\n\tHello and Happy Valentine's day to everyone! Despite the clear commercial "direction" of this celebration (boosting sales during a "dead" period), it is obvious that it has become part of our capitalistic civilization. During the last years, it has become very famous in Romania too, leaving aside the local "dragobete". So, enjoy this day (and night) and create something unique for you and your partner to remember!\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"I loved this property since the first moment I saw it"<\/strong> \n\tThey describe an investment in Real Estate using words which are more appropriate to describe a real love for someone. This is usually a typical excuse for some of the mistakes made during 2007 – 2008 period. But is it really safe for us to invest following our instinct?\n<\/p>\n \n\t"90% of human decisions are taken by subjective criteria"<\/strong> \n\tI will tell you more about his approach in the near future, but it does not really sound wrong, does it? If we think about it, we will probably agree that he is right. And we will also notice that usually someone's success is defined by the % of subjective and objective decisions he undertakes.\n<\/p>\n \n\tLet us go to Real Estate investments now…\n<\/p>\n \n\t"Buying properties like we order fast food"<\/strong> \n\tBut this "buying properties like we order at fast food" behaviour was triggered by different mentalities, reasons, backgrounds. Here in Romania we had a whole "world" pushing people in buying properties very fast, deciding (if possible) during the same moment they had seen a property. I did the same too, at least twice, almost desperate to find a new office to move my company, back in 2005 – 2006. I wanted to rent something good, but it was impossible to find it also at a normal price. If you can't find a single decent offer and you need something NOW, you jump to the first available one. Or if you hear all around you that prices will change next week, you agree today, in order not to pay more.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThere were some people who also bought properties, just due to a good "first impression", or "love at first sight". Usually they are the ones who suffered the most, once the crisis became visible in our lives.\n<\/p>\n \n\tA Carrie Bradshaw line…<\/strong> \n\tIf you belong to the minority of population who has a huge bank account and for him \/ her a property represents 0,1 – 1% of its portfolio, then you have the right to think like this, buying whatever "flashes" at your eye (but usually these people are the toughest ones to buy something, especially when they have worked for their money and they did not just earn it "the easy way).\n<\/p>\n \n\tFor all the rest of us, an investment in Real Estate is a crucial decision and every mistake counts, deteriorating our lives.\n<\/p>\n \n\tDoes it exist "Love at first sight" when we talk about Real Estate investments?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tNo, it does not. Here you have five reasons explaining to you why:\n<\/p>\n \n\t1. If your love for someone ceases, you simply break up or divorce. If you change your mind for your property<\/strong> (and especially if you bought it by loan), you should just hope to sell it during a boom in prices<\/strong>. If there is no boom… you can remember Britney Spears and sing "Oops, I did it again".\n<\/p>\n \n\t2. A property is mainly described by its key characteristics but its details may change the whole picture as well<\/strong>. A first glance is never the best in order to identify small but important problems.\n<\/p>\n \n\t3. I always advice my clients<\/strong>: "If something is sooo shinning, then why no one else grabbed it before?<\/strong> Are you the only clever one who saw the opportunity?"\n<\/p>\n \n\t4. The average number of properties we buy during our lives is 3. <\/strong>Let us assume that this is the same number of persons you will be allowed to make love during your lives. Would you also jump on the first one that sparkled your eye, knowing this?\n<\/p>\n \n\t5. Big loves can end up to major dramas. <\/strong>In this case your drama might be a personal financial collapse, or simply a lost decade in order to put things in order again.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWhen it is about investments, our mind is the first and most important judge. If there is a team or people who consider the opposite, please include me out.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tPS. But when it is about love, we can definitely be more spontaneous! Enjoy it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello and Happy Valentine's day to everyone! Despite the clear commercial "direction" of this celebration (boosting sales during a "dead" period), it is obvious that it has become part of our capitalistic civilization. During the last years, it has become very famous in Romania too, leaving aside the local "dragobete". So, enjoy this day (and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[216,17,236],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6083"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tAs this day is special, let me try to reply to something quite "popular" in your emails to me. There are more than 30 of you, who approach their investment with words like: "I loved this apartment immediately since I entered in it", or "I fell in love with this property since the first moment I saw it", or even "I knew it was for me, even from the initial {C}description I heard about it".\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen we invest, we take a serious decision about our lives. Or this is what it should be. On the other hand, a very good psychologist I know likes saying: "90% of human decisions are taken by subjective criteria. This is why there is so much space for all kinds of people to grow, do business, to win and lose".\n<\/p>\n
\n\tI know that in many countries of the world there were periods when people bought properties "in a hurry". From Dubai to USA, from Greece to Hong Kong, from Romania to Russia, the world is full of examples. (So usually this is what "a good journalist" does. Finds several "similar" behaviours, considers them all the same, ignores the reasons why they occurred and comes up with a story, trying to say something like "look, as it happened the same with USA and Romania, now USA does this, so Romania must do that in order to exit the crisis")\n<\/p>\n
\n\tI fully respect the ones who claim that "I saw a place and I loved it, I knew that it was meant to be bought by me", but this sounds more like a Carrie Bradshaw line (from "Sex and the City") rather than a real situation.\n<\/p>\n