New Year’s Resolutions to Help You Reach Your Housing Goals
Happy New Year! If you’re like us here at Nashville Real Estate Rockstars, you have an annual ritual of setting New Year’s resolutions. Resolutions can get a bad rap, bringing to mind failed diets and abandoned gym memberships; but, if done thoughtfully, they can be a great opportunity to set smaller, achievable goals that help you reach bigger life milestones. If you have aspirations of homeownership (or home selling or home improvement), setting a related resolution can be a great tool to help you reach your goal. Below we share our favorite homeownership goals and our top tips to make any resolution accomplishable.
If You’re House-Hunting…
Make this the year you find your first starter home.
For better or worse, real estate is one of the primary ways wealth is grown and transferred generationally in the United States. Many of us have a vision of our ideal forever-home in our heads and it may seem tempting to wait to jump into the real estate market until you can purchase that dream property. However, if homeownership is one of your life goals, don’t wait until you can afford that perfect sprawling estate. Even if it’s a similar size to your apartment, purchasing a starter property will allow you to build equity; it may not feel like a massive upgrade from apartment life, but the money put into a mortgage pays back dividends that money spent on rent will not.
Turn saving into your new hobby.
Saving for a down payment can feel like a daunting task, but making saving your hobby can help you reach your goal of homeownership faster than you might expect. If you haven’t become one already during the pandemic, make yourself a home chef. Learning to make some of your restaurant-favorite meals to bring to work or enjoy at home can shave hundreds of dollars off your monthly food budget, especially if you eat out frequently, and it’s a fun hobby in and of itself. Look for other opportunities to cut spending by learning new skills that might turn into life-long passions. Learning to make some of your own personal care and beauty products at home, starting a small garden to grow your own fresh herbs, or trading your Audible account for a library card and Libby app are all potential ways to trim your spending without lowering your quality of life - and maybe have more fun in the process.
Start a separate account just for your home savings and watch it grow. The old standard of 20% down is no longer mandatory or even the norm. In many cases, a 5% down payment is often all that’s needed to purchase a home, so your savings goal may be lower than you imagine. Find the median home price in your area, calculate 5% (multiply the median price by 0.05 - for example $350,000 x 0.05 comes to a $17,500 down payment), and set your weekly savings goal accordingly.
Talk to your family and a lender about your home-buying goals.
The first step for any home buyer is getting pre-approval from a lender. If buying a new home is one of your big goals this year, make talking to a lender ASAP your number one New Year’s resolution. That conversation will help you set your house-hunting budget, adjust your savings goals, or provide a jumping-off point for other financial- and life-planning moves that can help bring your homeownership goals closer and within reach.
It’s also good to share your home-buying goals with your family and friends. If you’re comfortable with it, you may want to ask that any holiday or birthday gifts be a small amount of cash you can put towards your down payment. Even if direct financial support isn’t something your community can provide or something you want, you may find friends and family have good advice and recommendations for lenders, realtors, and insight into aspects of homeownership you might not have considered.
If You’re Selling…
Hire a home inspector.
Getting a pre-emptive home inspection might not be at the top of your to-do list if you’re thinking of selling your home, but it really should be. Hiring your own home inspector before you list can give you the opportunity to either repair hidden issues or help you and your realtor price your home appropriately based on it’s condition. Buyers will appreciate the transparency and you’ll be less likely to get any nasty surprises when they perform their own home inspection prior to closing.
Freshen up your paint and front door.
A good first impression counts for a lot, whether you’re a job seeker at an interview or a home being viewed by potential buyers. Make refreshing your paint both inside and out a priority. Interior painting is relatively easy and affordable upgrade to DIY, but take extra care when doing so prior to listing. While small details like drips won’t lower your home value, they may give buyers the impression there’s other rushed or poorly DIY-ed work in the house.
Your front door is another area worth giving some extra attention. It’s the first touch-point buyers will interact with when viewing your home. Make it a goal to either refurbish or replace your home’s front door to make the best first impression possible as potential buyers enter your house.
Spring clean like a pro.
It can be easy to let bigger cleaning projects like power washing and exterior window cleaning slide when you have no plans to move, but they make great New Year’s resolutions if you’re planning to sell. Make a full deep-clean your ultimate goal, but split it into smaller tasks to make the resolution more achievable. Exterior and interior window cleaning, power washing, deep-cleaning all appliances, and scrubbing those hidden corners that often get overlooked are all great mini-goals to add to your grand cleaning plan.
Call a realtor for a comparative market analysis.
A comparative market analysis (also called a CMA) is a realtors opinion of what your home could sell for based on the size, condition, and features of your home, recent sales of comparable homes in your area, and your local real estate market. A CMA is neither a guarantee that your home will sell for that amount nor an appraisal, just an estimate; but it’s a great place to start if you’re thinking of listing your home. CMA’s are one of the best tools you and your realtor can use to decide the best price to list your home.
If You’ve Found Your Forever Home…
Plant a tree.
