How to Find the Right House in Carmel, IN. by Asking Three Questions

If you’re thinking about your next house around Carmel, you need to get past bedrooms and price to your why. If not, you get overwhelmed by options and buy the wrong house. But if you do, you make a decision you don’t relitigate at 2 a.m.

Don’t stop at the first mental answer, but I believe to go a couple levels deeper:

1. WHAT do you want?
2. WHY do you want it?
3. HOW does it affect you?

Here are three examples.

1. More bathrooms will not stop the fight. “Our home is small. We need a bigger place.” If you stop at this point, you get overwhelmed with so many options for a bigger house.

“Our place was great when it was just my wife and me. Now our three girls are 6, 11, and 14 years old, and the house is 80 years old in Broad Ripple. One bathroom.” Cool, now you know you want more bathrooms.

“We are miserable. The girls fight every morning.” Now you’re buying peace in your own home. Level 3 opens doors that level 1 never dreams of. Maybe you look at houses with a bathroom for each girl. Or maybe you add a bathroom to the house you already own.

Imagine you buy a new house with four bathrooms, but three of them are right next to each other, so the kids still fight every dang morning. Compare that to three bathrooms in three separate parts of the house.

NOW, you’ve got separation.

2. Your boat dock was never the point. “We want a dock for our boat.” If you stop here, you tour any house with a dock.

“I want to be on the boat at 7 am before work, not hitching up a trailer at the marina during the summer.” Better. And if you stop here, you tour houses with a dock you can use every morning, without ending up in a cove that is 20 minutes away from the friends house who you’d pick up on the water.

“It’s the only hour of the day when nobody needs anything from me.” Now you’re opening doors. Perhaps you get a house fifteen minutes closer to work, so that hour actually happens. Or maybe a house with a path down to the water, to give some separation, because the boat was never the point.

3. Are you living in a house or keeping a museum? “We want a smaller house.” Stop here, and you tour homes with fewer square feet.

“We have 5,000 square feet, but we only use three rooms. The grandkids visit twice a year, and it’s a waste.” Stop here, and you tour a house sized for the two of you + a guest room.

“We feel like we are maintaining a museum for people who don’t live here anymore.” Now you are getting somewhere. Maybe it’s a smaller waterfront house with a bunk room that fills up twice a year. Maybe it’s a condo with a boat slip, and you lock the door and travel.

You don’t need a house picked out or a plan. If you’re wondering what may or may not be possible for you, email me at nlamkin@c21scheetz.com and let’s talk it through.

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