This is the question someone asked me as I showed them through an empty house I had for sale!   It might sound reasonable, innocence, sensible, stupid or quirky but what it really shows is that without furniture a house can be anything and demonstrates graphically that most people find it difficult to visualise the…Read More→

Windows In The Air Or Bricks On The Ground by Cheryl Lee A typical question I hear whenever I attend property seminars or when I met up with ready buyers from Asian countries is, “Which is better, apartments or houses?”   They are wrestling with the niggling question of which type of property will deliver a…Read More→

Anyone selling a property should think hard about presentation but don’t overlook what turns a buyer off even in a well presented home.   There are many lessons to be learnt with some more obvious than others. To know what turns off buyers who better to ask than someone who presents homes for a living ……Read More→

There are no shortage of insurance policies that cover losses caused by tenants but the level of cover offered can vary drastically.   Choosing the right policy is more than just comparing price and amount of excess. We are not an insurance agent so we are not permitted to make direct recommendations on types of cover…Read More→

Outside of the larger subdivisions or new suburbs it seems that blocks of land can take a long time to sell and it may just be due to a real failure in the marketing of many agents. Big carve ups of land by big developers bring big budget advertising, government controlled pricing and an inevitable…Read More→

Should you market a home to sell when empty or furnished? Without thinking too hard most people would quickly answer, FURNISHED,  but rarely are things that simple especially when it comes to the crunch of having to make this decision in real life with real dollars at stake. After you have spent all your money…Read More→

A very important task of any Property Manager is assessing the quality of an application for a rental property.   Beginning with a 2 page application form sometimes we have very little to go on.   It’s all about reading between the lines and smelling a rat. Recently we received our first, long awaited, application for a…Read More→

Many locals think rich foreigners come here with money to burn and not too much sense when it comes to working out what is a good property or a good price to buy.   But what they lack in knowledge of the local market they make up in mega bucks to smooth over all the problems…Read More→

Today spelt the end of a long saga for a questionable property that we have managed.   It was sad for us but also very instructive.   A Property Manager’s opinion of a property should never affect the way the agency deals with that property; they should always do their very best for it.   In the case…Read More→

If you note that ‘Shui’ is pronounced ‘Sh way’ then the title of this article may start to make sense as you so read on. Feng Shui is the 3,500 year old Chinese philosophy of harmonising the forces of wind and water with the environment which can include buildings, in fact Feng Shui literally means…Read More→

When any of us weigh up the merits of buying an investment property how many of us seriously look at the fine print in an insurance policy. There is so much to consider when thinking about becoming a landlord that things like the intricacies of clauses in insurance policies become too much to deal with. …Read More→

Although we don’t normally comment much on interstate trends the article with this same heading above that appeared in the 5/1/17 issue of ABC News online was worth special attention because it affects real estate agents and vendors everywhere. It said, “Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) has launched legal action in the Federal Court against two…Read More→