
And why you should always treat your home like the investment that it is.
By no means am I trying to burst your bubble. I hear the phrase “forever home” quite a bit, and admittedly I've used it myself. But I'm here to tell you something: it may NOT be your forever home, even if you think it is. And I'm going to tell you why.
First, My Story
I've moved many times in my adult life: my first apartment (a rental), a starter townhouse, our second house, the yellow house, the interim townhouse, the beach house, and a rental apartment in NYC and one in LA thrown in there as well. Admittedly, that's more than most people, I realize. And I'm not saying that you should or will move as much as I have. I'm only asking that you keep an open mind while I tell my story and take from it what you will.
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The Yellow House
In 2016, I bought my “yellow house,” and thought that was the one. It was our third family home, our forever home. The place where our daughter would grow up, space for all our family to come stay, a home we could renovate and make our own over time. But then in 2020, life changed (like it did for everyone that year).
We realized we didn't really need (or want) a larger home, and the post-Covid real estate market was so hot with almost no inventory and the lowest interest rates in history that I literally had clients asking if I would sell them my home. And since our property value had increased almost 30% in the five years we lived there, it seemed silly not to cash in and move on. So that's what we did.
The House Swap
The "yellow house" and the interim townhouse
Funny story: I sold my yellow house to a real estate client, and because we weren't sure of where our next move would take us and because the inventory was almost non-existent, we ended up buying my client's townhouse. So we quite literally swapped houses!
Right after the house swap, we made another big decision and purchased a lot and began building a new home at the beach. Initially, it was just going to be our "beach house," but once it was finished, we loved it so much that we decided to make it our full-time home. So we sold the townhouse and headed to the beach full time!
The Beach House
So in 2021, the “beach house” was - we thought - our forever home, definitely. A place we designed and built from the ground up, choosing every color, every finish, every detail from top to bottom, making it a truly special place. I was obsessed with designing every single room in this house and never thought I would want to leave. But I should have known better.
In 2024, things changed again. Our family started to embark on a non-traditional path of schooling and work and we started traveling more. We had some big ideas about the kind of adventures we wanted, and despite how much everyone thought we were totally crazy, we decided to go for it.
Again, the market was super strong and our property value had almost doubled from our initial investment, so I sold the beach house, fully furnished, and moved from the east coast to the west coast (Los Angeles) and into a two-bedroom condo, about the size of my first ever apartment, with my teenage daughter, husband, and two dogs. And that's where we are today (for now, at least).

The view from the back deck of the "beach house"
The Moral of the Story
And remember my main point: it may not be your forever home.
Back to the yellow house for a moment.
When you think of a house as your forever home, you can become complacent. I did. When we lived in the yellow house, I felt so overwhelmed by the scope of the projects I wanted to do and the general maintenance the house required. We had about an acre of land with lots of large trees, huge landscaping beds with high maintenance plantings, a well and septic system, several exterior stone patios, two HVAC systems, oil heat... and well, you get the picture.
But because I looked at it as our forever home, I had the mindset that we would take care of everything over the many years that we were going to live there. I didn't have a maintenance plan, and I didn't know a fraction of what I know now (I started working in real estate in 2016 just after I moved into that house), so many of those maintenance tasks fell to the wayside.
I did what I now realize to be the bare minimum: having my furnace serviced once a year, calling the plumber when I had a leak, updating my mudroom and powder room when I could afford it, but looking back, it could have been so much easier - the process of maintaining and selling my home. Because even though I had a buyer, I needed to justify my asking price. And I had a TON of work to do.
Getting the Yellow House Ready for Sale
It was mayhem. And I'm not one to present an inferior product - whether I'm selling my own home or a client's - so I worked around the clock for several weeks to get the house looking the way I wanted. Here are just the things I can remember off the top of my head:
I painted the vanity cabinets in my master bath white (two of them)
Had a new French drain installed
Swapped out all the old/ugly light fixtures
Power washed the yellow siding (it was green with moss because of all the trees)
Had the plumbing inspected
Painted my bedroom
Wallpapered my daughter's bathroom
Replaced all the rotten wood on the outside of the house
Replaced the septic system - that was a huge one
Had all the dead tree branches trimmed
Replaced the broken gutter covers
Swapped out the kitchen cabinet hardware
And those are just the things that come to mind right now! I know there was more. Just before I showed the house to my client, I thought it looked pretty darn good and I wished that I would have made the changes while I lived there, rather than just before I moved out.
One More Story
I guess I hadn't really learned my lesson, and I also thought I would never sell my beach house because the same thing happened again. When we made the decision to move across the country, I had to do the same thing. Now, it was a little different than what I had to do to get my yellow house ready for sale since that was an older house and the beach house was very new. BUT because it was still so new, I hadn't yet really finished all the spaces.
But I was swinging big with my asking price to make it all worthwhile, so I got to work again.
This time, I was more focused on things like adding window treatments, finalizing the decor on my built-in bookcases, perfecting my pantry, swapping out a light fixture that was never quite right, getting the furniture placement right in my daughter's loft space...that kind of thing.
And again, just like my yellow house, I said the same thing: It looks so good that I wish I would have done all these things while I was living here!
So What's the Point of All This
Now look, I do realize this amount of moving is not typical and you may or may not even move twice in your adult life.
But if there's just one message I want to convey, it's this... actually, there are two messages:
1.Your home is very likely your single largest investment, and you MUST nurture that investment if you want to cash in big down the road, whether that's two years or twenty years from now.
There's a better way! It took me 20+ years, many of my own home sales, many of my clients', and lots of last-minute stress to learn that there is a MUCH BETTER WAY of doing things. If you have a manageable, concrete plan with actionable steps starting from the beginning (or as close to it as possible), you can make the process of owning - and enjoying - your home much more pleasant.
Which brings my back to the mission of my business: simplifying the process of buying & selling a home, designing the interior spaces, and keeping it well maintained & organized.
2.Never say never; or in this case, never say it's your "forever home."
I've said it before and I'll say it again, and here's why:
You don't know what the future will bring, or where it will bring you
Home values and demand may increase so much to the point where you would be crazy to turn down the price that a buyer is willing to pay (been there, done that)
Once you've lived in your home for one, three, seven, or ten years, you will probably be ready for, or outright need, a different type of house than the one you just moved into
Now What?
I hope you'll spend some time exploring my blog for lots of ideas for your home. Here's how I would start:
Download my FREE home management 12-month checklist and get yourself on a good maintenance schedule
If you like the 12-month checklist, upgrade to the Ultimate 12-Month Home Management Guide, your complete home maintenance manual (digital and hard copy included)
Choose ONE room in your home and start there. Explore my design blogs to get ideas and start small so you don't get overwhelmed. Focus on making that ONE space beautiful, and don't move on until it's completely finished.
Next, explore my organization blogs to keep all your things in order and for tips on getting rid of items that are no longer serving you.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you are completely happy with your home. Now, when it's time to cash in on your investment and sell your home, you won't have to work around the clock and stress to get everything in order :)
Let me know what other questions you have about the process of owning [and loving] your home, and how to make the most of your investment!
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