Deal Breakers When Buying a Home

When you start looking for a home, most people naturally begin making a list in their head.

You think about what you need; maybe a certain number of bedrooms, a good layout, or a specific location. Then there are the things that would be nice to have, like a bigger yard, a newer kitchen, or a great view.

But there’s another category that doesn’t always get talked about as much, and it’s just as important: deal breakers.

Deal breakers are the things that, no matter how good everything else is about a home, you just know it’s not going to work for you.

Sometimes they’re obvious, and sometimes you don’t realize them until you’re actually walking through homes.

I’ve seen buyers walk into a house that checks almost every box, but then there’s something like a really steep or curvy driveway. And right away, they can’t get past it. They start thinking about driving it every day, in the rain, maybe in the dark, or dealing with it longterm and it just doesn’t feel right.

For me personally, one that always stands out is when I see a house where the garbage cans have to be taken a long distance to the street. It sounds small, but when you picture doing that week after week, it can quickly turn into a deal breaker.

Other times, it’s more straightforward. If someone truly needs three bedrooms and the home only has two, it doesn’t matter how nice the rest of the house is—it’s just not going to fit their lifestyle.

The interesting thing about deal breakers, though, is that they’re not always permanent.

I learned that firsthand.

When my wife and I were looking to buy our first home back around 2009 in California, we had what felt like a very clear deal breaker. We wanted to live in a specific city. That was the plan, no question.

The problem was, the prices in that area were just out of reach for us at the time.

So we found ourselves at a crossroads. Do we wait and hope something changes, or do we adjust our expectations and find another way to get into the market?

At that point, we realized that while the location was important, our bigger goal was becoming homeowners. The market presented a good opportunity, and we had the ability to make it happen, but we just had to be flexible.

So we made a shift. We let go of that “deal breaker” and expanded our search.

We ended up buying our first home in a neighboring city, and looking back, it was absolutely the right decision. A few years later, we were able to sell that home for a much higher price, and that gave us the opportunity to move into the city we originally wanted.

If we had held firm on that original deal breaker, we probably would have missed that opportunity entirely.

That experience really stuck with me.

Deal breakers are important. They help guide your search and keep you from settling for something that truly won’t work. But every once in a while, it’s worth taking a step back and asking yourself if something is truly a deal breaker or if it’s something that could be adjusted depending on your bigger goals.

Sometimes the first home isn’t the final destination. It’s a step that helps you get there.

And knowing the difference between what you can live without and what you can’t can make all the difference in getting there.