One thing I have come to understand in the business of buying property is that different people have different criteria upon which they base their decision on whether to buy a property or not. In my quest to understand why people make the decision to purchase the properties they do, I spoke with a number of individuals, some of whom own or are looking to own properties, and was able to deduce that the major motivators were price, profit and location.

PRICE

These people falls under 2 categories:

1. People who buy because of the property's low price.
2. People who see the price of a piece of real estate as a reflection of its significance, thus, only buy property above a certain price range.

PROFIT

As a motivator, it is simply for speculative purposes. Buying very cheaply today with the aim of reselling at a higher price in the future.

LOCATION

People under this group have certain areas where they believe is grand to own property. Once the property is within any of these locations, they tend to be less concerned about the other features of a property.

A property that is a worthwhile investment for Mr. A, may be a "bad buy" for Mr. B and vice versa. Now the fact is no piece of real estate is better than the other. It depends on your motivation, which in turn informs your investment strategy hence your goal.

Say these two individuals are faced with two possible investment opportunities. One is at the outskirts where many people would refer to as being a "jungle" or being too far, while the other is in the city. Mr. A, whose primary motivation is location, opts for the city. Now Mr. B motivated by profit, understanding the natural cycle of how cities evolve and having carried out careful research and analysis, discovers the latent goldmine in the outskirts and chooses to invest there where property prices are extremely low because of its inconspicuous potentials.

Mr. A who fails to see the potential in the outskirts because of his motivation, must be thinking to himself that Mr. B just made one of the worst investment decisions ever while Mr. B would think to himself that Mr. A isn't a astute investor that he should have gotten more for less

Which investment was better?

The truth is no one investment was better than the other. It all depends on the strategy of the investor.

This list is by no means exhaustive, I would appreciate your contribution. Let's know what inspires you to buy the properties you do.