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After you've walked through enough houses as a realtor, you start to realize something: a house can tell you a lot about the people who live there. Sometimes, it tells you before they do.
There's the kitchen that clearly serves as headquarters for the entire household, even though there is a perfectly good living room sitting ten feet away. There's the dining room that looks beautiful but hasn't hosted a meal since Thanksgiving 2019. And there's always at least one room that has somehow become the place where everything without a designated home ends up. You know the room. We all have one.
Our homes are a reflection of our lives, and as our lives change, our homes often change right along with us. When we're younger, location and affordability may be at the top of the list. A few years later, the priorities might become bedrooms, a good yard, a garage and somewhere for everyone to put their stuff. Lots of stuff. Then the kids grow up, and suddenly those four bedrooms that once seemed essential feel like four rooms you have to clean. That's when the real estate conversation often changes.
I've had homeowners tell me they need a bigger house, only to discover that what they really need is a better floor plan. Others have beautiful homes that once worked perfectly for their families, but their lives have changed and the house simply isn't being used the way it once was.
That's one of the things I enjoy most about being a Realtor. I'm not just looking at houses. I'm listening to how people live. A huge garage might tell me someone has a serious hobby, a serious vehicle or simply a serious problem with keeping things they might need someday. A big porch might tell me that coffee with a neighbor is more important than another 200 square feet inside. A kitchen island covered with mail, homework, laptops and yesterday's coffee tells me that, technically, the house has a kitchen. In reality, it has a family command center.
And then there are the things you can't measure in square footage. The height marks on the doorframe. The photographs on the refrigerator. The chair that belonged to a grandparent. The garden someone has tended for 20 years. The room where children grew up. Those things don't show up on a listing sheet, but they are often the things that make a house feel like home.
Many people want to know, "What does this house have?" But I've learned that an even better question is, "How does this house work for the way you live?"
That question matters whether you're buying, selling or simply trying to figure out what to do with the house you already have.
Maybe you need more space. Maybe you need less. Maybe you need a first-floor bedroom, a better home office, a bigger pantry or simply a garage you can actually park a car in.
And sometimes, you don't need to move at all. You just need to look at your home differently.
As November arrives and we head toward the holidays, our homes become especially revealing. Kitchens get busy. Tables stretch to accommodate one more person. Guest rooms get inspected. Closets are suddenly expected to hold winter coats, holiday decorations and approximately 47 things that nobody knew where to put.
And our homes do what they have always done. They make room for our lives. That may be the biggest lesson I've learned from real estate. The "perfect" house isn't necessarily the biggest, newest or most impressive one. It's the one that fits the people who live there. Because ultimately, your home should work for your life.
And if it doesn't, well, that's when you call your Realtor.
Jenn Hagerty, a residential Realtor, is the 2026 president of the Morgantown Board of Realtors.