How Much Time Do You Put Into Picking A Property?
I know as property investors, we generally take longer to pick property investments than most homeowners do – after all they are not trying to make a profit from the houses they live in – but even I was shocked by the survey done by ING Direct.
In their survey, they revealed that when it comes to buying a property, homeowners only take 21 minutes to decide – that is less than the average TV episode!
Now I suppose if you know exactly what you want from a property this could help to make your decision speedier, but when you take into consideration that the average homeowner also takes 284 minutes to pick a TV and something isn’t right…
For instance, why would you genuinely spend longer picking a TV, when you have potentially got to live in this property for years???
According to ING Direct, the reason is… ‘pressure’.
44% of those surveyed revealed that they felt pressurised to put in an offer in case another homeowner tried to bag it, whilst 26% felt that estate agents talked up interest in the property to make them put in a bid faster.
And I have to admit that I can see this happening…
Sales have been really slow for estate agents over the last couple of years, so pushing homeowners to buy with tales of other potential buyers could make you bid when you haven’t properly thought it through.
Anyways, the clear lesson to take away from this story is to never let yourself be pressured into buying, especially if you want to turn the property into a property let. Invest in the wrong property, and you could make a financial loss.
Wendy xx
