Years back, I went to the most bizarre open home in my life.
This was a property I’d seen advertised, thought it was cheap, and wanted to add it to my portfolio of investment property.
But when I got there, no one was looking around the house. Instead, the agent was talking to a big group of people on the front lawn. I thought that was weird, but the door was wide open so I walked in.
After poking around for a while, I decided it had a lot of potential. Still not a soul in sight, I went back outside to talk to the agent. I was keen to buy!
My only question was… “Why was no one else looking around the house?”
The agent looked at me like I was from another planet.
One of the other potential buyers overheard me: “Can’t you smell that?”
Then it hit me.
I’d obviously just walked through a house so rancid that no one else had wanted to go inside.
See, I have no sense of smell.
Well, it didn’t phase me; I bought the property anyway. And heck, after a good deep clean and a few touch ups, the smell was gone (don’t worry, I got someone else to double check).
So what’s the moral of my story? If you’re thinking it’s “always buy foul-smelling property” you’ve missed the point.
The lesson is to not let emotions dictate your investment decisions.
If I had a sense of smell that day, I probably would have had a negative reaction like everyone else, and I wouldn’t have bought that property.
So now, when investors react negatively to something – ‘the Christchurch market’ or ‘the Auckland market’ or ‘apartments as investments’ – I tell them that story.
Then I ask them, “Do you think, despite your opinion, other investors will make money in that market?”
By the way, if the answer is yes, don’t rule that market out!
Your emotions can be your biggest hinderance when it comes to making money from property.
We teach our clients how to invest wisely, with low risk. But we also teach them how to have an ‘investor eye’ and focus on what’s important.
Find out how you can see with the investor eye (and get better investing results) at a Property Investor Night.
– Sue Irons