As a home buyer, the way to avoid Home Buyer's Remorse, is to plan to avoid it. At some point, usually within days of the closing, many home buyers experience some form of "Buyer's Remorse". Buyer's Remorse is a form of regret. You wake up one morning, look around at the thing you have bought (usually a big-ticket item such as a car or a house) and decide that it wasn't perfect or it wasn't as good a deal as you thought it was going to be or you hadn't anticipated all the potential problems involved in ownership. You REGRET buying the thing. You ask yourself "WHAT was I thinking???" Or worse, you ask yourself "how did they talk me into this???"
Home buying is a very emotional experience. One of the best ways to avoid Home Buyer's Remorse is to recognize the emotional part of the purchase process and keep that emotional response in check. You want to love the house you are buying. However, if you FALL in love with the house, you may behave in a way that is not in your financial best interest. Remember teenaged puppy love? It happens with houses, too. I have seen it. You may ignore the sales data your agent is trying to show you. A warning flag are phrases such as "I don't care that other homes in this area have sold for a whole lot less, I just want what this house has". Danger, Danger!
Love the house you are buying, but let the analytical part of your mind do the actual buying. Listen to your Agent's opinion of value in the area. Part of the process of making an offer on a home is that I sit alone in a room with a computer and the MLS data and I make an independent decision about how much I think the house is worth. Listen to your Home Inspector's assessment of the condition of the property. It doesn't matter how pretty the shrubs are if you are going to need a new roof and a new heater in the next 12 months. Those financial realities have to be factored into your purchase decision.
The rest of the process is to be kind to yourself after closing when you discover things about your new home that you didn't notice, things that are less than perfect. Right after I bought my condo 9 years ago, I noticed that the quality of the paint job on the bathroom cabinets was less than perfect. That flawed paint job has irritated me for 9 years. However, it hasn't irritated me enough to motivate me to sand it down and repaint the cabinets. Like a number of the other things I love, my condo isn't perfect. However, it has been a good home for me.
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