For many people, real estate is top-of-mind. Whether you’re looking for a place to raise your family, investing in rental properties, or building a financial foundation for your future, the real estate market touches us all. Like homes, entrepreneurial ventures are massive commitments that consume large portions of your mental and financial attention. When house shopping, mindset makes all the difference.

To explore this question, we turned to Ivan Estrada, one of California’s preeminent real estate experts. After graduating from the University of Southern California with a bachelor's degree in finance and accounting, Estrada worked in finance for a time before pivoting to a career in real estate. Years on, Estrada’s pivot has proven to be wildly successful, as he has become a top-rated real estate entrepreneur. Not only has he written a book on branding, but Estrada has also appeared on television shows such as Million Dollar Listing, House Hunters, and Open House. If anybody can help us connect the dots between real estate, homeownership, and entrepreneurship, it’s Ivan Estrada.

Diving In: When Should You Buy Something?

For many, the first set of questions when discussing real estate revolves around knowing when to act. There are so many factors when buying a home that it can be challenging to know when to act. The real estate market can be unpredictable. Buying at the wrong time could mean paying more than you want for a property, or even paying more than it’s really worth. With so many complications and variables, how do you know that you’re ready to buy? Is there a specific time to buy, an optimal moment, a triggering event? Or is there ever an ideal time to buy?

According to Estrada, people who are ready to buy are usually at a point in their life where they are seeing things on a long-term basis. Buying a home often signals that people are planning to stay in one location for a long time, and as such, buyers usually have stabilizing factors like a marriage, a good job, or children. Buyers often view the home as a retirement vehicle, since real estate tends to appreciate; just think of all the boomers who bought their houses for less than the cost of a Tesla Model S and can now sell them for obscene prices. The key idea, Estrada says, is that buyers are generally at a point in their life where they’re going to be stabilized for the long term. They’re ready to put down roots.