Ever Wonder Should We Sleep On It?

Should we sleep on it is a common question in real estate.

Lots of people struggle to make big decisions like buying a home and might wonder “should we sleep on it” before committing to the purchase. The reasons run the gamut but often can stem from fear. They don’t want to make the wrong decision. They hope that sleeping on it will turn their brain into a Magic 8 Ball and give them the answer: To buy a home or not to buy a home.

The problems with this kind of strategy are myriad. For starters, whether to buy a home is a decision a buyer should have made before ever going out to look at homes. If you’re looking at homes with a Sacramento Realtor and you don’t know if you want to buy a home, please just stop. Go to open houses on Sundays or look at homes for sale online that are not really for sale on some of those popular websites that buyers who don’t know any better go to.

Should we sleep on it, it turns out, is a good strategy for figuring out answers to a complex situation. Buying a home, however, is a fairly simple situation. You either want to buy a home or you do not want to buy a home. If you do want to buy a home and you find a home that you love, then you should buy it. If you do want to buy a home and you cannot find a home that you love, then do not buy a home until you do.

Don’t fall into the trap of feeling obligated. Every so often I’ll go shopping at Nordstrom, for example, and I can’t find a single outfit I like. Nothing speaks to me. Nothing fits right. And I might feel like I should make some sort of token purchase because I’ve invested all of this time trying on clothing and not finding anything, and that’s a stupid reaction. Don’t buy a home just because you’ve spent a long time trying to find a home to no avail. Instead, regroup and re-strategize with your buyer’s agent. Maybe you need to look in a different neighborhood or a different price range?

If you feel like you are “settling” for a home because you wonder should we sleep on it, then you probably are settling for less and should not buy that home. Sleeping on it has a way of opening that window of opportunity for the non-indecisive home buyer. You know, that other couple you spotted getting out of their agent’s car at the home showing.

Despite what your parental authorities told you when handing out all of those awards in grade school, you’re not that special or different from anybody else. Neither am I. Other buyers have the same hopes, dreams and fears that you do, and the same parameters. If you are attracted to a home, other buyers are, too. If you don’t buy it, they will, and when you wake up in the morning feeling refreshed, energized and fully committed, that home will be pending.