Just over a year ago I was fortunate enough to be able to buy my first house. It was an exciting but daunting process but I am pleased to say it has worked out well and I am very happy.
However it has got me thinking recently about the time we spend considering a purchase like that in comparison to other purchases in our lives.
When I bought my house I had a fairly clear idea of what I wanted and looked at about 6 properties. I don’t know the exact amount of time, but I would have thought start to finish from the initial thinking to searching the actual time spent researching, making calls, viewing and contemplating my decision probably took no more than 48 hours. These 48 hours were spread over several weeks (and it helped that I lived in the area already) but it is not a huge amount of time considering the amount I was spending.
I recently bought a new TV, and probably spent about 3 hours looking through various websites, reviews etc. and ending up spending £500.
In the past I have bought a car with maybe only a few hours consideration.
When it comes to a smartphone I am in a fortunate position so I can not exactly sure how much time I spend considering a new phone.
Here is the bit that amazes me; I spent 3 hours considering a £500 TV but spent only 48 for something that cost 400+ times more. It is completely disproportionate. I know with a house a lot of it is visual or land but you get the point.
We have all made quick decisions as well as long and drawn out ones, but irrespective we have to live with the end decision.
I think it might be something to do with for me the mortgage not being my money…even thought I pay it monthly, the initial payment was not out of my bank account (with the exception of the deposit).
So my questions to you are:
- How long on average would you say you spend considering a new smartphone, TV or other piece of technology? Is it a matter of minutes, is it hours?
- Do you do hours of research and then decide against it?
- Do you ever regret the time you spend researching (if any)?
- If you have or were to make a decision about a house or flat do you think you would spend a proportionate or disproportionate amount of time to buying tech?
Look forward to your comments?
About Jon
I think with phones and tablets, I tend to think the only way I can be sure if it’s something worth using is to spend the money. Some elements, like screen size, pixels and type, weight, and an SDcard slot I’ll check, and probably read a few reviews, but having it in hand, using it for a few days is the only way I can be sure. A few devices have gone back or moved on via ebay within a week or so because of unexpected awfulness, but it’s not usually cost much. Now if you could have a probationary period to stay in a house before committing to buying it, that would be useful – at least it would be save you from things like noisy neighbours partying next door every night!
Ha ha yea that’s a great idea – try before you buy on a house. Could pave the way for squatters as well!
Dare I ask which is the device you’ve been quickest to sell after purchase?
Curiously enough it was the Galaxy Tab 10.1; which actually seems generally popular. It felt a bit flimsy, and Touchwiz was very sluggish. Plus it was around the time it just came out, I was in a rush to get something before a long trip, and I could only get a 16Gb Wifi model, which really wasn’t adequate for 24 hours of flying. Cue much scrabbling around and I eventually got a Transformer instead, which felt much better all around, with more options for memory expansion, battery life etc. I got a Nexus One as an upgrade from Vodafone that went back pretty quickly too, really awful battery life for some reason, barely lasted a day without any real use…