Love the One You’re With

Happy 2023! Oh wait, that was just January.
Welcome to this sweet and sparkly little month of love. Sometimes the celebration of love feels a bit forced or overly commercial, but also, what a handy reminder to pause and appreciate those people and relationships we adore and love in all its many forms. No shortage of Valentines filling my home, and I’m always a yes for a candy-coated holiday and opportunity for lovey-dovey romantic gestures!

As your neighborhood Realtor, I’d love to send your loving attention towards your house! That major heartthrob of an asset just keeps on giving you increased values, especially when you love it back! Much of the current real estate chatter focuses on the seller’s market (which is real & worthy of conversation if you’re considering if it’s the right time to sell) but let’s back it up a step and think about why you…Love the One You’re With! In order to really love that house you’re with – let’s look at knowing your home’s value as an asset, sustaining it’s value and celebrating the intrinsic worth provided.

Loving something is easy when it’s giving you all manner of love in return! Let’s focus our attention for a moment and Appreciate the Appreciation – it’s easy to love your house as an asset with a steadily growing value! Across the US home values have risen as the demand for homes keeps reaching new highs! As new a generation of home buyers have come of age in conjunction with historically low interest rates – that confluence created a huge demand that building, and development haven’t kept up with. So, if you’re already a homeowner maintaining your home in a community that is growing and expanding you have much appreciation to give some applause! Here, in Pierce County, Washington, my local market has seen over 17% increases in home sale prices in the last year, and some price points and specific areas experiencing even more. While those burgeoning values do give rise to some added costs like property taxes, maintaining that asset leaves homeowners in a strong position in the current market and presumably well into the future.

Knowing the value your home could garner in your market isn’t just for the moment you need or want to sell but tracking that growth and identifying how to best continue that trend is just good business as a homeowner. Additionally, making sure your homeowner’s insurance coverage matches that value is sound practice as well. If you’re interested in knowing your home’s current value clink this link Complimentary Home Value to provide me your name and address. Loving the home you’re with, starts with understanding its value, then comes the loving it back!

Like all healthy relationships both parties must put in the work to make it the best it can be! Your home’s value might be increasing because of its location, community, and overall market demand, but the love you show your investment will come back to you too. Giving some love to your home isn’t just for your enjoyment but additionally, to boost the benefit of that asset and get you a high ROI (return on investment). “Bells and whistles tend not to rank high on ROI. The high-tech home theater might mean hours of fun for you and the family, but it’s probably not going to pay for itself when the time come to sell.” Like so much in life, sometimes simple is best. To really get the best bang for your buck, stick to this list of must do projects and for more detailed information, check out the article linked below.

1. Refresh your kitchen cabinets
2. Create curb appeal

3. Give your front door a makeover

4. Create a backyard deck

5. Brighten up the basement
6. Add more storage
7. Make small repairs and keep up with maintenance

https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/diy-home-improvement-projects-with-serious-return-on-investment/

Supporting the value of perhaps one of your greatest assets, isn’t just business and isn’t just bottom line, creating a home serves the purpose of both financial investment and personal haven.
“The ache for home lives in all of us” – Maya Angelou. The idea of home isn’t of course about a dwelling, the love for that physical place doesn’t come from its value as an asset, but from that deeper value of what that house and home mean to each of us and for our families. That most important element of home remains the people who occupy it. I reached out to some my clients to inquire about what home ownership and their home means to them, here’s what they shared with me…

“The best part of for us is being about to put a lasting mark on the community we love and setting down roots for our children. We plan to be here for a while! We also really love our land and the ability to spread out. We have many little projects we have planned for updating the house and are excited to work on these.”

“I love having this home to retreat to, it’s really been our hideout from the world. I’m so happy we found just what we were looking for both the location and all the parts of the house. Its perfect for my family and our life, its been what we’ve needed to feel settled and enjoy our kids growing up here and having good experiences together”

“We purchased our current home as a place for retirement, and it is perfect! We chose view and beautiful surroundings over house size and upscale embellishments, and that has turned out to be wonderful trade-off. We use every inch of the house and it’s rare that I don’t go into each room at least once a day. This fits well into our personal goals of using less energy and decreasing materialism. Owning our home in retirement is a great investment strategy, as housing values in our area continue to increase, and ownership versus renting allows us to maintain a consistent budget on a fixed retirement income without the fear of rent increases or landlord decision to sell. What I loved about home ownership in our last house: As a newly blended family of five, we felt strongly about owning a house that could fill many important needs: Lots of space so everyone could find privacy when needed, but also lots of spaces that lent themselves to togetherness — a warm family room for gatherings around the TV, a large dining room for family dinners, and a huge bonus room where the kids had the space to play and become siblings. Over time, this big house that was initially new to each of us, became our home. Because we owned our home, our kids have two decades of treasured memories together.”

“I think of the saying “Home is where the heart is” and there is truth in that statement because the bottom line truth is you can make any place a home if you have those with you whom you love and cherish. No amount of bricks or wooden frames or walls with fancy fixtures or upgrades is going to fill the space or overtake the space of our loved ones in our hearts.
But there is still something magical about owning your own home. Maybe it’s the pursuit of the American dream to have a place you can call your own to display and broadcast proudly for all the work that you do day in and day out. But I think it goes deeper than that.
Within the walls of the frame of my house it’s where my life takes place. It’s where my memories are made. It’s where I see milestones reached and dreams fulfilled. It’s where I protect and provide for my family. And where I store up all my treasures that I collect along the way. It’s where I store memories from time past in photographs and where I store memories of the present within my heart. It’s where every scratch, dent, ding, mark on the wall reminds me of what I have lived through and with whom I have lived it through with.
It’s the place I long for when I am away. It’s the place where I live, love and dream.
But even with all of that. It’s the place which gathers, protects, and holds all those I love. It’s my safe place in a world of chaos. It’s where I am the author of my life. It’s where I can truly be me! It’s my home.”

Houses tell a story of the lives lived there, of the families who created home within those walls. As they say, it’s priceless. There remains so much for us to love about our home’s worth in our lives, both financial and emotional. And whether you’re loving the one you’re with for the long haul or looking for new love in 2022, be sure to explore all the ways your home provides you value and all the best ways to keep that love going strong! Hope you’ll be celebrating some love in this cute little month of February. Love for your home and for the dear ones that fill it alongside you.