

"We don't take the time to look at what works for us." We make decisions on what we're told we should do," she says. "We don't always think about what we actually want. What about us? What's wrong with us when we go house hunting? She likes the flexibility of renting.)īut enough about her and her floor-to-ceiling glass view of the world. She touches on everything from your seven-year plan, your financial discipline and how settled you are in your job and career. At this point in my life mobility is important." In fact she calls herself a "proud renter. "It was a no-brainer," she says of moving there. She found her one-bedroom condo three years ago when "great deals were to be had" in South Florida. She also wanted to be able to walk to restaurants, shops, ball games and cultural events, something she can easily do. "I didn't want to be alone in a house at the end of some cul-de-sac," she says. She's out to correct that with her no-nonsense book filled with lists, questions and quizzes to help determine what you really want in a home.Īs a single woman, she wanted safety, for instance. Some 37 million Americans move every year and many of them make mistakes in the process. She'd like to find a similar perfect fit for you.Ĭusato, 38, an award-winning architect who designed the Katrina Cottages as housing in New Orleans after the hurricane of the same name, acknowledges it's not easy finding the perfect home. "It's all very Miami," says Cusato, author of The Just Right Home: Buying, Renting, Moving - or Just Dreaming - Find Your Perfect Match (Workman). She has views of both the city and the Miami River where fishing boats and sailboats glide by daily en route to the sea and back. But she likes to think so.Ĭusato lives on the 15th floor of a 57-story condo building in Miami's swanky Brickell neighborhood.

Marianne Cusato is sitting on top of the world.
