What’s Holding My House Back From Being SOLD?

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Image Source: http://macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/home-for-sale-sign.jpg

If your house has been on the market for a while and it hasn’t sold yet, you may be wondering why. In my experience, there are three common reasons why a house doesn’t get snapped up straight away.

1. Unrealistic expectations
2. Presentation
3. Poor Marketing

So what can you do about each of these three things?

Unrealistic Expectations

Essentially, what this means it that your property is not ‘competitively’ priced. Potential buyers are finding it to be too expensive in this challenging market. This does not mean that you have to price you house too low. All it means is that it needs to be priced comparable to similar properties that have sold in your area. Don’t look at what other houses are advertising for, look at what they sold for. That’s what counts, and that’s what buyers will also be looking at. Try regularly searching http://www.realestate.com.au/sold and http://www.domain.com.au/?mode=sold for in and around your area. This you give you a realistic idea of how much to price your property for. The bottom line is, if houses are not selling for what the price that you want to get for your own property, you might be better off waiting until prices are on the rise again.

Keep posted for next week's tips for the presentation of your home.

Recycle Your Old Mobiles with First National

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First National Real Estate JM Chase is calling on local residents of the City of Whitehorse to recycle their old mobiles, batteries, accessories and chargers by dropping them off in their local branch.

 Image source: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/06/what-exactly-happens-when-you-recycle-your-mobile-phone/

The First National Real Estate network today announced that customers will be able to drop off their old mobile phones, batteries, accessories and chargers for recycling at their local First National real estate.   As an extension to its energy efficiency and sustainability drive, First National has partnered with MobileMuster, the official recycling program of the mobile phone industry to support its Old phones, more trees campaign.

‘Old phones, more trees’ is a joint initiative between MobileMuster and Landcare Australia, to collect more than 250,000 handsets and plant up to 25,000 seedlings to regenerate Australia’s coastline between now and 30 September.

“By collecting and recycling our old phones and those of our local community, we will be helping plant more trees along our coastline and protecting our environment,” First National Real Estate JM Chase Managing Director, Jee Chin, said.

Mr Chin said as leaders in the real estate industry, First National Real Estate JM Chase also wanted to take the lead on matters affecting the Whitehorse community in which they live and work.

“We pride ourselves on giving back to our community and this is just another way for us to do that,” Mr Chin said.

“As a business that is so reliant on both mobile phones and cars, we felt we should do our small part to help reduce our carbon footprint.”

According to Rose Read, MobileMuster Manager, Recycling, Australians have about 19 million old and unused mobile phones sitting at home.

“The greenhouse gases that could be avoided if Australians recycled their old, unused phones would be the same as planting 100,000 trees or taking more than 6,000 cars off the road,” Ms Read said.

If all the unused or broken mobile phones hidden in desks and drawers across Australia were handed in, including those of Mr Jee Chin’s own staff,  they could be recycled to produce 185,000 plastic fence posts, enough to build a fence from Melbourne to Sydney.

Since it began in 1999, MobileMuster has collected 806 tonnes of old mobile phones, batteries and accessories, recycling over 90 per cent of the materials in them and keeping these mobiles out of landfill.

To find your nearest First National / MobileMuster collection point for mobile phone recycling go to www.mobilemuster.com.au or call 1300 730 070.

For further information contact Rose Read, Manager Recycling, MobileMuster, on (02) 8920 3555 or 0418 216 364

What to Look For at an Open Home Inspection

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Most people, when looking to buy a new car, will sit in it, play with the steering wheel, slide the seats back and forth, check there’s enough leg room, make sure the paint’s not scratched, and take it for a test drive. So why don’t they do the same when they’re looking to buy a house?  

At Open Home Inspections I often see people walk in, glance around, and walk out again. Many of these will make an offer. So, what are some things they should be checking before they put down a deposit?

·         What is the water pressure like?

·         Does the kitchen/bathroom sink drain properly? Slow drainage can indicate a serious problem, such as tree roots in the pipes.

·         Are there stains on the ceiling that could indicate a leaky roof?

·         What is the lighting like? Is it sufficient for your needs?

·         Is there heating/cooling throughout the whole house, or just the main living areas?

·         Are there sufficient locks on the windows, and bolts and the doors to make your family feel safe?

There are many, many more things you should be looking for when buying a new house. Ignoring these things may bump up the cost of moving in considerably. All houses need maintenance of some sort, but you need to know how much the repairs will cost, and how much you’re prepare to spend before signing the bottom line.

