4 Surprising Ways Buying a House is Like Starting a Business
Picture this. It’s 2016 (before the election) and you’re buying a house and planning a wedding simultaneously. You’re equal parts stressed out and excited. At the same time you’re also casually job hunting on the side because you low key hate your job.
Photo by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash
Yes you guessed right this was me in 2016. I was doing all the things and honestly couldn’t imagine doing this much at once ever again.
No burn out please and thank you! If you want to know a few surprising ways buying a house is like starting a business keep reading.
Doing Your Research
If there’s one thing you need to know about me is that I go all in on any research rabbit hole that interests me even slightly. So you know I was having lots of fun in the research phase of wedding planning, the dress, venue, while also searching for houses.
Thankfully I can do this in a professional capacity now so I’m not eating up chunks of the day with no pay off. When it was time to start looking at houses I headed to realtor.com and started the search.
For business there are so many types of research you can and should do at least once. Like everything your needs and audience will evolve over time and you need to stay up to date on market trends in your industry. The most important thing to spend a few hours on is market research for your audience or potential clients.
Do you know what they really want and the words that resonate with them? These two things are key to you creating a message that draws in your perfect fit clients. Just guessing won’t do it. Learn the 2 ways to do market research the easy way in my previous blog post all about it.
Get Out There
As tempting as it is to stay online looking through hundreds of beautifully staged pictures, raises virtual hand, you have to see some of these houses in person. Just like when people take selfies at all the right angles so they look their best, realtors do the same thing with houses. Emphasize the good and downplay the bad. One house we looked at online looked pretty good but when we visited it in person on a Saturday afternoon it was all wrong for us.
Depending on how comfortable with networking you are going to events and meetups might be exactly what you want to do. For me and my fellow introverts going to a giant networking event where everyone is just trying to shake your hand and sell you something sounds like a nightmare! Good news. There are many other ways to network beyond the conventional networking events. One way I’m currently doing is setting up virtual coffee chats with people so I can connect with people one on one without the weird vibes and high stakes of a giant, in person event.
If you love going to events go for it. It’s all about finding what you’re comfortable with and will actually do consistently. Why is networking so important? Finding partnerships, referrals and clients for your business is all about spreading the word of you and your awesome services. I’ve neglected to do it for years because I didn’t know a way to do it that didn’t feel gross. With remote work, I’m able to schedule a few video chats a week to connect with people easily. No driving or fees. Sounds like a win for me!
Roller Coaster of Emotions
Here’s a scenario that anyone familiar with the real estate market in the past couple years will recognize. You fall in love with a house in your budget. It’s perfect. You make an offer. It’s rejected. You go cry in the shower or however you cope with disappointment. You wake up the next day and do it all over again. Rinse and repeat. I escaped the frenzy of the pandemic real estate market by several years. Not to brag, but we actually paid around 20k less than the listing price. Sorry that was a little bit of a brag. :) Even when we were on our way to closing I was convinced that the whole thing was going to fall through. Thankfully it never did.
If you’ve been in business for a few years or decades you know about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Some days everything is coming together. You just got paid, made a sale, had a great consult call, gave a great client transformation and feel on top of the world. Other days you get ghosted, no one is buying and your computer keeps crashing. So goes the glamorous life of working for yourself. Most days it’s a mix of good and bad like anything else. The excitement of being a first time entrepreneur is something that’s equally as exciting as finding your perfect home.
You’re Never Really Done
If you’re a first time home buyer this is definitely a hard lesson to learn. After you close on your house and it’s yours that means all the problems are on you too. Plumbing issue? That’s for you. Water heater stopped working? Time to go to Home Depot. Want to totally redesign your living room? Time to roll up your sleeves or pay some contractors. So on forever until you sell or die. Sounds like fun, right? We bought an older but not ancient house because it needed some love, was in our budget and seemed doable. Slowly but surely we are going through the process of replacing and renovating. We still have a few light switches that go to nowhere but everything works, knock on wood.
Depending on your business everything could change overnight or more slowly but just as drastically. Squarespace is constantly rolling out new features like Fluid Engine, which I love, so anyone using their platform has to keep up with the changes and learn how they effect creating and designing websites. For me the challenge of keeping up with new technology and updates is exciting. It never stays the same for long. For other people this is a headache they would do anything to avoid. If want web design off your plate check out my packages.
