Property strategy? Just do, no need overthinking. (that’s just excuses)
There are surely thousands of readings on why we should invest into a property. There are probably many more thousands of reasons telling us not to invest into a property. Just yesterday evening, I was speaking to a 21 year old intern about property investment. Well, he told me that his intention is to have two. One for his own stay and another one would be where people pay him monthly rental. I like his plan and wish him all the best.
Many friends ask me this amazing question which most people would ask and then never take any action. “Where is the best place to buy?” or “Is this a good time to buy a property?” If they are merely an acquaintance, I would give a super short answer of “buy where you like” or “anytime is a good time to buy.” If they are good friends, I will give the same answer BUT it will have explanations why I say so. Today, I elaborate a little for everyone.
Buy where you like
I repeat, it’s “where you like” and not where your friends like or the location which the attractive sales person in a nice sales gallery tells you. Where you like may include where you find things which meets your expectations; nearby your office, nearby a public transport station, nearby your favourite mall or even nearby your in-laws. I mean, if that’s what you like.
Two reasons why you must like. First one is that you will be spending the biggest amount of money you will ever be spending on an asset. Yes, property is always an asset. Plus if you like it and you are not someone out of this world, surely there would be others who would also love that property that you bought and will buy it from you in the future.
Second is that you will be staying there for a long time. At the very least many years until the current place no longer meets your future requirements. Even for someone who’s moving a bit like me, I still stay an average of 5 years before moving. I have worked for 24 years and during these years, I have bought and moved homes 4 times. I am moving again next year, so that’s 25 years and 5 properties. Once every 5 years.
Anytime is a good time to buy
Try and google for house price trend in [fill in your country]. The usual and typical countries lah. Then see if there are any which shows a downtrend every year. If you really found such a place, it means the cost of the living there goes down every year! Wow, maybe a great place for us to stay until retire then? Not for me yeah. Haha. I prefer one where value of my asset continue to increase every year.
Try and google for intlation trend in (fill in your country). You may now realise that inflation comes and keep coming and there’s no stopping it. The only way to counter inflation is to always be ahead of it. Property is certainly that one way which many people have stayed ahead of inflation. Your salary will not be able to rise fast enough unless you are a top performer at work. Meanwhile, even a 1% increase in a RM500,000 property is still RM5,000 per year yeah. That’s a lot of money if we compare it to the yearly increment…
Conclusion
Property strategy? Just do, no need overthinking. (that’s just excuses). Keep reading more prior to buying lah. At the very least, a viewing of 20 properties so that you have a better idea what is it that you are buying into. In fact you may learn something which many have not discovered yet. Most people are only familiar with some areas. Go and be the expert yeah. Cheers.
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