What exactly makes a house a home? Is there a formula or recipe for success? Let’s dig into the age old question today.
A House is Just a House
A house is just a house until it gets personal touches. I’m a big believer that houses are simply depersonalized homes. So when you’re house hunting you may find that you are looking at a house or someone’s home. Staging can complicate things ever so slightly as it is an attempt to give a house a homey feel while still remaining neutral and relatively depersonalized. When you’re shopping for your new residence, you’ll want to look at the listing through your eyes and how you envision it will become your home. Learning to look through homes takes some time and experience – so do look to leverage your REALTOR if you find you’re struggling to see beyond décor, family photos, furniture and more in a home.
Transformation to Home
In my experience, for those who want a home – the transformation starts on Day 1 following closing. With keys in hand and boxes being moved in – the house will quickly start its transformative journey to your home. Know that this is a process and will take time to accomplish. Turning a house into a home need not be a sprint – it is more of a marathon.
Reverting a Home to a House
If you are selling or thinking about selling – I highly recommend almost a reverse transformation. You’ll want to maintain the home-like feel but at the same time work to depersonalize things. Why? You want prospective buyers looking at a house through their own lenses. What will help make this the house for them to turn into their home? Can they envision themselves and their personal effects in this space? This is truly an art and look to both your real estate agent and possibly a home stager to help you accomplish this goal.
What Makes a House a Home?
In my opinion, a house becomes a home when it is filled with people and has been personalized. This is a goal for many prospective homeowners and is an extremely achievable goal with some time and effort. Home is mix of feel and destination. If you are interested in looking at houses for your next home, please feel free to contact me.