Life is comprised of thousands and thousands of decisions – some small, some large, some seemingly insignificant and others life-altering. But all these decisions can generally be categorized as either those things that we want to do, and those that we simply have to do. When it comes to home ownership, hopefully that initial purchase decision was a thoughtful but exciting “want to” filled with many more fun “want to’s” – the new kitchen, the outdoor pizza oven, and the master suite among others. However, it is often the management of the “have to’s,” those unexciting but critical things that face every homeowner, that not only keep a home functional but also protect its value. After all, for most people, the home remains by far their most significant investment. For our business of stucco repairs, we ultimately want to help homeowners appropriately capture how to think about this “have to.”
Out of Sight should not be Out of Mind: “It can’t be that bad” is a phrase we have all nervously mumbled at various times in life when we weren’t sure what a situation was going to reveal when we pealed back the top layer, concealing the true condition. There are a couple of imbedded truths – life hacks – that our most hopeful self cannot overcome. First, knowledge really is power. Fear and anxiety dissipate when we take the time to dig in and see what’s really going on. Second, time is never your friend when something is going wrong and left untended. When it comes to stucco, we see this play out over and over. When addressed proactively with eyes wide open (ie. a reputable stucco inspector and subsequent stucco repair expert like ICE Stucco Repair), a stucco homeowner has just secured both peace of mind for the current situation and, perhaps more importantly, the confidence going forward with how to keep up with their beloved home.
Don’t Let the Sale dictate Have-to Decisions: Very few of us make our best and most rational decisions when under the immense pressure of high economic stakes compounded by time constraints. The sale of the home definitely qualifies as one of the more intense interactions you can have. For sellers, it’s the reality of hearing someone else say something unflattering about your home and for buyers, it’s the unpleasant surprise potential of learning that your dream home is … well, not perfect. Somewhere between those two very different emotions, a sale hopefully happens. It is not hard to imagine how much harder it becomes in that moment when you layer in the revelation via one of those reputable stucco inspectors that there is in fact an issue worthy of an equally reputable stucco repair company appropriately addressing. Big decisions potentially face both sides simultaneously. For the seller, how do I bracket how much this potential repair will cost me and for the buyer, how do I make sense of what I have just learned and determine whether this is a walk-away moment or something I can work and negotiate through. We recently met with one successful seller who preemptively addressed all issues ahead of listing his home. Not surprisingly, it sold immediately, because the buyer had total confidence that the home they were buying had been very well looked after.
Expertise Matters – Even (Especially) in Have to’s: The only thing worse than learning about an unexpected “have to” is finding out later that the “fix” you chose to go with, while the least expensive, also happened to be the least effective and in fact ended up being much more expensive in the long run. Doing things right the first time is more than just a cliché – it is another time-tested life hack that actually does make a lot of sense and works. Stucco repair work is a specialty trade, and the fact that there are separate stucco inspectors outside of general home inspectors is a strong indicator that the work itself requires the highest level of competency and expertise. “Very Few of us make our best and most rational decisions when under the immense pressure of high economic stakes compounded by time constraints.”
There is absolutely nothing wrong with dreaming about growing the exotic wild herb garden in the backyard or assembling the game room of all game rooms. Those can become the things that make a house your home. However, it is ignoring the necessary have to’s in that same home that can derail those dreams, missing their opportunity to be proactive, and instead be forced into a series of reactionary and panicked and never-ending band-aid fixes. The world will never gift us with only want to’s but our approach to the have to’s will enhance and grow the opportunities to not only protect your real estate investment but enjoy it to the fullest.