https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fs14oxUTZQ

Introduction: Hey there! I'm Jennifer Beeston, a licensed mortgage lender with experience in 48 states. Today, I want to help you discover what "home" truly means to you and why it's crucial to define your priorities before you embark on your house-hunting journey.

Section 1: Defining What Home Means: It's More Than Bedrooms and Granite Countertops

• In this section, I'll emphasize the importance of understanding that a home is more than just the number of bedrooms or the quality of countertops.
• We'll discuss the significance of identifying what truly makes a house feel like home.

Section 2: Life Stages and Their Impact: How Your Life Stage Shapes Your Home

• We'll explore the different life stages people go through, from young professionals to retirees, and how each stage influences their housing preferences.
• I'll provide insights into the questions you should ask yourself based on your current life stage.

Section 3: Considerations for Young Professionals: Finding Your First Home

• If you're in your 20s and just starting out, I'll guide you on what to prioritize, whether it's proximity to work, restaurants, or potential investments.

Section 4: Navigating Parenthood: Creating a Family-Friendly Home

• For those with children, we'll delve into crucial considerations such as school districts, parks, and the overall suitability of the neighborhood for kids.

Section 5: Embracing the Empty Nest: Your New Chapter

• As your children grow up and leave the nest, your priorities change. We'll discuss how to choose a home that aligns with your new lifestyle, whether it's proximity to amenities or embracing a quieter setting.

Section 6: Preparing for Retirement: Your Golden Years

• For retirees, we'll explore options like retirement communities and the importance of planning for your ideal post-retirement lifestyle.

Section 7: Identifying Your Key Priorities: Beyond Bedrooms and Bathrooms

• We'll delve into the details of what truly matters to you in a home, such as natural light, kitchen preferences, outdoor space, and more.
• Personality type plays a role too—whether you love socializing or prefer solitude, we'll help you align your home choice with your personality.

Section 8: Budgeting Wisely: The Math Has to Make Sense

• I'll stress the significance of budgeting correctly. Your dream home should be affordable, allowing you to enjoy life beyond your mortgage payments.
• I'll provide advice on avoiding the common mistake of stretching your budget beyond comfort.

Conclusion: In conclusion, finding your perfect home is a journey that starts with understanding what "home" means to you. By considering your life stage, priorities, and budget wisely, you can make a confident and informed decision. Remember, your home should be a place where you feel truly comfortable and happy. So, let's begin this exciting journey together! If you'd like a copy of the worksheet to assist you in this process, simply text me with "Home worksheet, please," and I'll be happy to provide it. My contact information is readily available for your convenience. Happy house hunting!

Today, we're going to be talking about what home means to you and why it's really important to identify the key concepts before you start house shopping. So, for anyone new to the channel, I'm a mortgage lender licensed in 48 states. All I do all day is talk to my clients about what they can afford, what they're comfortable with, but also what do they want out of a home.

You know, a lot of times people go, 'Oh, I want this many bedrooms and this many bathrooms, and I want granite.' There's so much more to it than that. So, this video is designed to help you guys identify some key questions to ask yourself. I'm going to have Alexis on my team, and we're going to put together a worksheet with some other questions that you guys can ask yourself. If you want a copy of that, just text me and say, 'Home worksheet, please.' My cell phone number is everywhere, guys; it will be in the comments as well.

Okay, so I'm also going to be talking about my personal journey because the most important thing I want you guys to get from this video is what home means. It's different for everybody, yeah, there's no one definition of home. And that's what I think gets lost a lot. You know, we've all been programmed—excuse me—by Instagram, you know, and all social media to be like, 'Oh, I want this big beautiful house, I want this, I want that.' It's all very material, but there's a lot more to home than the material items or coverings in it.

Okay, so the first thing to ask yourself is what stage of life are you in? Okay, and really examine that and think about it. So, for instance, the house you buy in your 20s, if you're not married and you don't have kids, it's very different than the house that you buy once you have children, to a large extent. Because before you have children, you're not going to be thinking about school districts, unless you're an investor. You're not going to be thinking about how close the local park is. You're not going to be asking yourself, 'Does this neighborhood have enough kids?' Whereas once you have children, that's definitely a lot of the key questions you should be asking if it's a priority to you, right? You know, first house, no kids, like, what's the priority? Are we looking to be near restaurants? Are we looking to be close to work? Are we looking for a house that potentially will be an investment? What are we looking for? Because that house is all you. You're not having to consider anyone else. I'm just thinking about—I've never done that. I've always had someone else involved. So, relish the moment, guys; you've got no one's opinion. This is your moment. So really drill into what makes you happy.

Okay, so the first thing is always like work. Work's important. If you have a job, obviously, you want to make sure you're within commuting distance. So how far are you willing to drive? And this goes regardless of life stage. How far are you willing to drive? Write that down right now. If you work remote, the question you guys need to ask yourself is, do you actually want to buy in the state that you're calling me about? Seriously, you guys would be so surprised how many times I get applications, and when I start actually talking to the person, and either they work remote or they're on VA disability, but basically, they have the ability to live anywhere in the country, right? We end up switching states. Mhm. So ask yourself, America is a big country, guys, and I know the concept of moving to a different state can be scary. I did it recently; I was really nervous about it. It's not that big of a deal; it's really not. It's really not. So ask yourself that question.

