The Psychology of Buying and Selling a Home
It’s a fact of life: homes come with far more emotional weight than any other investment we make…Ever wonder how our emotions influence the homes we choose and the prices we pay? A home is a refuge from the world, a place to raise a family and, for some people, an investment they hope will go up in value down the road. We fall in love with houses in a way that we never fall in love with a portfolio of stocks and bonds.
All too often, though, we don’t realize that how we feel about homes blinds us when it comes time to buy or sell. We let our emotions blind us to cold facts about the market or the realities of ownership. Or we prioritize one set of emotional needs over others that are just strong but may not be evident at first. And ignoring them can lead us to make bad financial decisions that can affect us for decades to come.
The home-selling side of the equation brings its own set of thorny issues. Homeowners often have an overly rosy view of their home and expect it to increase in value far beyond reasonable expectations. And when they put it on the market, they often stubbornly cling to their asking price—even if it means leaving it up for sale far longer than they planned and risking the possibility of not selling it at all. Here’s a closer look at some psychological missteps that buyers and sellers often make as they wade into the housing market.
Click Read More below for the whole post.
