“Memory is more than a dustbin of time, stuffed with yesterday’s trash. Rather, memory is a glorious grab bag of the past from which one can at leisure pluck bittersweet experiences of times gone by and relive them.”
Harold Vincent “Hal” Boyle, Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist for the Associated Press.
Though we spend our days bombarded by ads designed to convince us happiness lies in our next purchase, there is mounting scientific evidence that our greatest joy comes from experiences, not things.
Many of us have learned this over the course of our lives (though the impulse to do a little therapeutic shopping can still take over from time to time). Experiences form memories, and memories last much longer, even though they may fade or change as we age.
I would wager to say the one thing we may buy which bridges this gap between the consumerist and the experiential is the home. Unlike those objects which ultimately go the way of the landfill, a home is an exception. Though we couch buying a house as a great investment and a rational pathway towards building wealth, there is much more going on. It becomes obvious when sellers find themselves torn about accepting an offer, or indignant when someone lowballs their price.
The home is ground zero for experience. Selling a home is more than the simple exchange of goods. It is property heavily stained with the passage of time, utterly inseparable from the births, deaths, personal milestones, family hardships, and private intimacies.
Owning a home means owning experiences. Keep this in mind this week as you help buyers and sellers navigate their next step.