Now, if you're in the stage of life where you have children, you're going to be asking different questions. You're going to be asking, 'What's the school district like?' Are there parks nearby? What's going to entertain these children so that they do not drive you mad? Traffic, you know. And look, every parent's different, so I want to be really clear that I'm not judging how people parent, you know. Some people homeschool, so the school district doesn't matter, but they need to make sure they have a big enough space for their kids to homeschool, you know. As a parent, I am—I mean, if you watch my videos, this is not shocking—I'm a bubble wrap mom, total, you know. I wanted as safe as I could get, always, always safety number one, number one, you know. California has a website called Megan's Law. And the reason we actually sold our first house and bought a new one is because we looked up our address on that when I was pregnant, and it was terrifying. It was really scary what was surrounding us. So I was like, 'We're moving,' and we moved. Okay, so you need to think about what your priorities are as a family, okay? Very important. You know, if you have a kid that plays soccer, being close to that soccer field that they're at, like, 20 hours a week is going to be helpful. You know, how close to the schools are you? How good are the schools? Are there other children in the neighborhood? And then, of course, yourself, still. How far is it from work? Do you work remote? All of those things are things you should be considering. But it's very important that you're sitting down and writing this stuff down.

Then you have another life stage, right? The kids are gone. Okay, I'm in that life stage right now where my son's grown up, my husband's daughters are grown up, so we're like, 'Oh my gosh, we can do anything. We can do anything we want. What do we want?' Right? So we're now in the life stage where, you know, we're established in our careers, so we're like, 'Okay, we want to be near restaurants because we like to eat. Who doesn't? We want to be near restaurants, we want to be near museums. Like, look, we're those old people in the museum every weekend being like, 'Hm, I don't know why they did that.' Right? You know, we want access so that we can go walking places. We want to be able to walk to coffee in the morning. You know, think about life stage, what you want to do. Some people, you know, they want to go live out on a farm, they want to be away from people. So you really want to consider that.

And then you move on to retiring, which is a totally different ball game again. You know, we've helped so many people from America—(from America, that sounds so weird)—we've helped so many people from other states move to, like, The Villages in Florida and retirement communities. Like, I get it, those communities are really cool. They have all these activities, they're insulated, they have high security, great resources if the power goes out. Like, that place pretty much has their own—I think, like, they basically, like, control PG&E, like, it's no joke, right? So people are constantly moving through life stages. So identify the life stage that you're in now and ask yourself the key questions that relate to that. You know, because sometimes with retired people as well, we'll all be talking to them and they'll be like, 'Yeah, I just want to downsize,' and I'm like, 'Okay.' You know, do you have family in the area? No? Okay, so like, what's your, if you close your eyes, you're retired now, where do you want to be? A lot of times it's not where they are right now. So you want to ask yourself those hard questions of where do I want to be because it's not something that we're brought up to do, I don't think. We are. How many, you know, feel free to disagree with me in the comments, but I feel like, you know, we're all kind of programmed, like, you're born here, you live here, or you move for work. Not a lot of you move because you want it, you want a different lifestyle, right? I think that's a newer concept. So you definitely want to identify life stage. That's number one.

Number two, what are your key priorities? So like, in my instance, one of the biggest priorities for me is natural light, okay? That's so critical for me, like, I want a house with a ton of natural light. And that's a thing, that's a thing. So what are your key things? Like, does the house need a bathtub? Everybody has a key. If you cook a lot, that kitchen's important, you know. If you have a larger family, you're going to want more space, generally. You know, backyard, do you want a backyard? Do you want maintenance? Do you not want maintenance? Do you want a garden? Do you want to grow your own vegetables? Do you want nothing to do with any of that? What do you want? Okay, really write it down. And look, the worksheet will have all these questions. It'll be like yes, no, yes, no. Because then you need to think about what is my personality type? Because personality type is really important. There's some people that love to be around people. They just love it. They want to be with other people all day long. And then there's other people that are like, 'I don't want to be near anyone. I want to go live in the woods. I want two acres. If I see my neighbor, I'm going to be really upset.' Whereas someone else is going to be like, 'If I can't see the neighbor, I'm going to be a little nervous.' You know, they like that camaraderie, right? Whereas other people don't. So what are your personality type? Very important that you ask yourself that.

And look, here's the thing, of course, budget is so important. And budget is the key to all of this, no matter how you're doing this exercise, the math has to make sense. There's no budging on that. And sometimes people will be like, 'Oh, I found it all, but my debt-to-income is going to be 60% or 70%, and I have no hope of ever getting it down.' That's not finding it all, because if you're finding it all, you're finding what you want and you're able to afford it and still have a life. Okay? I cannot stress that enough. Do not stretch to buy a house. It never works out well, and the house will never live up to your expectations. It would be like if you had a super loving family, like the best loving family, and then let's say you meet this person and they're lovely, you think, but your family thinks they're trash. That person, if you have to give up your family, they'll never live up to the expectation. If you have that amazing family, it's virtually impossible. Am I saying this for the future for my son? Yeah, totally, tricky, right? Yes, do not give up your family for love ever, especially if you have a mother who's a mortgage lender that loves you very, very much. Don't do it, don't do it. But it's the same thing with a house. If you have to give up all of your creature comforts, right? Like Netflix, Hulu, eating out to eat for a house. At first, you're going to love that house, but then you're going to hate it because you're going to be house poor. So the key is sit down, guys, really think about what home means to you, and what your key priorities are, what life stage you're in, and what your long-term goals are. And from there, write it all down, start shopping, and try to stay true to your.