The "Big House Syndrome"

"Big house syndrome" (n) -

1. group of identifying signs and symptoms: a group of signs and symptoms that together are characteristic or indicative of a specific disease or other disorder in which a person believes people living in large houses have more money to spend.

When we first moved in to our last home, I knew I'd have to hire a cleaning service. As our neighborhood was only at the half-way mark of being completely built out, I wasn't sure what service to trust. The first cleaning crew I hired charged over $300 to clean the entire house. It was two people and it took them an entire day. I felt the price was a bit high, but justified it as I knew I couldn't clean the house in one day alone. Slowly, as the neighborhood was growing, and our city's population was booming I learned I was paying far too much. Other companies charged around $100 and were much quicker at getting the job done.

We constantly had door-knockers wanting to sell their services to us. The flyers being left on our door and under our mat were almost a daily occurrence. Painters, carpenters, lawn services, Christmas light hanging companies, food delivery trucks, all of these were regulars in our neighborhood. I knew the advertising bombardment would never end. I'd call the numbers on the catalogs and tell them to take me off their list, but that didn't seem to work. There were always new companies wanting to sell their goods to me.

At Christmastime, UPS would place a PODS unit (Portable on Demand Storage) at the main pool parking lot, and leave two golf carts inside. This saved UPS on gas due to the large amount of daily deliveries to the neighborhood. The UPS drivers would brave the cold and wet by draping plastic around the golf carts while dropping off hundreds of packages to our neighbors. So yes, there were plenty of people around that had extra cash to spend, or they all had really giving relatives.

One Halloween, as part of my costume, I wore a HUGE fake diamond ring, possibly 20 carats. A friend of mine, commented on my ring and I told her it was fake. She waved her hand around pointing to my house and said, "Well, you've got all this. So you never know!"

Our neighborhood was a prime target for consumerism, yes. And it only seems logical that in order to afford a larger house, a person has to make more money to pay the mortgage. But does that guarantee that the individual has more disposable income, or necessarily wants to spend more on extras? Not necessarily.

Assumptions are often made on looks alone but don't let yourself be fooled by "The Big House Syndrome"!