When buyers hunt for a home, whether aware of it individually or as a couple, they have a budget and somewhat of a "wish-list" in mind. They may not always know what they want, but they certainly know what they don’t want. No better example of this comes to mind as when my wife Barbara and I went out looking for our first piece of Niles Fremont real estate. I found out her wants and needs were not exactly a carbon copy of my own. I was looking for a home with a 3 car attached garage, and she was looking for a kid friendly yard and a gourmet kitchen.

As a Fremont Real Estate Agent, or anywhere else for the matter, I need to bring these differences to light. Normally I would bring a couple to the closest matching properties possible, learn from the showing and refine the search. Was this even possible for myself and my wife? Was I too close?

Well, finally after weeks of searching homes for sale in Fremont, CA, we found a home that met all of our needs but one; One we hadn't even considered. The master bedroom wasn't quite right for either one of us and for completely different reasons. We struggled for hours trying to justify buying the home for its many benefits. It had a great family room, we’d spend a lot of time there. The kids loved the backyard and the big kitchen was as attractive to Barbara as the 3 car garage was to me. Still, we just couldn't get past our objection with that darn master. That is until Barbara said, "Wait a minute! 95% of the time we're in the master bedroom, our eyes are closed anyway!" …so we bought it.

After moving in we came to realize that we never gave the master bedroom another thought. What seemed so important, and had almost paralyzed us with indecision, turned out to be a total non-issue.

Every Realtor and real estate broker should buy and/or sell a personal residence every so often to reacquaint themselves with the profession from the inside with all of the accompanying stress. Most importantly, experiencing their clients perspective is particularly instructive.

I came to realize and later explain to many buyers at our Fremont open houses, none of the physical attributes of a house mean quite as much as we think. Rather, the family selling the house will pack up and move, taking their memories with them making room for the new owner to start filling the home with their own. The memories we create within those walls are what truly makes any house a home.

Anthony Marinelli is a Fremont Realtor working East Bay Real Estate since 1988. The Marinelli Real Estate Team specializes in Glenmoor, Niles and Ardenwood real estate. Since 2015 Anthony’s daughter and partner, Nicole Herrmann has helped her father level up with amazing design ideas, staging improvements and a gorgeous online presence to feature their client's homes for maximum impact. As experienced Fremont real estate agents, they pride themselves on providing exceptional service and expertise to clients throughout the Fremont area.