Archive for the ‘Lifestyle’ Category

This blog post is brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts.

It is often said that spending a lot of money on a garden can over capitalise a home and that money is better spent indoors than out. Is this the case?

Well what about living in a garden suburb like Colonel Light Gardens in Adelaide?

Driving around a garden suburb such as the historically planned Colonel Light Gardens, it’s not hard to come across square formal front gardens with rectangular lawns, inviting borders and straight driveways leading to a garage. Naturally the houses wrapped by such gardens look soothing and inviting.

Watch this video and ask yourself what the true value of a garden does to the value of your home?

Regardless of whether you live in a leafy street or garden suburb, it’s often true that many home owners get carried away with garden fever and don’t ask themselves if the money spent on landscaping will be realised down the track when they come to sell.

The truth is the amount allocated to landscape design and planting must be in proportion to the overall value of the home or it can easily add cost that doesn’t add enough re-sale value. Home owners need to be aware of the percentage cost of the overall value of the home that landscaping represents; obviously there is a big difference in the amount that should be allocated to landscaping in a house worth $300,000 and a house worth $3,000,000!  

Astute home owners soon work out that a drab and unimaginative garden will detract from the value of a home because it will not give buyers the feeling they want to live there. Even buyers who don’t think they care about gardens and gardening are attracted to the overall picture of a property where house and garden complement each other so that the whole is more harmonious. 

What is often lacking in many gardens is a sense of mystery – one of the main elements of good design that makes even a small garden more appealing to buyers. It’s not a good idea to design the garden yourself – unless you have appropriate skills. A keen gardener with a green thumb is not the same as someone who understands how to use plants in an architectural way to design and furnish a space with a sense of harmony and mystery.

If you are already lucky enough to have a beautifully designed garden in a picturesque garden suburb or street, then the thing to remember when presenting it for sale, is to make it look as if it requires no effort. Paradoxically, this effect is often achieved with a considerable amount of effort. Unkempt and weed-filled gardens draw attention to how much work may be involved in looking after them and therefore look the opposite of low maintenance. After all, if a garden is too hard for the current owner to present well at an important time like when it is being marketed then buyers will concentrate on how much work  is involved and perhaps move on to a property that looks easy just because the work has already been done and the seams are not showing.

This blog post is brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts.

Which BMW TV Commercial sells the most cars … watch these videos and you figure??

These Youtube Videos are brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Mannagement Experts.

As summer holidays are just around the corner, Glenelg will be invaded every weekend enmasse by whirring pelotons of men clad in their eye-scorching yellow Peugeot Spandex and lycra, riding upon expensive $3,000 – $20,000 carbon fibre racing cycles.

These enthusiasts live a Tour de France in their own minds every weekend, racing around Adelaide’s city roads, freeways and pushing steep hill climbs on country roads, stopping only to sip lattes en masse in beachside cafes.

At Tour de France time some of these enthusists even install stationary bikes in front of their TV and follow the le pack from les Pyrenees to Paris – while still in Adelaide.

Research suggests that over the last decade Australians bought more bikes than cars. We now own about 1.4 million more bikes, compared with 1 million of their fossil-fuelled counterparts. The number of people who choose cycling as their method of commuting has also boomed – by 2016, 5 per cent of all journeys to work is expected to be by bicycle, up from 0.8 per cent in 2006.

Undeniably cycling has arrived as the new men’s sport and has overtaken golf. So why has cycling boomed in Adelaide particularly for men?

In Adelaide the effect of the “Tour Down Under” and the “Lance Effect” has ignited the popularity of cycling for men, who have reacted to the excitement of the racing, and the environmental, health and practical benefits of pedal power.

The “Lance Effect” refers to the influence Lance Armstrong has had on the popularity of cycling worldwide. Armstrong’s popularity was evident in Adelaide last year when he sent out a tweet inviting people to come ride with him and Australian cyclist Robbie McEwan. Over 5,000 people showed up, creating chaos.

Lance has done this also in Los Angeles, Glasgow and Dublin, and he has been continually shocked by the overwhelming response that his messages evoked.

Cycling has now reached a fundamental turning point in popularity. Ten years ago bike riding was a specialist activity, but now bike riding is a mainstream activity.

Governments also understand that cycling is a good thing to back. For instance, the SA Government is including a bike plan in its transport blueprint and 30 year plan, and has put a lot of money into specialised bike infrastructure and the State Government is aligned into a national cycling strategy.

Although Australians now own more bikes than cars, many of us still intend to ride to work/shop/end of our driveways but never do – and this is one of the principal reasons why many of us are found looking wistfully (or resentfully) at cyclists from cars and buses.

Do you want to get aboard the cycling revolution?

If you would like to get fit and get involved in the cycling revolution this summer you don’t have to buy an avanti carbon fibre racing cycle and squeeve into lycra to enjoy this sport…

Just visit SA.gov.au to find Adelaide’s bicycle routes and maps, road rules and safety, education programs and more general information about cycling.

This article is brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agent and Glenelg Property Management experts.