It sure did with me!

My current home is the first one I've ever purchased. I bought it five years ago during a nasty break up and it was only the second house I looked at with my realtor. At the time, it felt 'perfect' and it's been a great home for me and for my daughter. I haven't had one regret about living here. It's an older home in a nice neighborhood. Everything was/is in great shape, well looked after etc. I didn't think about whether or not it would be easy to sell some day.

Thing is, it's SMALL. 625 sq.ft., to be exact. The basement is fully finished but there's no access between floors - completely different entrances for each. Again, that didn't bother me. It was meant as an apartment but I used it for a crafting area, some of it for storage and the rest sat empty. I liked the feeling of it being a different space altogether. My 'home' on the main floor is neat as a pin. My craft area is fairly organized but not as tidy as I'd like it but I could just shut the door and 'go home' when I was done.

Selling, however, was hard. People loved how the house looked, said really nice things about how I maintained it and the yard (it's big), how clean it is etc. The problem was sometimes the size but, more often, the access piece. I think I did all the right things. I put a lot of stuff in storage, kept the house even cleaner than normal, spent hours online trying to come up with a price that was a little lower than what I thought the house was worth and tried my best to explain the configuration of the house in the listing. I took about 10 pictures of each thing I wanted in the listing and chose the ones that I thought looked best etc.

Anyway, it did sell but as an income property rather than a 'home'. It makes me feel a little sad because I worry the next people who live here might not look after it the same way an owner would (I'm a little attached.. I know that's silly). I even met the new renters for my 'home' area. They went on and on about how much they love it and that felt good. I hope they treat the place well.

Our next house though, is the 'least nice' house on a very nice street. That's not to say the house isn't nice - it really is, but there are lots of things that need to be updated, redecorated etc. A good base though. The lot, itself, is amazing and as close to being in the country as someone could be but still be on municipal water/sewers and have access to natural gas for heating. Trees everywhere!! The other houses on the street are large, custom built, perfectly landscaped and owned by people who are very white collar. (unlike me...lol) I bought with selling again in mind this time.

It's NOT a house I'd have chosen as a permanent place to live. It's bigger than what I'd really want. I like small, older homes but I'm going to try my best to make it feel like 'home' for the 10 years I plan to live there. I'm a little nervous that it may not. The city I'll be living in is just starting a boom and people coming there for work are being guaranteed work for the next 25 years and housing prices are already starting to rise, so I think it's a good investment.

My mindset about what to buy has totally changed due to trying to sell my current home. What doesn't bother me, might put off future buyers and I need to keep that in mind when updating the next place. Once I get to the point of buying my 'forever' home, I'll buy what I love I guess.