Things We Underestimate We Need in a Home Until We Do

When we’re buying a home, we tend to focus on the things we can see right away.

The kitchen.
The bathrooms.
The backyard.
The neighbourhood.
The size of the living room.

But some of the things we need most in a home aren’t always obvious when we’re standing there for the first time.

They’re the things we only realize we need after our lives change.

Here are a few things I think we often underestimate.

1. Space for growing teenagers

When kids are little, having one shared family living space can feel ideal.

You want to see them. You want to be together. You want to know what they’re up to.

But then they grow.

And suddenly, that sweet little family room that once felt perfectly adequate becomes a place where everyone is competing for space, privacy and, occasionally, the Wi-Fi.

Teenagers need somewhere to go.

They need a place where they can do homework, hang out with friends, play video games, watch TV, listen to music or simply close a door and have some privacy.

It’s not something most of us think about when we’re buying a home with young children. We’re thinking about bedrooms, schools and whether there’s enough room for all the toys.

But kids get bigger.

Their stuff gets bigger.

Their friends get bigger.

And their need for independence gets bigger too.

So when you’re looking at a home, don’t just think about how your family lives today.

Think about how you’ll want your family to live five or ten years from now.

2. The rising costs of life

This is another one we can underestimate.

Life gets expensive.

Groceries, insurance, property taxes, utilities, maintenance, travel, helping kids, retirement... the list goes on.

So when you’re buying a home, I think it’s worth looking beyond the purchase price and asking:

Can this home help us manage the costs of our life?

A basement suite can be incredibly valuable for that reason.

It could provide rental income today. Or it could be something you create down the road when you need additional income.

And there’s another layer to this that I really like.

That same space can change with your family.

When the kids are teenagers, it might give them a little more independence.

Later, it could provide a place for an aging parent as they downsize.

Or perhaps an adult child who needs somewhere to land for a while.

Or maybe it simply becomes a flexible space that gives you options as your life changes.

And those options are valuable.

Especially because creating them later can be expensive.

Depending on the home and the scope of the work, building a basement suite today can easily become a significant renovation investment. So if you’re buying a home that already has a suite, or one that has the layout and infrastructure to create one relatively easily, that flexibility can be worth a lot.

We often look at a home and ask:

“Do we need this space right now?”

I think a better question is:

“Could we need this space later?”

Because the best homes aren’t necessarily the ones that are perfect for the life you have today.

They’re the ones that give you some flexibility for the life you haven't planned yet.

3. A beautiful outdoor space

This is a funny one because I think most of us fall in love with the giant yard when our kids are young.

And I completely understand why.

You picture the kids running around. There’s a trampoline. Maybe a play structure. A soccer net. Friends coming over. Summer barbecues.

When your kids are little, you really can need all that space.

But then life changes.

The kids get older.

They have sports, friends, school, jobs and activities. You have a career. Everyone is busy.

And before you know it, you're driving around like ships in the night, dropping one kid off at basketball while the other is headed somewhere completely different.

And that giant yard that once felt so important?

You might not actually be using it that much.

But you're still maintaining it.

You're still mowing it, watering it, pruning it, cleaning it and paying to maintain it.

And the older we get, the more we may start to realize that the cost of a large yard isn't just financial.

It's time and energy.

So while a huge backyard can be incredibly valuable during one stage of life, it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be valuable to you forever.

Sometimes a smaller, beautiful outdoor space that you actually use can be worth far more than a giant yard that has become another item on your maintenance list.

And this becomes even more important as we get older.

One of the things I hear so often from people who are thinking about downsizing is:

“I'm tired of maintaining everything.”

The house.

The garden.

The gutters.

The lawn.

The endless list.

So when you're buying a home, I think it's worth asking yourself not just:

“Do we love this yard?”

but:

“How are we actually going to use this yard?”

And perhaps even more importantly:

“How will we feel about maintaining it ten or twenty years from now?”

There isn't a right or wrong answer.

For some families, a huge yard will be exactly what they need for many years.

For others, a smaller yard, a beautiful patio or a low-maintenance outdoor space may ultimately give them more of what they really want: time to enjoy their home instead of constantly maintaining it.

It's about finding the balance between the life you're living now and the life you're moving toward.

Because our homes don't stay the same as our lives change.

And sometimes, the things we think we absolutely need today become the very things we're grateful to let go of later. 

Shelley Hird
Downsizing Specialist and North Shore Realtor®
www.shelleyhird.com