I live in Montana. It is February. The pale light of the short days of winter, temperatures below freezing and snow crusted with frost define my part of the world. That won't change anytime soon.
I sit in the office, considering where to call. Enough buyers come into our service that almost anywhere in North America is an option. So I look for leads in Florida, southern California, maybe South Carolina and Arizona. I pull up websites of faraway agents featuring patios and pools, green grass and best of all, beaches and oceans.
For the next eight hours, I live vicariously through the websites of others.
I ask an agent outside San Diego how warm it is as we speak. Then I laugh and add "You win." I talk with an agent in Punta Gorda sitting in an open air restaurant. I speak with another Florida agent who promises to call back after an afternoon round of golf. Yet another trys to decide how best to feature a home's lush landscaping.
But I am in Montana and it is February. After enough, I put on my vest, then my coat, I slip on my gloves and hat and begin the careful walk home on icy sidewalks. I pass the blocks thinking about the choices we make - and the ones we don't.
Can a person really buy a small condo within walking distance of the beach for $60,000? Why don't we all live in Florida?
As soon as I ask the question, I know the answer. Once, I lived on a Caribbean island where bars and restaurants are on beaches, days are always warm and Christmas is celebrated in shorts. But there, Christmas presents were delivered by a postman rather than by a loved one. So, on an earlier February, I left the island and returned to Montana. And here I have been ever since.
For better or worse, Montana is home. Almost always has been, probably always will be. Even when I lived elsewhere, I knew where home was waiting.
Here, for me, memories are as long as the shadows, history becomes personal, relationships are old. I am here for the same reason many of us are where we find ourselves. It is about "being home."
It is a distinction real estate agents deal with daily - that difference between house and home.
We live in a mobile society, people moving across the country and around the world. Sometimes they seek a house, a place to stop, rest and find shelter until moving again. 
Others want a home, a place children and trees have time to grow, a place where both can grow roots and become attached to the particular ground under them.
I continue my walk, pull the coat a bit tighter.
I think that if I ever buy a house, it will be within walking distance of a beach. But, when the time comes to buy a home, it will be here, in Montana, where light grows short and temperatures fall.
And despite my winter whine, that is just fine with me.
Grant Sasek works for Real Estate Pipeline, an Internet lead generation service.
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