API Blog :: Have your say!

While it’s been a long and cold winter, there’s a feeling of optimism in the air as spring arrives. Spring is traditionally the major sales period of the year, when the volume of new listings rises sharply. What will happen this year?

BY RICH HARVEY

The market is patchy at the moment to say the least. Some buyers are taking their time, researching and watching the market cautiously… or just sitting on their hands. Some vendors are holding off listing their properties until activity increases. Overall there’s a subdued sentiment coupled with a lack of urgency.

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Many investors get stuck on one or two properties and fail to progress up the property ladder. They probably know in their hearts that they’ll need to build up a bigger portfolio to have a hope of achieving financial freedom.

BY RICH HARVEY

You might’ve read several property books or magazines and been to a couple of seminars to get the basics, but things still aren’t quite progressing You might feel like there are missing pieces to your property jigsaw puzzle.

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You make your money when you buy, but you make more money when you proactively review and manage what you’ve bought. Some investors adopt a “set and forget” mentality with property. This is a dangerous strategy, as there are many things that can change over time and affect the performance of your investment.

BY RICH HARVEY

To minimise risk and accelerate the growth of your property portfolio, it’s critical that you take an active interest and involvement in each property you hold. Let’s examine seven myths that some investors and homebuyers believe, and what you can do to improve your portfolio.

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2012 is set to be a year of recovery and consolidation for most of Australia’s property markets.

BY RICH HARVEY

Some areas will enjoy solid growth driven by latent demand or resources while other areas will languish.

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As a property investor you should be continually scouring the market looking for new opportunities and trends that will affect the demand for property.

BY RICH HARVEY

New and improved transport infrastructure can have a dramatic effect on property prices. On one hand you want be close to transport… but not so close that road noise decimates the peaceful tranquility of outdoor living!

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Fear can motivate or paralyse us. We all face different fears each day but it’s how we deal with those fears that will determine our quality of life and our future.

By RICH HARVEY

Another word for ‘fears’ is ‘risks’. We can’t totally eliminate the risks associated with property investment, but we can manage these risks to ensure we sleep better at night. We don’t have a crystal ball to see what the property market will be like in 10 years but with careful research and analysis you can make an informed decision today that’s likely to deliver a positive return in the future. Mark Twain said: “Courage is resistance to fear; mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”

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Here’s my outlook for the year ahead.

By RICH HARVEY

The property market slowed considerably in the last quarter of 2010 and is likely to show subdued activity for the first six months of this year. RP Data-Rismark noted a slight decline of 0.2 per cent in house prices of capital cities in November and expects very modest (four per cent to six per cent) to nil capital growth over 2011, depending on the number of projected interest rate rises. I believe this means we’re likely to see a window of opportunity over the next six months for buyers to capitalise on negative sentiment.

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Underquoting is continuing to be an issue for many buyers. This is where a selling agent quotes a property price of, say, “offers over $600,000” but the actual value and realistic selling price is more likely to be $710,000. So what is the solution?

By RICH HARVEY

My team has seen countless examples of underquoting over the past seven months. It’s partly a reflection of the undersupplied market, but sometimes it’s a reflection of poor agent practice.

The catch phrase for this outdated tactic is “quote them low and watch them go!” Like bees to a honey pot the buyers swarm around the perception of a bargain, only to be disappointed again. Read more →

One of the questions I’m repeatedly asked as a buyers agent is “When is the best time to buy a property?” The short answer is “when you can afford it”… but let’s dig a little deeper to find some more clues.

By RICH HARVEY

Property cycles

The property market moves in cycles and the market in Perth is typically at a different stage of the cycle to Sydney. Property markets rise and fall due to the effect of interest rates, population growth, migration, employment markets and consumer confidence – just to name a few.

Prices rise quickly in a rising market then level off before we hit the declining market stages and the cycle repeats itself. There are no precise rules around the timing of each property cycle as the economic conditions of each decade are often unique. Some investors espouse the rule that property doubles every seven to 10 years, but such a blanket cliché brings false hope.

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