| It’s really difficult to buy a home today. Really difficult. This is due to low inventory, many buyers and multiple offers. This reads like a real estate sales pitch but it’s true.
If you love to gamble and believe you can’t lose then it’s easy to buy a home – if you love to gamble in the tens of thousands of dollars. More about that in next month’s newsletter.
Sometimes difficult is worth the effort. If it’s worth the effort, it’s worth a plan.
We were talking about life. A couple of 30-year-olds and me, a boomer. With some uncertainty they told me how they spent their money. Birthdays (Too extravagant?), dinners (Should they eat out so often?), vacations (Could they afford it?) and wondering if their spending was foolish.
The boomer explained that he’d made a few purchases in life that might be considered foolish. (Did he need a Triumph Spitfire convertible at age 26?)
I asked, “Do you know what’s important?” With a pause and hearing no response, I said,
“What’s important is what you have at 65 so work backwards and find your balance.”
Backwards. “A goal is a preferred future condition.”
In grade school I had a sense of where I wanted to end up in life. In my late twenties I worked backwards to figure out how to reach my goals ethically and honestly.
 Balance. You know, the thing between work, play and family. Balance. If it’s all work you miss out on part of life. If it’s all play, you can’t afford life. It’s making sure the working and digging life ratio is in balance.
To plan backward and be on balance may involve the car you choose to drive (or not drive), the clothes you choose to wear or the impulse buying that happens due to the advertising gods. It’s losing the pretense in favor of the real.
I actively worked at my backwards plan in my late twenties so now I can withstand the chaos we are experiencing today. I’m in this position partly because I purchased real estate in my late twenties.
Post college I knew I didn’t have the financial discipline to save money so I bought a home. Real estate was my forced savings account. I had to pay the mortgage. It was the adult beginning of my backward journey.
 By my mid-thirties I had the financial discipline to save and invest money. With a home and the discipline to save, my “backwards” plan was taking shape. It’s why I think buying a home remains an important piece (foundation?) of the backwards plan.
Your plan to purchase a home isn’t about mastering the real estate markets as much as it’s about mastering yourself. To paraphrase the investor Ben Graham:
“The homebuyer’s chief problem – and even her worst enemy – is likely to be herself.”
It’s difficult to be a disciplined and independent homebuyer when you are bombarded by an industry that sells dreams in a networked world: Facebook, HGTV, TikTok, Zillow to name a few.
Real estate marketing tools are designed to kidnap your attention, destroy your patience and limit your ability to think for yourself. Financial, gambling and real estate apps are using the “gamification” approach to grab your attention and money. They play to your emotions, not reason.
A stratospheric IQ isn’t needed to make a sound real estate purchase. It requires discipline and the confidence to ask questions about things you think you know (real estate) but don’t know (real estate). My best advice? Don’t be gamed. Have a plan.
 An important parting piece of information:
If you want to buy a home so badly that you will waive an inspection, don’t buy a home. Waiving an inspection serves the seller, the seller’s agent and your “buyer agent.” They all make money while you gamble.
Stay tuned. More on the trials and tribulations of buying a home in my next news/blog.
Please forward this newsletter to at least one person who needs it.
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Having helped over 1,800 homebuyers you learn a lot about the selling side. The goal: Make educated and informed decisions.
Thanks for reading,
Michael D. Holloway
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