Goldilocks

I recently got to do something pretty rare. For most people it’s nothing that interesting, but for me it was equally as awesome. I’m working with a family to find their dream home, and during this process we ran into a situation where we had three identical homes within a quarter mile radius. Just to make it clear, I don’t mean similar homes as that’s pretty much daily game, and we already look at comps that are as close to the home we are looking at, but I actually mean identical homes. Identical when we look at square footage, neighborhood, year of construction, the original floor plan, and to top it off – timing.

Yes, we can have two identical home within the same neighborhood, but one was sold a year ago. Or we can have two similar homes, the other one a bit bigger or smaller, or maybe a few years older or newer. But this, this was very interesting and made comparing these homes very interesting as it wasn’t the usual this one is newer and has a nicer kitchen, that one has better yard but is older and so on.

It was a total Goldilocks experience. One of the homes was already pending but it gave both me and my clients a very good comparison for the other two. So, we have papa bear, mama bear and the baby bear. And we have Goldilocks visiting the homes. Well. We didn’t visit mama bear as it was pending but we looked at it online to get a feeling on how mama bear was. We didn’t break baby bears house either, but we did sit in the chairs and try the porridge in each of these homes.

Home A, “the papa bear” had been on the market for quite a while.  It was way past the listed on Thursday, sold on Tuesday period. It was way past the second weekend of open houses, and it was - to be frank - past open houses. A home that was clearly sitting on the market. Daddy bear was the most expensive home. It had many good qualities and was great in many ways. But the price tag was just so very big. It wasn’t perfect, but no home is perfect. So we huffed, and we puffed, but expensive it stayed.

Home B, “the mama bear” was pending to be sold. This home had also been on the market for a few weeks, but it had now found its future owners and was waiting for closing. Mama bear was a lot like daddy bear. Not as nice as papa bear, but it still had many good qualities. It was also significantly less expensive than papa bear, but it did need some updating too.

Home C, “the baby bear” was brand new on the market, and as we visited the home during an open house, it was swarming with potential buyers. It was every broker’s dream of an open house. The baby bear though, had been advertised as an equal opportunity comparing to papa bear and mama bear, and I have a feeling that many were surprised when they entered baby bears house. Yes, there had been signs if you read carefully, and definitely the best sign was the price tag as it clearly had the affordability factor that was pulling all these people in there. No one had said it was perfect, they had actually stated it needed some help, but in the pictures, it seemed like it was in livable condition. It was in livable condition, most definitely so, but what had been failed to mention was that only half of the house was in livable condition. So cheaper, yes. But also, only half of the living space. Baby bear, even though having the same footprint as it’s parents, ended up being way smaller at the moment.

It looks like papa bears current owner maybe loves his home a little bit too much to admit that the price is not aligned with the location and the condition. Mama bear got things aligned and found a new family. It will be interesting to see how it goes with baby bear. Will there be someone ready to love it right away, or will it have to wait a little bit like mama bear did before it finds the family that is willing to make it absolutely fabulous. But these three homes tie my story to the market, and the fact that every single home has the same three things: location, condition and price, and when those three things line up, every home can find someone to love it. It was great to get to looks at three homes, exactly the same but yet so different, and to form an impression without the buts and howevers.