A Home They Both Could Love

When motivational speaker Barry Maher moved with his wife from Santa Barbara to a golfing community in Victorville, Calif., he thought he was set for life.

After years of motivating clients to go the distance, it seemed that he had finally found his own finish line. The Victorville development had everything -- 27 holes of golf, two lakes, horse stables, a recreation center and giant pools.


"It was great for me. When I came home, it was like going on vacation and playing golf," Barry recalls.

But his wife didn't feel quite the same way. She soon learned that paradise isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

"My wife really needed a whole lot more to do. She was used to restaurants in Santa Barbara, going to plays and movies," he says. "Victorville didn't have the kind of stimulation she enjoyed."

On top of that, her commute to work every morning involved a 75-mile ride through a mountain pass which, depending on the weather, could turn a scenic drive into a nightmare.

Barry, too, was having second thoughts.

"Eventually it got old for me, too. I was getting tired of getting home from a 5- or 6-hour flight, sometimes late at night, and some of the drive would be on some pretty rural back roads."

So the couple decided to move out and find a new slice of heaven -- one they would enjoy equally. They scoured Southern California until settling on Corona, a bustling town in Riverside County, Calif. that spoke to both Barry's and his wife's interests. They set to work immediately.

"As soon as we settled on Corona, we put up seven offers, some of them on places we hadn't even seen -- contingent, of course, on us liking the place," Barry says.

When they saw their current house, they knew immediately that it was the one. Unfortunately, the sellers thought their offer was too low. But because the couple knew that market conditions were softening in the area, they stuck to their guns and waited.

"We couldn't afford to come up a whole lot more, but we stayed patient, and eventually they came back to us," he says. "They lowered their price considerably, and we were able to move in."

Today, the couple is still living the good life, but in a much more convenient location. Their new development has its own golf course, a fitness center, a recreation center and all the other luxuries that the couple first fell in love with in Victorville.

At the end of the day, Barry says, there's one comfort that dwarfs all the others.

"Most of all," he says, "My wife's a whole lot happier here."

For Barry's full story, watch the video.

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