Step 4 of Overcoming The Mid-20's Crisis: Looking For Your Right Home

Well, I'm sure that as a twenty something out there living in the world, you have realized certain things. Life isn't what you've expected, you rarely get what you want; having to take care of yourself instead of living off of mommy and daddy is a joy and an annoyance at the same time. All in all, life isn't perfect. If it were perfect, right now I would be a duel career having family man. I would be the starting center fielder and lead-off batter for the Red Sox, and an Oscar-winning screen writer married to Jessica Alba. Somewhere along the way my plans changed. I found out that I was not a fan of getting hit by 92-mile-per-hour fastballs, and I didn't know how to hit a curveball (besides swinging wildly and hoping that I made contact). Also, when you're living in a small suburb of Washington D.C., it's a little difficult to sell a screenplay to studios in L.A. without an agent. So our at-one-time-certain plans change and morph, and the next thing you know, you're working a job that you never saw yourself working (Honestly, who as a child dreamed of being a syndicated real estate blogger and agent?), living in a place much less glamorous than you pictured, and making probably a whole lot less than you probably wanted.

Ladies and Gentlemen, guess what, you're perfect house isn't out there either. We've all listened to Dane Cook do his bit about Dream Houses, and how we should, "Dream it you [darned] dreamers." Unfortunately unless you have a bank account the size of Dane Cook's you will never have pictures on the walls with the eyes cut out so you can go into your secret passage ways and watch and listen to your guests at parties. The harsh reality of it is that you have this great house/townhouse/condo imagined in your head that doesn't exist, and, just like in real life suddenly you're not the starting center fielder for the Sox. You make one adjustment here and one compromise there, and suddenly you are a real estate blogger and agent wondering how you didn't get to the places you always envisioned, while still extremely happy with your place in life.

Jim Collins once said, "Good is the enemy of great." I agree with that statement in most cases. When it comes to my job, I want to do great, not just good. When it comes to the posts I put up online, I want them to be clear, honest, informative, and entertaining. (I know, I might be missing out so far on that last one here.) I don't want to just give you the same recycled tripe that you can read anywhere else. I want you to have a reason to IM me on AIM at KWRMATT. I want you to ask me questions, to pick my brain. "The moment you are happy with your [self] is the moment you lose the war," Dr. Perry Cox, from "Scrubs" (ep. 21, "My Sacrificial Clam") I live my life by these mantras; it's how I work; it's how I write; and, if you're one of my close friends, you know it's how I work out.

In housing though, you'll never find a perfect "10." I am about to make a reference the majority of my readers won't get, but for the rest of you, no house is a Bo Derek. If you and I have sat down together, and we've figured out everything that you're looking for in a house/condo/townhouse, and I've given you a list of all the listings on the market that meet your specific criteria, and you've driven the neighborhoods to figure out if you want to live there or somewhere closer to shopping, school, whatever, and you've narrowed down the list I've given you to about 7 or 8...in those 7 or 8, there will be one house that is going to be somewhere between an "8" or a "9" on a scale of 1 to 10. The moment we see that house, it is time to jump. In the Millionaire Real Estate Investor (a book everyone should read) by Gary Keller, Dave Jenks, and Jay Papasan, they say to be ready to pull the trigger the moment you find the right deal for you. I know, you're reading this, scoffing, saying to your non-living computer screen, "I don't want to be a real estate investor." To that I say, "fine, don't be one," but I am saying that it will be easier for you if the moment you see the house, that is almost perfect, you buy it. It saves you heartbreak and more of the same settling and adjusting to what you really want. And you won't have to go from your perceived Xanadu to living in a van down by the river.

As an added little bonus to today's entry, I am going to leave you with a piece of advice that was given to me years ago, and that I have been passing along to clients and friends ever since. Most of my readers are young, and are getting promoted and moving forward in life, and to all of you out there I say, "Buy the most expensive house you can afford, make that monthly mortgage payment hurt, because in two years when you've gone through two jobs, five promotions, and a dozen or so pay raises, that payment will seem like nothing to you, and you will have this huge great house that is yours."

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. And I feel as though this episode was not quite as light hearted as my previous ones, but I hope you all enjoyed it anyway.

And please get in touch with me if you have any questions. My number is 703-393-1336, if you are calling between the hours of 9 and 7pm EST. I am available online at KWRMatt on AIM, or you can email me at mrwright79@kw.com. I bid you all adieu and in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.