How important is the weather when choosing a home?

foggy weather

 

How important is the weather when choosing a home?

We say we’re going to be cautious and logical. It’s easier to say than do, many things are.

I always ask my clients to think about what their lives might be like in five years time. What will be important to you then? Will you have children? Will being on a quiet street, near a good school be important? Will your kids be going off to university? Will your house suddenly become to large? Will you be asking yourself why you are heating and cleaning rooms you never use?

But the weather is also important when buying a house. Lifestyles change with the seasons. If you’re selling a house for example with a pool, the spring and summer is the best time to sell. Pools, they say, don’t add any value to the price of a home. However, I’m sure having a pool affects the “time to sell”. If a potential buyer was viewing a home this summer, many would see a pool as a bonus and a premium and would be more likely to make an offer. If you’re selling a home with a pool in the fall or winter, the potential buyers may only see the cost of maintenance and the time needed to be puttering around with the chemicals and what not. They may see having a pool not as a positive but as a negative.

Conversely, in the wintertime, home buyers pay more attention to entranceways (because of the snowy boots). Other features like having a two car garage, high efficiency furnace and perhaps a large eat in kitchen or a gas fireplace in the living room become more important.

I’ve noticed that on gloomy days, houses never feel bright and welcoming. Actually when you think about it, it’s no wonder that real estate is so seasonal. Houses look best as a general rule in the springtime when the garden blooming and in the fall when our cocooning instincts kick in.

According to this article Should You Ignore the Weather When Buying a New House or Car?  our choices change quite a lot depending on the season and on the weather.

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