Investor warns against property procrastination

A key element behind buyer hesitation, he said, was the media interest in property investment and rate hikes across lending institutions.

“They’re looking for headlines, they’re looking for stories [and] they want you to know ‘interest rates are about to shoot up, they’re going to go… ballistic in 2017,’” said Mr Williams.

“I guess what I’m ignoring is the doom and gloom.”

He added that the key to ignoring headlines was for people to “think about what’s getting in [their] way” and to find experienced professionals to help with their investment journey.

“There [are] plenty of good advisers and good help… but I don't think the first step is to sit on the web and look at realestate.com.au,” Mr Williams said.

“I suppose my advice would be… to find a broker who can tell you if you can borrow money and how much money you can borrow.

“Then assuming you know how much, I would go to a buyer’s agent,” he added.

Mr Williams noted, however, that despite help, there were “lots of reasons [investors] can find for not taking the first step”, and that the “change adverse” mindset of new investors often led them to miss out on opportunities to enter the market at all.

“If you don’t really like change, at a subconscious level you’ll be looking for reasons why not to invest,” he noted.

“I think people default to worst case scenario. There is a ‘worst case’ scenario, but there's also a ‘best case’ scenario and then there's a ‘most likely’ scenario [and] before you get stuck on the worst case scenario, at least consider the other two,” he concluded.

Listen to Guy’s episode of The Smart Property Investment Show.

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