As you may know, I have invented the worst business model ever:
I spend the majority of my time advising my clients not to buy property.
This may seem immensely stupid because I only receive my fee when they acquire a house or apartment.
Nevertheless, it is the right advice because the vast majority of properties are not good purchases. There are numerous reasons why a property may be sub-optimal ranging from poor streets, poor layouts, wrong price, lack of outside space, etc., etc.
This is complicated by area specific issues. For example, a lack of outside space may not be an issue for houses in certain areas but can be a significant drawback in others (even if it isn’t an issue for you). If you don’t know what makes a property attractive or indeed unattractive to buyers in each area, then you are in danger of making a very expensive mistake.
But today I just want to focus on an issue that affects buyers much of the time: Falling for style over substance. This is a conversation, I often have with clients and actually had with a client a couple of weeks ago.
They want to acquire a property in very good condition. I haven’t shown them many because I think everything that meets their criteria is massively overpriced. The clients have come to realise this and are now willing to undertake some work because the premium that developers are achieving doesn’t make any sense to them.
Now, this is not to say that newly refurbished properties should be avoided all the time. Indeed, a premium is sometimes warranted if everything else is perfect. The danger arises when you are blinded to the downsides of a property by the quality of the refurbishment.
If you would like to see specific examples of properties where buyers have made hideous mistakes, simply email [email protected] or call 02034578855 (+442034578855 from outside the UK).
These are real life cases which I show my clients to help them understand what to avoid and includes a property that was recently bought in Chelsea.
