API Blog :: Have your say!

June 8, 2010

First impressions count


There’s no denying that when it comes to property investing and making money from renovating, first impressions count.

Changing the first impression of a property is the second highest returning “add value” technique. Here’s why…

Ana StankovicBY ANA STANKOVIC

In this day and age most potential buyers start their search for properties online. They look up the locations they’re interested in, enter their budgetary constraints and select certain property profile details that they require.

Only once they’ve got the search results of this initial selection do they start prioritising which of these properties interest them. Out of the ones that look interesting to them, they’ll go and drive by a number of them and have a look at them from the outside before narrowing it down even further to a select few that they’ll actually inspect.

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June 7, 2010

Is your real estate agent required to give you the names of people introduced to your property?


What do you do when your property has been listed for sale and your agent refuses, on the basis of the Privacy Act or a privacy policy, to give you the names of prospective buyers introduced to your property?

BY TIM O’DWYER

Clients of mine had listed their home with a local agent who was a member of the Real Estate Institute (REI). Their listing agreement with the agent, unusually, didn’t provide for a sole or exclusive agency. Rather, it was an open listing which meant my clients had the contractual right to try to sell their home themselves. So, while their agent showed mainly foreign buyers through the property, my clients placed their own adverts on the internet and dealt with a number of consequential private enquiries.

When one of these internet buyers – not a foreigner – offered to buy at the right price, a private sale was negotiated subject to the parties’ solicitors finalising formal and binding contracts.

While I was taking instructions on the proposed sale contract, I asked my clients if their property had been listed with an agent. I wanted to ensure that there would be no risk of any agent’s commission claim down the track. The clients told me what they had done and handed me a copy of their open listing agreement.

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June 2, 2010

Taking the pain out of property maintenance


Hands up if you’ve ever just rented a property to a new tenant and the hot water system blows up? How about this one, new tenant moves in and no one can find the mailbox key?

BY EMILY SIM

It’s true, maintenance is a reality of being a landlord… but it doesn’t have to equal pain. I think the key to this is understanding what shape your property is actually in safety and building wise.

I’ve seen many older investment properties in better shape than brand new ones. Brand new means exactly that. Imagine a block of luxury apartments operate perfectly until every apartment has a new occupant actually move in. The lifts get a workout, the size of the waste pipes is tested as every occupant has their washing machine running for days and the security roller door on the under ground carpark is literally going up and down every three minutes to accommodate removalist vans. This is often the reason new buildings require so much warranty work in the beginning and that’s bad news for tenanted property.

How do you find out what shape your property is in?

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June 1, 2010

How will Australia’s easing population growth affect our property markets?


After two years of record population growth, Australia’s population boom is set to slow, according to a new study by economic forecasters BIS Shrapnel.

BY MICHAEL YARDNEY

It forecasts national population growth to slow to about 1.5 per cent in 2010/11 and 1.3 per cent in 2011/12 as net overseas migration slows.

This would be a drop from record highs when our population grew by 2.1 per cent for the year ending March 2009, the highest recorded since the baby boom era.

Considering that a large part of our recent property boom has been due to increasing demand, what does this mean for our property markets?

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