I hope you had a great holiday season, full of friends and joy. And gifts...can't forget the gifts. Now that the new year is here, it's time to roll up our sleeves and get busy with non-holiday life again. If you're planning on making a real estate move this year, contact me to arrange an initial consultation to get started. ~Mardin, (408) 210-2073
You've heard the quote: "You never know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone." We wish we had eaten better when we still had our health. We wish we had appreciated our freedom more when we were young. We wish we had taken better care of our car while it was still running.
Psychologists explain this using something called Weber-Fechner laws, which describe how the brain perceives change. When there is no change in something (such as a relationship, a car we drive, our health, etc.), the brain doesn't pay attention it. We take it for granted.
But when there is a stimulus, the brain perceives the change in direct proportion to the intensity of the situation. In other words, when the loss leaves a hole in our lives, we regret not appreciating it more. We question if there's something we should have done to prevent the loss or to enjoy it more when we had it.
To turn this Weber-Fechner law on its head, there's a trick you can do, and it makes a great process for New Year's resolutions. It's fairly simple. Use your imagination to go deeply into the feeling of how things would be if you were to lose what you have. Imagine if you lost your spouse. Imagine your life if you lost your health. Imagine your lifestyle if you lost your income, car, or house. The deeper you go into the feeling, the more you’ll come to appreciate what you have now. It’s not a comfortable process, but it is powerful.
Mardin's Advice
“We’re ready to buy a new home. Should we sell or keep our current home?”
If you have enough money to purchase your next home without selling your current home, then you have the option of keeping the current home and using it as an income property. There are other reasons for keeping it, too. You may want to give the home to a family member some day, or you may want to wait for property values to rise.
Especially if your home has a mortgage payment that can be covered entirely by area rents, you may want to hang onto the home. This can be the case with lower-priced starter homes or homes that have been in the family long enough that the mortgage is paid down, and a refinance can lower the payment further if needed.
Of course, if you need cash to buy your next home, pay debts, and invest, or if you’re not interested in holding onto a rental property, or area rents won’t cover your mortgage, then you will want to sell for the most cash you can get. The first step to selling your home is getting a valid appraisal of value so you can make pricing decisions. Contact me for an initial consultation to get started.
January Quiz Question
I can be beautiful and terrible, soft and sharp, heavy and light all at the same time. What am I?
Win a $5 coffee card. Send your answer for a chance to win.
Last month's Q&A: How many boxes do you need to open to figure out which of three boxes holds which ornaments? You only need to open one box. If you open the box labeled BIG and it contains the small ornaments, then the two remaining boxes, which are mislabeled MIXED and SMALL must be switched.
Nuggets of News
Open houses used to last 12 hours
Early US real estate agents were called “curbstoners.” When a house was for sale, they would rush over, put up a big sign, and sit on the curb in front of the house from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., ushering prospective buyers in for an “inspection.” The competition was fierce, and it sometimes got ugly. As the profession became more regulated agents shifted to 2 to 4-hour open houses. Whew!
Why red became a traditional color for barns
Farmhouses and barns in the US and Canada were traditionally painted red for a reason. Thrifty farmers sealed their barns with linseed oil, which is an orange-colored oil derived from flax seeds. To this oil, they would add milk and lime, and also ferrous oxide, or rust. Rust was plentiful on farms, and because it killed fungi and mosses that might grow on barns, it was very effective as a sealant. It also turned the mixture red. After paint became a canned product, many barns continued to be painted red out of tradition.
A city built on the back of ships
Fun fact: In 1994, construction workers in San Francisco's financial district began digging to build a new light-rail tunnel when they hit a massive wooden ship named the "Rome." Apparently when San Francisco was settled, so many ships arrived that many sunk and the city was built right on top of them. The "Rome" was so large that the crew had to bore through the ship's hull to construct the tunnel.
Hidden rooms ideas
From a room behind a medicine cabinet to hidden attics and basements, there are so many secret rooms and devices out there, you might want to get in on it. See these unique hidden rooms.
What causes winter and summer?
It's probably not what you think. The distance from the sun has almost nothing to do with summer heat or winter cold. The reason for seasons has to do with the tilt of Earth's axis, which determines how long a part of the earth faces the sun. In addition, the quantity of land vs. water mass acts to heat and cool the surface of the planet.
4 reasons that it's OK to buy a manufactured home
They're usually cheaper to buy than standard-built homes. Data from the Manufactured Housing Institute shows the price of a site-built home is about US $352K/CA $478K, while the average price for a manufactured home is US $107K/CA $145K. If you're not building, then buying an existing manufactured home in a park or on owned land is even cheaper.
Newer manufactured homes are often built to high safety and energy-efficiency standards and are better for the environment. They also are constructed to have better soundproofing between rooms than basic standard-built homes. In other words, today’s manufactured homes are well-built.
If you're buying land and installing a home, then a manufactured home can be placed and finished in months or even weeks, compared to 6 months or more for a standard-built home.
They can be remodeled, just like traditional-built homes, depending on the building codes of the area.
Just for Fun
Num, Num, That’s Good
Two sea monsters were prowling the ocean looking for food. They spotted a ship and attacked. The sailors escaped, but the sea creatures gobbled up the cargo of potatoes that stuffed the ship’s hold.
Soon after, they spied another ship and attacked again. Once more the sailors escaped, and the sea monsters again feasted on a load of potatoes.
Hours later, a third ship approached. The sea monsters once again attacked and gorged on a cargo of potatoes. By now their stomachs were full, and they were feeling bloated. The first sea monster said, “Why do we keep doing this?”
The second replied, “Well, everyone knows you can’t eat just one potato ship.”
