Thursday, November 20, 2014

Let's just stay in and talk to the house


Let’s just stay in and talk to the house

As the holidays are just around the corner, every new gadget imaginable (and some not imaginable) are being advertised as the next “can’t live without it item”.  Whether it be a bigger iPhone, a smaller iPad or a watch which is really a phone/computer, it gets very confusing after a while.  OK.  So you are wondering what does this have to do with real estate.  Actually, everything.  After all, what is a home if not your refuge from the outside world, where you can allow your stress to fade away and you can enjoy all the modern conveniences of today’s world. 

 

With that in mind, let’s look back at some of what the last 100 years have given us. 

 

The car, which led to the detached garage, which also served as a workshop, which led to the attached garage, which led to the convenience of garage door openers since no one wants to actually get out of the car, eventually leading to third car garages because life is not the same unless everyone and the dog has a car, which inevitably led to the bonus room since there was no longer any workshop space in the garage with all these cars.

 

Electricity, (I know, it was in use over 100 years ago, but humor me here), which led to the light bulb to CFL bulbs to LED bulbs.  And then to appliances, from iceboxes to microwaves to convection ovens.  Let's also not forget about air conditioning (God bless air conditioning – nuff said).   And who can forget furniture size radios, leading to black and white televisions to color televisions to flat screens to Playstation and Xbox, to 3D to Netflix on curved screen ultra HD televisions.  And, now, back again to cars (see Tesla).

 

Plumbing.  No going outside for water anymore.  No going outside, either.

 

The point is, we live in a world of exceptional change, but we are relatively immune to all The home modifications that have been occurring around us throughout our lifetimes.  We take for granted all the differences from the housing our grandparents grew up with.  There was no cable, nor clickers for the television.  Heck, now you can even just waive your hand to change channels.  Meals were family events, partially because you had no microwave to quickly heat up and prepare food.  Heat was sometimes provided by coals under the beds (okay, I may be going back another generation or two here – but I remember seeing them.)

 

Looking back to all these changes, I am sure that the housing of our children’s children will be vastly different than what we live in today.

 

Anyway, these are just my observations.  Don’t take my word for it.  Give your grandparents a call on their house phone. Then again, they may no longer have one.  You will have to settle for Skyping instead.

 

Until next time…

Keep kicking the dirt!

Jeff Gersh is President of Gersh Consulting Services, a real estate advisory firm, headquartered in Orlando, FL.  He may be reached at jsgersh@gmail.com or 407-468-9328

 

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