Is A Good Bargain Worth Paying For?

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 by: Caroline Murphy

Most of us
love a bargain. But is it the joy of the chase or the joy of the
purchase that really motivates us? Is a bargain hunt without all the
trappings of hard work, negotiation, bluff and counter bluff any fun at
all?

Those are the questions I asked myself when I came across the subscription based shopping advice service from Bargain.com. Just $10 a month and they’ll do all the hard work in finding high ticket items like houses and cars.

I
hate to bargain. Even the mention of the 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 the
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 the next rung of the 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 the property market with military precision.
First the extensive research, then a careful assessment of the lay of
the land, then the determined approach to the helpless vendor, the
relentless prodding for weaknesses in said vendor’s defenses, followed
almost invariably several weeks later with a triumphant roar as she
puts the phone down after squeezing every ounce of value from her
latest victim.

That’s my mum – but I’m not like that. I
have more than a sneaking suspicion that all the time that she spends
looking for a bargain might not be worth the undoubted savings that she
eventually makes.

For me, a change of job meant an
imminent move from one side of the country to the other - and of course
at the very idea of having to search for a new home, I broke out in
that familiar cold sweat.

But things have changed since my
enforced childhood property searches. Now we have the internet and
things are very, very different. A friend recommended Bargain.com and I decided to sign up for their service at http://www.bargain.com/fe/homes and see how I’d get on. I wasn’t disappointed.

After
dinner, I sat down in front of the screen with my partner and logged on
to the site. I entered our new location and budget into the search
boxes and hey presto, there were over 40 properties for us to browse.

After
some discussions and a bit of banter over a very pleasant glass of
wine, we whittled our selections down to six properties – all from the
comfort of our own home.

All that was left was a trip to
look round our chosen properties and a mercifully short negotiation as
we settled on our final choice. I couldn’t have been more pleased.

That
was three months ago and we’re settling in to our new neighborhood. I’m
now getting even more value from my subscription by looking for a car
on Bargain.com, http://www.bargain.com/fe/autos/. (Perhaps my bargain-hunting phobia is disappearing).

As for my mother, she’s just been for her first week-end visit.

Of
course, mum being mum she asked all sorts of penetrating questions
about our house buying experiences. She must have been impressed – her
final question was, “Now, how do I find myself the cheapest broadband
connection in Portland?”

About the Author

Caroline Murphy is a freelance writer and full time mum. She has written articles on family, home business and psychology. She can be contacted at caroline.murphy@debeauvoirtown.com

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