The sarcastic answer in today’s market might be, “Not much.”  My husband thinks that some sort of insanity has a grip on his otherwise logical wife.  He just shakes his head as I watch one more episode of House Hunters or Property Virgins and asks, “Don’t you get sick of looking at houses?”

And I guess for me, that’s where the answer lies:  I love houses!  Big houses, little houses, modern, traditional, tree houses…..I am completely intrigued by the shelters we each call home.  From the time I was a little girl, I enjoyed drawing pictures of different types of houses and designing floor plans.  And today, every time I unlock a door to show a home I’m still excited to see what we’ll find inside.  Okay, sometimes its cockroaches and filthy walls, but looking past the mistreatment, the bones of the home have something to say.

Houses solve the most basic problems of existence.  Our homes provide shelter, protection, and a place to prepare and eat food.  And if that is where their function and purpose ended, being a Realtor would be pretty dull.  But houses speak volumes not only about who we are individually, but who we are as a country and civilization.  Houses reflect how we as people, wherever we live, respond to the challenges of our physical and economic environment.

Since WWII the U.S. has witnessed a huge housing boom where we’ve seen our houses change along with our economy and lifestyle.   The small bedrooms, closets and bathrooms of the 1950s have given way to master suites that often occupy as much as a third of the total square footage.  Kitchens are no longer cloistered behind a swinging door, but are open to the living area. And who would have thought that you’d ever hang a TV above the fireplace?

As we all continue to feel the economic squeeze of recent years, we see new trends developing in our homes as well.  The mega mansions so popular at the early part of this century are just too expensive to maintain, and we see many people downsizing to more manageable homes.  Little used rooms, such as a formal living room are becoming obsolete as the great room becomes the center of the home.  And as interior space shrinks we develop our exterior spaces as outdoor rooms.  Less is the new more, and I predict that the need to reduce our footprint will drive significant changes in our homes over the next twenty years.

So do I love being a Realtor?  Absolutely!  Can’t wait to see what I’ll discover tomorrow behind the next front door.

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