Real Estate has become a conversation on almost every dining table.
More than ever before, we’re aware of the country’s Real Estate situation and some related news that floods Social Media and the news headlines. No matter who you are and where you are, if you happen to live under a roof, this has become relevant to your future.
I’ve personally had some questions in my mind about Real Estate and its future in this country, and for some time it seemed like it was something that only investors and very wealthy people knew about. “Don’t buy now”, “wait until the market crashes”, “put all your money into Real Estate” were just a few examples of the information that I constantly saw around Social Media and heard from small talks. Those were the kind of conversations that gave people nearly an empowering, yet uncertain feeling that their lives and future hung from their Real Estate decisions.
Aside from all these questions, the most important and relevant to our firm had to do with the impact that design had in this game called Real Estate and if it really mattered under the storm and sudden changes in it.
I had to know, and I probably wasn’t going to like the answer, but I sat down with one of our clients who holds thousands of houses across the country and asked him: “What is the true monetary value that you’ve seen in good design?” He smiled at me like I was asking him a question that could trigger the rising of our design fees, but then he gave me a very certain and honest answer, one based on 40 years of experience and countless situations where he had the opportunity to actually look at the numbers: “I’ve observed that any given house, compared to another house with the same characteristics, in the same neighborhood, can sell for 10% more, but not more than that.”
Even if I was happy to hear that (monetary speaking) design mattered, when I started thinking about this I got a bit bummed. I really expected it to be more, but then he added: “Buying a house is an emotional transaction”. He expanded by telling me that without a doubt, the single most valuable aspect about design was giving people what they wanted and the story that they dreamed to live between the walls, and that his success as a Real Estate expert would’ve never been if he didn’t know about this fact.
The kicker (which absolutely blew my mind) was on the opposite side of the coin. He chuckled one more time and said “on the other hand, a house can sit there without selling for years because no one cared to design it, or in the best case, sell for a very low price”.
With this talk, it became clear that there’s a tangible influence from design to Real Estate.
After having this meeting my viewpoint on architectural design changed, and I realized that I actually asked the wrong question but got the right answer. After all, this client knew exactly what he was doing when he hired us to design his investment property.
You see, when it comes to your life and the space that you spend every night and morning in, the true value becomes proportional to your life. How much more can you achieve surrounded by beauty? How long are you willing to spend in your kitchen with your family and friends? How would your morning start if you’d have the bedroom of your dreams? How productive would you become in an organized, thoughtful space?
Good design is all about these questions and the answers can easily be seen and are around us every morning and every night.
The real value is up to you, and the price of living in or having a design-less house is as well.