If you’ve ever watched "Property Brothers" on HGTV, you know they do a similar schtick with each client before choosing a house to renovate. Clients typically have a long list of very specific requirements for their dream house: two-car garage, swimming pool, marble countertops, you name it. Then the clients share their budget. This number always seems a little low for what the client is looking for, and the Property Brothers know that, too. The first house the client visits is always their dream house, with everything they could want and more … until they hear the price. The house is always way over-budget. It’s impossible for the client to get everything they want on their long list of “requirements.”
Then, the brothers show some houses that don’t hit check off everything on the client’s list but have the basics. Maybe it doesn’t have those marble countertops, or it has a one-car garage. But the house is in the client’s budget, and the brothers, Drew and Jonathan Scott, promise that if the client sees it in a new light — and with a little help from their team — the house will be everything they dreamed of and more.
As I watch this, I can’t help but think of some of the lists I get from clients. It’s important to have some idea of what you want in a partner, of course: perhaps someone who is liberal, someone who isn’t religious, someone who doesn’t want children, etc. This is possible to find. But when the list of “deal breakers” hits two digits (including things like graduate degrees and a certain income bracket and living within a 10-minute drive and being 6 feet tall), you’re only working against yourself. Too many deal breakers significantly limits the dating pool. The ideal person isn’t “over-budget,” per se, but they may not even exist at all.
