Buy to stay FIRST, before buy to sell; safer.

If you have been to property fairs recently, you would note the many available talks from experts and property gurus. More often than not, their presentation skills are good and their slides are very nicely done. For the speakers who did not prepare well, I think we should just ban them and tell as many people as possible. 🙂 My personal view is this. Whatever was presented, no matter how persuasive they are, always understand between the IF and the Planned and the Approved.
IF. IF the highway is built. IF the new bridge is built. IF IKEA starts building. IF means probably, maybe or at maximum, most probably. If you are buying because you want to stay, then the IF is ok. Please do proceed to buy if the rest like location, size, design and other reasons meet your expectations. The reason is because IF you are going to stay there, it means that you would have considered many things more than just the IF that was presented.
Planned. A new highway has been Planned. Who is the one planning it? The federal government? The state government? The developers? What stage is the planning at? Still at the developer’s table? Already submitted for approval to the local authorities? Plan is already approved and pre-launching soon? The truth is, if it is a huge plan, irregardless of whoever was the presenter, you would have already heard of it online. Search for more details. More often than not, you will uncover a lot more compared to just one talk. Of course, if you yourself Planned to stay there, then yes, it’s a good buy. Reasons above.
Approved. Approved by who? Approved by the state government? Most of the time, for any typical residential or commercial development, the state government is the one approving. What was approved? Please be reminded that there are lots of approval being revoked later when the public make noise due to the many concerns. This is especially for those special ones like on top of a hill, nearby a natural lake, next to a secondary forest etc.
I think you see one very important point. IF you PLAN to stay there and your family APPROVED, then you should buy. If it is for investment, it should take more than just listening to one talk and buying. The temptation is not easy to resist, especially when after the talk, so many seem so interested and as the developer said, only limited units are available. Ok, if that’s the case, do online checks well in advance before the talk and ask during the talk or after the talk. Oh yeah, if no information is available online at all, no websites, nothing, I would normally say no and move on to the next project. Yes, in this respect, I follow the Penangites and the Singaporeans, ‘KIASU’ and ‘KIASI’. It’s my money after all. Yes, I may never get the best deals like many who were lucky but most of the time, I would not be too worse off too. Happy listening and evaluating.
written on 27 Oct 2014
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