Reba McEntire is a familiar face in millions of viewers’ living rooms on television, so she knows a thing or two about what truly makes a house feel welcoming.
The legendary singer, actress and entrepreneur, 69, tells PEOPLE that her new partnership with Realtor.com, which she says has “touched her heart” because it helps home shoppers find the house of their dreams, has also helped bring into focus what makes a house feel like home for her.
Sometimes it’s small things. “Personal memorabilia, things that have stories … something comfortable,” she says, highlighting a common thread between her three homes, one of which is in Los Angeles and the other two of which are in Nashville. “Nobody has to take their shoes off when they come in the house, and it’s nothing fancy. It’s just livable. Breathable, and a place to come in and have fun.”
Other times, it’s simply a sense of place — like the most important one at her primary residence near Music City.
“[At] one of our properties, we have two creeks running through, and I love to walk in the creek, around the creek, beside the creek because it’s moving water,” says the Happy Place star. “It just represents life, new life, old life, life that’s running, life that’s moving, traveling, going somewhere. So it’s all the aspects of my life is in this creek.”
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She tells PEOPLE she considers that Tennessee place her favorite home she has ever lived in. “It’s rolling hills with the two creeks and lots of history. That’s what I really like about it,” she says.
As for that history? Well, McEntire notes that the property was formerly “hunting ground for several Indian tribes” and carries a certain significance as such.
But when she isn’t basking in her property’s natural beauty and backstory, McEntire adds that her favorite place to spend time in her home is her “kitchen, always,” calling it her
“favorite gathering place.”
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Ultimately, the notion of being able to discuss owning multiple homes is still not lost in McEntire, who reflects, “When I was growing up, mom and daddy lived in the same house. Grandma and grandpa lived in the same house. And now people have multiple homes throughout their lifetimes.”
Of her new partnership, she adds, “Realtor.com is a perfect thing, an app to have if you’re curious and who knows, you might find something that you like better than where you are and make a move.”
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