three quarters of recent home buyers expressed some regret

[Sympthsical]

25. There is always second guessing after making such a huge commitment

We bought in Dec 2019 and moved in literally just as the pandemic was starting. It was the first home either of us had ever bought, and both put a nice chunk of our savings into the down payment. We took our time, but there are always things.

Once you actually settle into a place and spend tons of time in it, you begin noticing things and adjustments you have to make that you didn't think about before. Especially during lockdown. That first year, did we ever live in this house far more than either of us had assumed we would. And given allllll of that time we spent staring at the walls, we probably started second guessing more than we might have had we both been away at work all day.

- What's up with the sprinkler system over there? We should have someone come fix that.
- You know, now that I stare at that wall paint, it seems odd. We should probably redo the entire living room (note: front room has 22 foot ceilings).
- Do we want wood in that bathroom? It gets wet.
- Why did they put carpeting in front of this sink?
- There are way too many small trees back here. We need to cut at least eight of these down.

And so on and so on. The idea behind the house was to be able to host family and friends. So, Covid put that whole thing on hold. What we ended up with is a rather large house that two people didn't really need. We're both in our respective home offices all day. There are rooms no one goes into. We started second guessing. "Should we think about getting something smaller?"

But, we managed. We took on a friend of a friend as a tenant for a downstairs bedroom. We adopted two kittens. We have had people over gradually. Hopefully this spring we'll actually use what is a rather gorgeous backyard and deck for BBQs.

In other words, we're finally settling in and using the place as normal people would. Covid was not a normal house transition period. It just gave us a lot of endless time picking over the flaws for lack of anything better to do. And without using the home as any kind of social space, we wondered why we had so much space.

And given it's California and people are moving away from SF and Silicon Valley into North Bay, our valuation is up 34% in two years. So, you know, not the worst investment. We have 70% of equity in the place. So while we doubted our decision for quite a long time until recently, it's ultimately working out. We finally decided to install solar, which is kind of our, "Yeah, we're staying," declaration.

But yeah. Covid really threw a monkey wrench into the entire process and experience.