The home we want is never affordable. Always true, unless..

Until today, I firmly believe that the home we want is never and will never be affordable enough. Unless of course I hit a lottery jackpot but I buy maybe once a year. Haha. Low probability right. My first property was bought because it was the one that met most of our (my wife and I) requirements. It was in Penang. I have moved to KL around 4 years ago. Three major reasons for the purchase.
1) Good sized kitchen (rooms are smaller though)
2) Close to our working place. (jams occasionally though due to traffic light just outside)
3) Big enough for my wife, my wife’s brother, my sister and I (Haha. 730 sq ft for 4 pax, okay lah)
This was nowhere near the perfect property for me. In fact it was a little different from what my wife and I was expecting when we first started looking. At that time, we were both first time buyers and thus did not have much experience. There were no friendly property sites like kopiandproperty.my too. Haha. Okay, there was another famous Penang based property site then.
There are a lot of reasons which are not awesome.
1) It’s smaller than what I wanted; 800 sq ft or higher.
2) It’s not in an awesome area. (not Greenlane, not Gelugor and not Gurney)
3) It is not that new anymore, from the outside. (peeling paints after over 12 years from completion).
In fact I would say most of the time, these are the reasons why people may choose not to buy and wait for the prices to fall in places they love. Well,guess what, places we love may just be places where everyone loves. Haha. Unfortunately for us, there are many richer buyers who are able to accept higher prices. Just yesterday, an agent whom I was engaging to look at a condo nearby KLCC Whatspped me. She asked if I was able to view the condo on that very day. I said I could not because I was out of office. She apologised and said that a China buyer will be viewing the condo during lunch time. Guess what, at 1pm, she Whatsapped me and said, it’s sold. The buyer paid a price which I would have wanted to negotiate for lower. When opportunities present itself, speed becomes key. When it’s a hotspot, then price becomes another priority. The question we should also have in our minds would be as follows:
1) Is the place we are looking for realistic for the price vs location? (Use this resource to understand more) 
2) Does it fulfils all the MUST HAVEs? (If it’s a condo, here’s some inspection tips) 
3) Are we able to make a quick decision? Remember, it’s just one buyer away. If that buyer buys first, we need to look for the next one.
Happy looking and buying!
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written on 13 April 2017
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