Looking for Mr Right?
Are you waiting to find the perfect property investment? Investors who hold out for the ‘textbook’ property opportunity may just end up missing out on the best returns altogether.
If there’s one thing that has become abundantly clear to me throughout my encounters with property investors, it’s that no property is perfect, nor is there ever really a ‘best’ time for anyone to buy. What’s most important is getting out there and buying something anyway.
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For many investors, whether it’s that first investment or the next in a line in a series of property purchases, there are often several reasons to sit back and wait, rather than take the plunge.
Sometimes it’s that preoccupation with finding a property which ticks a long list of boxes – it has to be in suburb X, it has to have an outdoor space, 2.5 bathrooms, floorboards and a parking space.
For others, it’s waiting to find the right moment, between overseas trips, weddings and children. According to the experts however, most of the time, it’s better to do something, than nothing at all.
Chris Gray, CEO of portfolio building specialist Empire, bought his first investment property in the UK for just £80,000 ($A113,000) at just 22 years of age.
“I bought this property for so much less than what many of my friends are looking at paying now,” he tells. Indeed, you’d be extremely hard pressed to find a decent property for just $100,000.
According to Gray, his first investment property is now worth £350,000 ($A560,000). So in 17 years, that is an increase in value of $A447,000 – or 400 per cent. That works out to be a 23 per cent increase in value per annum – much more than anyone could ever get with a high interest savings account.
With a long term strategy in mind, so long as you take a reasonably cautious approach, a decent property is going to deliver growth in the long term, he says.
“You’ve just got to do it,” he says.
Moreover, there’s no better teacher than experience.
“You’ll never know everything, you learn as you go,” says Mr Gray – so it would make sense that the more you practice, the better you’re going to get.
So if you’ve been contemplating a purchase it might just be time to reconsider your plans and ask yourself exactly what you’re waiting for and why.
