Moving house can be a daunting experience before you’ve even found the place to which you’d like to move. If you have a great attachment to your current home, it can be hard to find anywhere new which lives up to your expectations. There’s a chance, of course, that you’re viewing everything through rose-tinted glasses, and perfect houses are slipping by because you’re perhaps a little hesitant to make a final decision on anywhere new.
You may think that there’s no place out there like home, but perhaps you’ve just not found it yet. In fact, there may be many places out there just like home or even better, but you’ve overlooked them. Perhaps it’s time to take a deep breath and look a little harder for that ideal home. If you’ve no idea where to begin and you’ve been drawing blanks so far, then here’s some advice for finding the perfect home for you, your partner and any other family you may have.
What are you looking for?
This is the question you need to answer. You’re looking for home, importantly, but your new home doesn’t exist yet; the potential for a new home exists. No property you’re going to look at will feel like your own place, but it’s about finding a space which suits your needs. It’s about looking deeper and telling yourself that you can see your favourite coffee table sitting in the corner of that living room or you can imagine yourself cooking dinner for the kids in the huge, never-ending kitchen.
The thing you need to be answering, then, is what kind of property you’re looking for. Perhaps you’re looking for a similar property to the one you currently own or perhaps you’re looking for a step up. You might have lived in an apartment for years, but the addition of a new member in your family means you need a bigger space in which you can all live comfortably. Houses are suited to families, but they also appeal to people because they’re freer, bigger and more isolated from neighbours who might otherwise have been living on the other side of the wall in an apartment building. You need to be thinking about what size property you want, how much privacy you want and so many other factors. The “homely” element will come later, when you move in.
Think about the area.
The neighborhood is so important when you’re trying to decide on a property. Perhaps the house is perfect, but that novelty will soon wear off if the area is sub-par. Think about where you currently live; the closeness to shops, fun locations, schools for any kids you may have and simply the people who live around you are all factors which help to create a full, happy and relaxed living situation. A beautiful house can only compensate for a bad neighborhood or poor access to amenities for so long. It may hurt to give up on a dream house, but it won’t be a dream house if it’s situated in a bad area.
Finally, choose somewhere which feels like home.
It’s easy to get a little swept away by the property market and start thinking about returns on investment when you want to sell your new house further down the line, but the “this feels like home” factor is far more important. If you choose somewhere which ends up selling for far less in the future but gives you far more comfort and joy during your time living there, simply because it suits your needs better, then it’s the right decision. Of course, nowhere will feel like home before you’ve moved in, but you need to see the potential to turn a place into home.
