The Home Library: A Realtor’s Observation

Posted by James Lupori

One of the fringe benefits of being a real estate agent is previewing hundreds if not thousands of homes. Often, we never meet the owners so we get to wander in homes and imagine who the owners might be. We agents are a curious bunch and we are careful observers of human nature. We also see into the “inner” life of a family by seeing all the possessions in their house. Think about this: I can ascertain a lot about people by what’s in their closet. Nice suits, must be a professional or office worker; She likes Elvis, check out the collection of Elvis T-shirts. You get the picture! Also, I can tell if someone is from the Middle East, or India, or Korea or Greece by the aromas that perfume the house. Sometimes I have to fight the urge to raid the refrigerator.

The Seattle area is considered one of the most well-read areas in the United States. I’m not sure this is true. What I do know is that a home library is an amazing portal into the mind of a homeowner. Think about it, books are brain food (or not). If you look over the books, it doesn’t take long to figure out the owner’s politics, religious affiliations, travel preferences, cultural interests, art tastes and culinary skills. It’s fascinating and fun to see what people read.

What’s truly amazing is how many homes don’t have libraries. I believe books have been replaced by DVD’s, video games, TV and the internet. I, too spend a good deal of time in front of the TV and internet but, I’m also one of those people who is always reading a book (or two, or three). So here are some of the books I’ve read recently:

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I hope you all have an opportunity to get some reading done this summer either at home or on vacation. Does anyone have a favorite book to recommend?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Book Reviews, Real Estate, Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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