There are homebuyers who demand the best of everything in anything they purchase. They want the latest granite, or Corian, surfaced kitchen with steam oven, warming drawer, Quooker instant boiling tap, the Philippe Starck bathroom, a heated garage - with everything as they had on their last five-star holiday - and a décor in fifty fashionable shades of grey. If a house or apartment does not feature each item on their list, some buyers will not even view it.
But this demand for instant satisfaction and perfection could mean they may be missing out on a couple of important things in buying a home. They are foregoing the opportunity to choose what they really want, and instead getting simply what someone else really wanted - and to change it again would waste a fortune. Instead, they are stuck with someone else's idea of the perfect home, the perfect kitchen, the perfect bathroom.
They are also missing out on the increased value of their home, once it has been transformed from flawed into fabulous flat, tired to trendy townhouse, slumbering to slick superhome, or dated to dazzling detached.
'But the bathroom went out with the ark', say some buyers - great! 'The kitchen has seen better days' - wonderful! 'There's woodworm' - so there is. All these bad things mean good one thing - potential. They offer value creation. A chance to make it your own, put your own stamp on it. Grotty can be good.
Yes, it does mean more work, and you should always get a survey so that you fully understand what needs to be done. But almost anything can be fixed. All you need are the bones intact - windows and doors in the right places (sometimes not even this - it can always be changed and layouts improved) - and of course the right location. For maximum benefit, choose the smallest house in the best road, not the biggest in the worst.
It is really about location, as ever. Smallest and worst condition in the best place. Add some hard toil and you will have the home of your dreams, not someone else's, in a superb location.
At the moment, there is very little on the market. Buyers are often looking for finished homes with high specifications. This provides lots of opportunity for buyers who are prepared to roll up their sleeves. Remember, condition is purely temporary, but location is very much permanent. Also remember that 'perfection' really is a property myth, often conceptualised in magazines or on TV. Forget the 100% home; it doesn't exist. Everything involves some compromise, but sometimes these compromises can be improved upon and altered to better suit your quality of life and living choices.
The 100% home only exists in the mind of the romantic. Instead, why not buy a 50% home and make it 90%? Choose wisely, modernise well, do not go over the top and you will end up with more-or-less exactly what you want, just about exactly where you want it. This usually results in two things; it makes you happy, and it makes you money. There are not many things in this life that do both at the same time!
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