Buying a Property, away from Analysis Paralysis

If you ask ten different friends on what are some of the criterias of a good home, you would get at least 5 different answers. Is this bad or good? Actually, this may not be bad. Imagine if you ask ten and everyone gave you the same set of criterias. I think you must be asking ten of your friends from your village who went to same school, same university and same education background and even similar jobs! If that’s the case, why bother to ask. Too many opinions, Too many property gurus, too many books meant Analysis Paralysis, who’s right?! Some tips on how to avoid this ‘analysis paralysis’
Be really clear. Do not ask your manager, your co-worker, your parents, your wife and your best friend, what do they consider the best property. This will get you nowhere. In fact you should be the one whom you should ask. Why am I buying this? Own Stay? Investment? If your answer is, own stay also can, investment also can, that’s called, ‘nonsense’. Sorry, if you are already a multi-millionaire, then yes, that’s ok.
Specialise in one, first. If you go to five different showcases of five different types of properties. Assuming you went to a luxury condo and you were convinced that expatriates are zooming into Kuala Lumpur. Then, you go to view bungalow lots and you were again convinced that your target in future are those businessman would prefer bungalow over condo. You then go to view the sub RM350,000 new launching in Kajang and after calculation you feel rental would give you continuous positive yield. Ok, now what. Personally, I feel that you should just concentrate on one type FIRST. Do not be Jack of all trades, master of none. That time will come. What’s the rush.
Make a short and clear checklist. Do not create a long checklist of 20 things that you must have. Assuming, a few of the properties obtain almost the same rank, what do you choose? The lowest priced one? Personally I feel that you must have a checklist but it should be only limited to things which are really important, for example, location (10 minutes from town), or number of car parks (2 and must be covered). The points must be very clear. Either a yes or no answer. If it meets majority of your strict requirements, decide.
Be knowledgeable. There are many seminars by many property gurus in the market. Should you go to every one of them? Answer is, no. You should go to the one that you feel meets your expectations (synopsis, or friend’s recommendation) and continue to follow him/her. There are a lot of Facebook pages about properties, join the largest two. Don’t join five. It will just drown you. There are lots of books in the bookstore, read the synopsis and buy the one which attracts you the most. Of course, one thing’s for sure, follow kopiandproperty.my too.
Until today, I have only been buying condos and nothing else. My main reason continue to be long term rental returns and thus far condos which met all my checklists have been a good buy. In terms of books though I have read many and I think the resource rich books are preferred to assist you in your decision. For example, Ho Chin Soon’s books. I also read Property Insight and Property Hunter on a monthly basis. For online news, most of the time, I read The Edge and Starproperty.
Written on 3 April 2014, updated on 6 July 2016.
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