Home sweet home

Five emotional traps first-home buyers should avoid.

- STORY GLEN JAMES & RACHELLE KROON

When you're buying a place to live in, emotions are everywhere.

That’s completely understandable. The goal is not to switch off your emotions, but to make sure they're not the ones driving the car while your logic is tied up in the boot. Once you've named the emotional traps, you can start to build a proper strategy for buying a home to live in.

Here are five common emotional traps owner-occupiers fall into and how to avoid them.

1 The dream home myth (and the ‘forever home’ fantasy)

Most first-home buyers secretly want their first home to tick every box. Light, bright, renovated, close to everything, quiet street, great neighbours, north-facing backyard, walk-in pantry, subway tiles and of course ‘future-proofed’. The reality is, though, that your first home may not be perfect. You might get most of your needs met and only some of your wants. That’s not failure, that’s normal.

Having a detailed dream home in mind can create a few problems. You might overstretch your budget and box yourself into stressful repayments; or delay buying for years, waiting for something ‘perfect’ while prices and rents keep moving. You might talk yourself out of good, solid options because they are seven out of 10 instead of a mythical 12 out of 10.

We strongly encourage you to remove the phrase ‘forever home’ from your vocabulary for now. It piles on unnecessary pressure. You don’t need to lock in the perfect home for every version of your future self; you just need a home that works well for you for the next reasonable season of life.

2 Fear of making a mistake