Most of us love a bargain. But is it
joy of chase or joy of purchase that really motivates us? Is a bargain hunt without all trappings of hard work, negotiation, bluff and counter bluff any fun at all? I hate to bargain. Even mention of word brings me out in a cold sweat. Of course, it’s not my fault, it’s my mother who is to blame – she made me this way.
My mother, Nancy is a part-time property developer, art dealer and car buyer - and a full time bargain hunter and dealmaker. She’ll go to any lengths to get a bargain and she’s very good at it.
The only problem is that during our childhood, she always insisted on taking me, my brother and my sister along, either to applaud her latest deal or to learn from her expertise – I’m not sure which.
But what I am sure of is that my childhood memories are dominated by long boring trips from neighborhood to neighborhood, frustrating waits in stuffy offices while my mother argued with one realtor after another, and then meticulous room-by-room examinations once a property had tweaked her interest.
These marathon sessions were followed by long discourses to us kids on journey home, and then still more discussions with my father once we reached there. And our home life was a bit nomadic - a change and a jump to next rung of property ladder came around every two years or so.
My mother is a truly remarkable woman. Now in her seventies, she has lost none of her zest for buying, developing and then moving on – she’s doing it again as I write.
She plans her forays into property market with military precision. First extensive research, then a careful assessment of lay of land, then determined approach to helpless vendor, relentless prodding for weaknesses in said vendor’s defenses, followed almost invariably several weeks later with a triumphant roar as she puts phone down after squeezing every ounce of value from her latest victim.