Planting a tree is a beautiful way to mark the passage of time in your home with their slow but steady growth. It’s a lasting, environmentally-friendly legacy to leave behind that will one day provide shade in the summer and - depending on what kind of tree you plant - gorgeous foliage at various points in the year. They can also provide a home for local wildlife like squirrels, birds, and chipmunks.
In addition, a well landscaped yard can improve your property value. According to the USDA Forest Service, healthy, mature trees add an average of 10% in property value and - when strategically placed - can lower air conditioning needs by 30% and reduce the energy needed for heating by 20-50%. Just make sure not to plant your new leafy friend too close to your house; do your research and make sure you account for the tree’s “spread,” or how much space the branches will take up when the tree reaches maturity.
“If you plant a tree today on the west side of your home, in 5 years your energy bills should be 3% less. In 15 years the savings will be nearly 12%.” - Dr. E. Greg McPherson, Center for Urban Forest Research
Weed your driveway - and everything else for that matter.
If you have a driveway or concrete path or patio, you probably have a few weeds working their way up between the cracks. Make a resolution to pull those weeds every time you see them. Overtime, weeds can damage asphalt and concrete; as they grow, those hardy little plants are strong enough to push against the weakened concrete or asphalt and widen existing cracks or cause new ones. A little preventative maintenance can save you a larger headache down the road.
Hang some bird feeders.
Bird feeders are a simple way to invite wildlife into your yard. It’s amazing how quickly your local birds will realize there’s easily available seed on your property; you’ll likely have regular feathered visitors within just a few days if not a few hours. The ritual of filling the feeder and watching the birds can foster a deeper relationship with your local wildlife and the natural world around you.
Tackle a project that would make your home more enjoyable.
Even if we love our homes, there’s almost always something we could add or change to make them just that little bit more functional or enjoyable for ourselves. Whether you really wish you had a workbench in your garage, know your kitchen cabinets are in desperate need of reorganization, or the shade of green in your living room has never been your favorite; make a list of projects that would improve your life in your home and come up with a game plan to accomplish them. Break projects into small, digestible goals and don’t pressure yourself to get through your whole list of potential home upgrades by the end of 2022 - unless you’re already (or have resolved to become) a weekend warrior.
How To Make Your Resolutions Stick
Whether your goal is to buy a home or lose ten pounds, the hardest part of making a New Year’s resolution is actually keeping it. There’s no completely fool-proof way to flawlessly achieve your goals, but we do have some tips to make your resolutions stick.
First, make sure your goals are realistic and achievable. For example, very few people can save up an entire downpayment in a year; if your goal is to buy a home, be realistic about how long it will take you to save what you need and don’t base your self-worth on how quickly you reach that goal - homeownership is not a race. Earlier, we spoke about making saving a hobby; not everyone can save the same amount and not all of us are willing or able to part with certain comforts in order to reduce our budgets. Tailor your savings plan to your lifestyle and current needs. If you’re planning home upgrades, be honest with both how many projects you can accomplish in a year and your current level of skill if you plan to DIY.
Once you’ve decided what goals are realistic for your year, break them down into smaller, scheduled increments. Create monthly, weekly, and even daily mini-goals that move you towards accomplishing your larger resolution. This might look like a daily spending goal, weekly savings deposit, and monthly savings goal if you’re working towards a down payment. If you’re planning to sell your house, break down your painting project by room and treat picking colors, buying supplies, and actually painting all as separate steps. The key to making these smaller goals work is scheduling. Some people thrive on strict deadlines others prefer more flexible end dates with greater structure leading up to them. Whatever kind of time management works best for you in your daily life, apply it to your resolutions.
When you do reach one of your goals, reward yourself! While you’ll hopefully feel an inherent sense of accomplishment from completing a task, it doesn’t hurt to further reinforce your success by doing something nice for yourself. Rent a movie, pick up some of your favorite sweet treats, go for a hike in your favorite park, or give yourself a little home spa moment; whatever small pleasures will make you feel rewarded for your accomplishments.
Finally, be kind to yourself. Life can get busy, things go awry, and sometimes we find that we’ve missed a deadline or failed to reach a goal. That’s OK! It’s part of being human. Sometimes, when we miss our goals we let our sense of failure or shame derail us; instead of picking up where we left off, we consider our resolution failed and abandon it all together. Remember that the only person you’re accountable to is yourself. You have the power to forgive yourself, to adjust deadlines, or to redefine your goals. A lot can happen in a year and the resolutions you set in January might not make sense for your life in July or December. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed if you need to rethink your goals and it says nothing about your quality as a person.
Is Your New Year’s Resolution Buying a Home? We Can Help.
Whether you make one resolution or many or none at all, we hope you have a wonderful New Year, full of promise, love, and happiness. If you want help reaching your homeownership goals, reach out to Zelda with Nashville Real Estate Rockstars at Benchmark Realty. Whether you need a CMA or help finding your first home, we’re here to help.