Making a decision

It’s always difficult when searching for a property and finding the one you love early on in your search. The eternal dilemma is – have I seen enough?

We’re often scared of going with our gut, especially when it comes to a big decision such as buying a property or committing to a long term rental home. But in many cases this is what you should do.

For example, we’ve just been working with a client searching for a family house in Islington. A gem of a house came up. It ticked every box in terms of the right size, the garden faced the right way, and it was at the right end of the high street. However, the view opposite the house was slightly compromised. Their question was, ‘should we go with this or hold out for something better?’

In that situation we were able to show them the internal and garden size of every house on the surrounding streets to help them understand what might come up in that location if they held out. With that knowledge, they decided to pass on the property as they did not want to compromise on space, garden size or pretty outlook – so we walked away from that house, focusing on a different collection of streets slightly further from the high street.

If you’re searching on your own and a great property comes up early in your search, and you’re in two minds about it, ask yourself: what else am I holding out for; what are the compromises here? There are always trade-offs with any property and you need to get an understanding of where you are prepared to compromise and where not. If the property ticks pretty much everything you wanted, don’t hold out, count yourself lucky at having found a good property so quickly and jump at the opportunity. If you decide that it’ doesn’t give you enough of what you want, speak to some good local agents and explain what the property lacks. That way they can steer you towards other options which might work better for you – or they can advise you honestly that what you want doesn’t exist and show you where you will need to compromise.

There’s nothing worse than lamenting the property that got away, apart from perhaps refusing to face facts and wasting your time searching for the impossible.

If you have a question you’d like Jo to answer please email enquire@eccord.com or tweet her @joeccles.