Pass the Aspirins Please
(Photos: Robert Liebman)
Pain relief! Why and what for?
This website - with its emphasis on pain and pain relief - first saw the light of day before credit got crunched, before the banks got the stuffing knocked out of them, before the global economy tanked.
In other words, it began when property was booming. Homeowners saw the value of their homes skyrocket, and property investors - including many ordinary homeowners who used the equity in their homes - were laughing all the way to the bank.
But even then, buying and selling property was a headache for many people.
Then the recession, the global economic meltdown, arrived, and the pain intensified - many homeowners lost their homes, many investors lost their shirts.
In short, property can be a pain in good times as well as bad.
Pain relief.
The main questions and dilemmas remain the same in good, bad and indifferent markets:
The process is complicated, tricky questions constantly arise, the right answers are elusive - and this happens whether the market is booming or going bust.
In property as in medicine, knowledge - informed consent - is the gold standard.
Buy smart. Sell smart. Renovate smart. Smart is better than the alternative.
For Whom This Site Toils
First-timers: Because the property market is new, strange and frightening.
Old-timers: Because much has changed since you last bought or sold.
Knowledge is Power
Buying a home is the most important and expensive purchase most people will ever make.
It can also be the most stressful and miserable. The process rarely runs smoothly. Even successful purchases are often traumatic, entailing considerable frustration and anxiety.
Property conveyancing can be wasteful for buyer and seller alike: buyers spend money on searches, surveys or fees only for the purchase to fall through.
In a sellers' market, buyers run the risk of being gazumped (outbid by a rival buyer offering more money).
The opposite - gazundering - occurs in a buyers' market, when the buyer lowers the price he is willing to pay on a take it or leave it basis, usually just before exchange of contracts. The seller faces two unpleasant choices: accept the lower price, or pull out of the deal entirely, forfeit legal and other costs, and start all over again.
Is there a silver bullet, a magic cure to rid the process of all of its ills? Probably not. Too many different people and institutions (solicitors, estate agents, lenders, surveyors, others) are involved, and a delay or mistake by one can gum up the entire works.
Knowledge is key: the more you know, the better you can anticipate problems and develop tactics and strategies to overcome them. Learning the basics about bricks and mortar, and the purlins and other items contained within, can also be helpful.