How can you keep up to date with the property market?

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Many of our clients ask how they can best keep up with the property market. How DO you know roughly what houses are selling for in you area? How do you keep track of it all. I always tell them that RSS feeds are the way to go. But what are RSS feeds, how will they help, and how do you use them?

What are RSS feeds?

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. They gather the latest content from your favourite sites. This saves you time because it means you don't have to visit each site individually.

How will they help?

Rather than visiting all the real estate sites, searching your area, scrolling through to find similar properties to yours, an RSS feed will gather all this for you. The property list at the top of this blog, for example, is an RSS feed of all of our properties from domain.com.au.

How do you use them?

Setting up an RSS feed can seem a bit daunting at first, even for the technologically savvy, but they are worth the initial effort. Essentially here's what you need:

• You need an RSS feeder. This can be an online tool, such as Google Reader, which links to your gmail email account. Alternatively you can download a free program, such as FeedReader.

• Once you have a reader, you need to go to the website you wish to follow (for example domain.com.au), perform your search as usual, then look for the RSS feed button (see example below).

• Click on the RSS feed button, then follow the instructions to subscribe to the feed (pictured below).

For more information, http://www.whatisrss.com/ is a great little website.

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Check out our new format for the Open For Inspection times for our latest rental properties. Categorised by suburb, this will make it easier for you to map out all the properties you wish to inspect this weekend!

Follow this link to view it on our website: http://jmchase.com.au/index.cfm?pageCall=content&ContentID=85118&MenuItemID=85523&subject=Inspection_Times

Seniors Benefit From Lower Stamp Duty

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Image from http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRkzK1gv2IOI2zvgzIUihmz-PIf6jVPW-MryLL0XHAEMRbJStuZ

There has been a lot of discussion about reductions in stamp duty being offered to first home buyers after 1 July, and the improved and increased assistance for seniors is equally significant.

The REIV has highlighted that one of the problems with stamp duty is that it acts as an artificial barrier to moving; after all, if you need to move home because you have outgrown your current home – or it has outgrown you – then you face an additional expense of around $30,000 on a median priced home. 

This issue was also highlighted by many submissions to the federal government’s Henry Tax Review. 

It can be a particular barrier for those who have retired and are on fixed incomes as they have both a limited and finite income. And if you have retired and your family has grown up and moved out then it is more than likely that your home is larger than you need or want.

There are, therefore, very obvious benefits for the individuals and community to removing artificial barriers to ‘downsizing’.

This is why the decision to substantially increase the value of the duty relief for eligible seniors is a good one.

As of 1 July the current threshold for duty relief will increase from $440,000 to $750,000. Under the new laws, eligible seniors will receive a total exemption from stamp duty for homes purchased to a value of $330,000 and a partial exemption between $330,000 and $750,000. 

The home can be a new one or an existing one, the main stipulation is that it must be the purchaser’s principal place of residence.

The list of eligible seniors has also been extended to include holders of a Commonwealth Seniors Card.

To see the full list of edibility requirements and how to apply contact the State Revenue Office on 13 21 61.

Taken from REIV.com.au

What to look for in an investment property

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Choosing a property for investment purposes is not the same as choosing a home to live in. Keep the following tips in mind: 

- Not all titles are created equally - whilst most apartments are strata titles, if you're buying property that's company title make sure you read the fine print carefully. The owners of company title buildings are set up as shareholders in the 'company' and they must vote to decide on various rules including occupancy changes and rental rights. You also have to have approval for most alterations, even within the unit itself. 

- Choose for rental appeal - even though you won't be living in it, you'll want to make sure the property has features that most people look for, including internal laundry, proximity to transport, security, car space/garage, balcony. 

- Don't over do it - it's possible to spend more money on renovations and upgrades than you're ever likely to see in returns. Make sure you are realistic about how much someone will be prepared to pay when you eventually come to sell. You want to do enough to seduce buyers but not so much that you're out of pocket. 

- Keep your finger on the pulse - when property prices are dropping and rents are rising, it may be time to make the most of economic conditions. 

- Do your homework - if you're buying in an area you're unfamiliar with, research it well. Look at data on property prices in the area and rental yields as well as vacancy rates. Speak to the local residents and shop owners and even the council to find out as much as you can about the place. There's a lot of information out there to help you, like RP Data's report on the best suburbs to buy in around the country.

Report from stgeorge.com.au