites and apps help people nd a better romantic match because of the wide range of po- tential partners they can access.
First impressions matter. The rst few minutes home buyers spend at an open house go a long way in in uencing their decisions. Three-quarters (77 percent) of home buyers say they’ll know imme- diately when they’ve found their ideal house, says the BMO Harris Bank survey.
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About half (52 percent) of Americans say they believe in love at rst sight, re- veals a Gallup poll. Another study shows it takes only 12 minutes for people on a rst date to decide if they’re interested in the other person. As soon as people sit down, they will be immediately judged on their smile (64 percent), whether they make eye contact (58 percent), and their tone of voice (25 percent).
The reality, of course, is that neither homes nor relationships are ever truly perfect. But if you really work at under- standing what you want and what you need, and taking the time to assess a va- riety of options, you’re likely to nd a pretty good t. Maybe even one that will improve with time.
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