The perfect house in the Bay Area, is just slightly imperfect, buy it anyways.

Alright everyone, school is getting out for summer break, the weather will be drying out and heating up, and the conversation is getting real about the perfect house.

The perfect house is a myth. It messes up home buyers everywhere, but especially and specifically in the Bay Area.

The fact of the matter is, the Bay Area housing market is a numbers game. If you've got 12 boxes you wanted checked, and the house you're looking at checks a solid 8, that might be your gem right there.

Let’s talk about why.

First of all, some minor imperfections might mean instant equity opportunities.

If we’re looking at old ugly countertops, yellow shag

carpet, or a backyard full of weeds, that’s a job you can handle. Redoing minor things like that saves you from paying premium prices for someone else’s style preference. You can pick the color, design the garden and landscaping, and make it your own vision.

When you think about it, homes that have really been done up—new, shiny everything, zero work to be done, super-duper pretty—those things get bid up. Lots of people are trying to get there. It looks like what buyers are conditioned to believe is the right thing to buy, so there’s a lot of competition.

When we’re talking about the really good place with the really bad carpet, everyone is walking in there thinking, “OMG, this carpet is gross.” They struggle to get past it. It might sit longer and sell closer to the actual asking price. These are huge assets. It’s so frustrating to get outbid time and time again. There’s a secret blessing in that yellow pee-pee shag—it’s staying in your wheelhouse.

Heck yeah, pee carpet. Thank you for that.

There is also the concept of superior long-term value. It’s nothin’ to shake a stick at. The idea is that a well-built house with good bones in a good area will appreciate better long term than a freshly finished house in an area that’s deteriorating or not developing nicely.

Buying a house at 80 percent of what you wanted is more of a blank canvas. It’s got that super-important long-term value, but you can pick some cool door handles and light switch covers that look just right to you. All of these little design touches are what personalize a home and make it special. They give it that vibe that is truly you.

We’ve hit plenty of times on the Bay Area’s inventory issue. There are legitimately not enough houses to meet the demand for houses. That basic idea really drives home the fact that pretty dang good should, most often, be good enough.

You cannot hold out for a level of flawless that likely won’t come to you. And if that unicorn does appear, you sure won’t be the only one chasing it.

It does us a lot of good to be real about the perfect house myth. It is, in fact, delulu. It does buyers a real disservice to get too hung up on details. Buyers have to zoom out, think long term, and try to see what could be.