This short article popped up in an email I got yesterday from the National Association of Realtors: Most Buyers Are Willing to Blow Their Budget on a Home. It cites a recent LendingTree article that showed that 64% of buyers are willing to go over their budget to land "the perfect house." 

This is something that's been happening for a while in the Madison-area. Multiple offers on homes, final sales prices significantly over the listed price, fierce competition among buyers who are willing to not only pay more but also to forgo some of the buyer protections available to them in the offer to purchase. 

I think it's telling that the answer to the question, though, was for the "perfect house." Which is...what, exactly? Sure, buyers always have certain features that are important to them, but can they actually all define what their "perfect house" is? And even if they can, are they really likely to find it? I know Karen and I, who spend a lot of time thinking about houses and real estate, couldn't have truly defined what the "perfect house" was before we bought our current house, or our last one. But each of these houses has turned out to be pretty perfect, at least for a period of time. Why? Because it's our home. It's the place we live and raise our kids and eat and entertain our friends and make our memories. Does it have all the features we would want? Not even close. Our mental list of improvements and dream features is long, I promise. But the features of a house don't make it perfect; you make it perfect. By how you live in it and how it helps you live. 

I think one bit of advice I'd give buyers is, rather than look for the perfect house, think of what a house absolutely needs to have to work for you...and expand that definition as widely as you can. As I mentioned last week in my post Expand Your Range, the more you're willing to be flexible in a home search, the easier it can be. And it can still result in you finding a house that likely become the "perfect house" for you in the long run.