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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