There is never a good time to buy a property no matter how much you read and study the market, as sometimes you need to just take the leap. Coming from an experienced property investor who just decided to take the leap of faith, Anon tells her story.
Anon first bought her first 700 sf apartment investment property in 2002 on the island of Penang, and later bought her second one three years later; a 1,258 sf condominium. Around the same time she was buying her properties, a good friend of hers was advising her against it, and telling her that the market was bad, that a financial crisis is predicted to happen every 10 to 12 years.
True enough a crisis did happen, but what goes up must come down - and what comes down will go up. So Anon made a tidy profit from her property investments when the market started booming again. Hence using the profits, she continued to invest in the property market, realising that instead of dragging her down, her properties were helping to keep her afloat at times where others were drowning.
One day a few years down the line she met up with the very same friend who advised her against buying the properties - the friend who is a senior manager of an MNC company and earning large sums of money. Again he lamented about the property market, that the Penang market was getting too hot. He told her that he would buy a property only after the craze had died down. Naturally, Anon attempted to sway him, telling him to get a unit before playing the waiting game.
Again her friend rejected her advice, insisting that the market was ‘not good’. It is now 10 years down the line, and her friend is still saving, parking his money in ‘safer’ investments and waiting for the ‘right’ time to buy a property. He still earns more than Anon and he still lives in the same 700 sf apartment.
Unfortunately, Anon’s friend’s case is atypical of the current generation. Too many people nowadays keep waiting for the ‘right’ time to buy a property, never realising that the best time to have bought a property was 20 years ago, and the next best time is today.
Anon believes that property investment should begin when one is financially ready and have viewed more than enough properties to be subjective - and that the second property should also be bought after both criteria are fulfilled.
According to her crises can happen at all times, and there will always people out there who will be predicting the approach of a disaster. But even the most expert analyst will not know for sure if their predictions are correct until after they come true.
So when is the best time to buy a property? Set a target price, read the property news everyday (not just a week before you decide to buy a property!), view as many units as you can and set a target timeframe of when you will buy your first property. As the saying goes, Bon Voyage!
(Reference: http://propertyinsight.com.my/featured-properties/the-waiting-game-is-best-played-after-we-own-something/)