There are several factors that make a “Best in Breed” Property.
And you can’t just rely on one or two of them.
But one of the key points that will distinguish a property from the average is the “rarity factor”. Far too many people get hung up on trying to find something “unique”, but that is a word that is used far too often and incorrectly.
For example, you might think that having a garden in Kensington & Chelsea that is over two acres is unique, but it is not. It is very, very rare but not unique. The good news is that you don’t have to search for properties that are quite so rare.
Properties on communal gardens are a good example. There are hundreds of them but in the big scheme of things they are few and far between. Properties with direct access to communal gardens, (i.e. you walk through your private garden to reach the communal garden) are even scarcer.
Great views are also important and relatively rare in prime central London. I acquired a fantastic apartment for a client who wanted exceptional views over Hyde Park as you can see here. This meant that the apartment had to be on a high floor in a tall building, because a lot of the views are obscured by the trees that border the park.
This is not unique, but certainly rare and also the ideal location for my client.
Of course, the issue is often not the property but the price.
You need to be able to negotiate effectively. In this instance, I was able to negotiate an 11.2% discount in a very strong market and achieved a price that was lower than prices that inferior apartments in the same building had sold for.
Was I just lucky? Well, yes to a degree. You have to be in the right place at the right time to find these opportunities. But I do stack the odds in my clients’ favour by contacting over 220 estate agents every week and also having a list of over 500 off-market contacts.
In short, I don’t hope that these opportunities will fall into my lap (annoyingly they never seem to do so). I actively seek them out which is a long and painstaking process that has to be done, if you want to find the best property your money can buy.
Strangely, it has been proven by various surveys that people spend more time choosing holidays or shopping for cars than they do searching for a property. Does that sound like an intelligent way to approach acquiring a house or apartment?
I would also be lying if I told you that I was successful in negotiating fantastic prices every time. Anyone who tells you they are, has no idea what they are doing. I’m afraid that sometimes I have to tell my clients to forget a property because a satisfactory price or terms cannot be agreed.
Unfortunately, most buyers are not experts in negotiations so they overpay – an error which is compounded by the fact they could have acquired a better property for less, often just around the corner.
An equally bad, but much less appreciated, mistake is they miss opportunities because they don’t know how to formulate an attractive offer. On several occasions, I have had offers accepted for my clients that were not the highest put forward.
You can avoid these mistakes by following the steps and strategies outlined in my book, The Insider’s Guide To Acquiring £1m to £100m Property in London. To request a complimentary copy, simply call 02034578855 (+442034578855 from outside the UK), email [email protected] or click here.
And, if you don’t have time to read the book and would simply like to have a proven expert find the best opportunities for you and negotiate prices that you didn’t think possible, you can request a Strategy Call with me by calling 02034578855 (+442034578855 from outside the UK) or emailing [email protected].
Whatever you do, please avoid becoming an “estate agent victim”.
