05/12/2026
A couple of years ago I showed a buyer a condo that he absolutely loved. Great location, beautiful unit, and they even allowed dogs in the association, which was a huge deal for him.
Everything was going so well until we sat down and started talking about the monthly payment. He got really quiet for a second and then he goes: “This condo is so expensive…”
But the thing is…it actually wasn’t! At the time, he was already paying the exact same amount for his rental.Somehow hearing the word “mortgage” instead of “rent” just made everything feel very real and very scary to him. You could literally see the anxiety kick in. Not because he couldn’t afford it, he definitely could, but because buying your first home feels huge. Like this massive life decision that suddenly makes you question everything.
Then all the “what ifs” started:
What if the market changes?
What if this is a mistake?
What if I wait another year and save more money?
In the end, he walked away from the condo.
I still think about him sometimes. That condo has gone up a lot in value since then. I’m sure his rent has too. Sometimes I wonder if he realizes that this couple of years he could’ve been putting that same money toward something that was actually his.
There’s really no big lesson here. Buying your first home is way more emotional than people realize.
