You might walk into our first meeting with a list -- square footage, bedroom count, garage, how the yard will look. You've been thinking about your home search for months, and you know what you want.

And then... you start looking at actual houses.

Sometimes, something interesting happens as we continue in the home search. You might start discovering things about yourself that you did not expect.

Maybe you thought you wanted an open floor plan. You've seen them in magazines, watched them on HGTV, and decided that is what you want in your next home.  But then when we walk through a few of them, something feels off. Too much noise coming from the kitchen. No good wall space for the couch. Everything feels too open and exposed... and suddenly that house with the separate dining room and the cozy living room makes a lot more sense.

Or maybe you had "move-in ready" at the top of your list. But then you walk through a 1960s ranch with original hardwood floors and good bones and you start doing that thing where you imagine the kitchen with new cabinets, and the backyard with a deck, and... suddenly move-in ready feels a little less exciting than it did before.

This is not indecision, or drastically and unreasonably changing your mind.  It's learning about what will actually work best for you.

Sometimes the wish list and what you end up buying line up remarkably well.  Sometimes they are quite different!  And that's okay. That's why we need to start looking at homes sooner rather than later -- not just to find one that checks the boxes, but to figure out which boxes actually matter.