It's Time Investors Woke Up

A recent edition of my weekly column for the Property Observer website began with these words:
Investors will be piling into the Adelaide market – just as soon as they read somewhere that there’s a boom in the South Australia capital.
But not before. The only constant in the residential property market is that the herd mentality drives the actions of buyers and sellers.
Rather sadly, most real estate decisions are not based on knowledge, research, planning and independent thought. They’re based on what people perceive others to be doing.
The herd mentality.
And most people gain perceptions about the direction of the herd by tuning into mainstream media: newspapers, magazines, television and radio. Their thought processes and decisions are driven by headlines and sound bytes.
The outcome is that most Australians are poorly informed about real estate issues and make bad choices about whether they’re buying and what they’re buying.

Investors who allow themselves to be swayed by a dishonest media are missing opportunities that abound in growth markets, as well as the potential to buy well in markets that are currently down.