Buying a home can be both an exciting time, as well as a stressful time. On the one hand, now is your chance to try to find the home of your dreams, with all the details exactly as you want. On the other hand, the home of your dreams may be out of reach for you financially and you have to choose which items on your wish-list are the top priorities, and which you’re willing to sacrifice.

Two of the biggest factors in home-buying are, for most people, cost and location. For the exclusive telecommuter it’s possible that you have a lot of flexibility with location. You may not have to worry about living very close to work. You may even choose to live in a different state or country than where your company’s office is located.

However, while the flexibility of telecommuting removes some of the limiting factors in home-buying, it does actually impose some new ones. There are other items that may be lower priority for the non-telecommuter that suddenly become an important factor for you to consider:

Space:

Many people, at a minimum, are looking for sufficient bedrooms for themselves and their children (if they have any). However, for the telecommuter, an extra room that can serve as your home office may now be very important. Especially if you do have children who are at home during the day, you really may need a separate room where you can close the door and close out the noise. If you have the option, making sure that room is far away from the center of the family activity is also important.

If you don’t have children at home, you can be more flexible. Perhaps you can use the dining room or set up an office in the corner of your bedroom or some other part of the house. Perhaps you can make do for a few years and then build an addition down the road after you’ve had time to save a bit. There are a lot of options if you can’t afford an additional room in your house, if you get a bit creative.

Be sure to read Parts II & III of this article - to be posted soon - to learn about other home-buying factors for telecommuters to consider – including a final, rather surprising factor!

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Many of us know that telecommuters can get more done working from home, both on work activities and personal activities, due to time savings and increased focus. But I recently discovered a specific situation in which I, as a telecommuter, found myself getting less done.

In a typical work-day I get started working early, in my pajamas. I work hard for stretches of time, but like all people, I need the occasional mental break. During the times I need to step away from my work I might read and respond to personal emails, throw a load of laundry into the washing machine, pay a few bills, etc. Because I save at least an hour each day I telecommute from avoiding the drive to the office and because I avoid the gossip and non-work-related chit-chat of my co-workers I have more free time during the day to go the extra mile on a work project or get some personal tasks checked off my list.

So I’ve always felt there are really only up-sides when it comes to personal productivity and telecommuting.

However, I recently spent nearly 2 weeks at home with my husband and children during the Christmas holidays. During quiet moments (such as when the youngest was napping and the older child was watching a movie) my husband would happily disappear into the office for an hour or two to work on personal tasks on his computer. However, I found myself avoiding this as much as possible. Sure, I’d spend 5 or 10 minutes a day glancing through personal emails or handling some paperwork on my desk. But I kept it to a real minimum. I found other ways to avoid going into my home office – any little excuse I could. The dishes needed washing, I needed to work on a grocery list, anything.

At the beginning of the holiday I had grand plans on working on more articles such as this one and all kinds of other tasks. But I managed to avoid almost all of them.

This morning as I laid in bed resentfully staring at the alarm clock that had just gone off for the first time in 2 weeks, I thought about this odd avoidance. I realized that it’s because I associate sitting at my desk in my home office, in front of my computer, with work. I mean my day-job work. I knew I was on a nice long vacation and therefore resisted anything that felt like that kind of “work”.  My husband, who drives into the office most days and only telecommutes once or twice per week, didn’t have such a strong mental association and so he didn’t have that difficulty.

It was an interesting revelation. Definitely something for telecommuters to be aware of, especially if you have some important activities you want to get accomplished during a holiday. I think next time I have a vacation at home I’ll try moving my laptop into my bedroom or the dining room – and see if it makes any difference. Think about it for your next vacation!

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