Posts Tagged ‘South Australia’

Raine & Horne South Australia CEO, Kevin Magee answers the top real estate questions every month including “HOW’S THE MARKET?” in South Australia and “WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR ME?” in the process identifying real estate opportunities, clarifying trends and providing property market tips for Raine & Horne members, Buyers, Sellers, Investors (Landlords) & Tenants.

For ongoing & concise property updates, media scoops and tips follow Kevin on Twitter @rhSA_CEO or contact Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts.

Many Glenelg homeowners are holding off from putting their property on the market as the media continue to report a market downtown and uncertain financial times. But the ‘best time to sell’ is often not what it seems. 

Some people sell to retire and buy something smaller. This blog post does not refer to them. But the majority of sellers at any given time are trading up to a bigger property to house their growing family or reflect their increasing wealth. These home owners will pay more for their next home, than they will get for the one they are selling ….and actually do better when the market is on the decline. The fact that they are spending more money second time round gives them an opportunity to make money on the transaction.

If the reason they think it’s ‘not a good time to sell’ is because they ‘will not get a good enough price’ for their home, then the logical next step is to realise that if the market prevents them from getting the price they want, it will also affect the sellers of the property they are trading up to…and the bottomline net gain remains with the person who is trading up. If you get $603,000 for your home in a cheaper suburb (which has been valued at $670,000), you may feel you are ‘losing’ $67,000 or around 10% of the value of your asset.

But if you (say) buy a more expensive home in a more expensive suburb such as Glenelg, which is (say) valued at $850,000 in the same market. Then the owners of that home will also ‘lose’ 10%, as you also will not be paying more than the current declining market value.

In paying 10% less for the Glenelg Property you will pay $765,000, ‘saving’ $85,000 – thereby ‘making’ $18,000 on the transaction. In other words you ‘saved’  more on the next transaction, than you ‘lost’ on the sale of your current home, so you are ahead by $18,000.

In fact, there are other advantages to trading up in a buyers’ market.

Because prices are stable and properties often take longer to sell, once vendors have sold their original property there is no rush to buy. They can take their time choosing and negotiating their next purchase without having to watch the gap between the price they got for their original property and the price they have to pay for their next one increasing at an alarming rate.

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

“It’s sometimes hard to work out when interviewing a new Glenelg Landlord, why they may feel vaguely dissatisfied with their incumbent property management service” said Ms Bonet Principal – Raine & Horne Glenelg.

“When you sart talking to them you know straight away it’s not working for them, but you can’t put your finger on why?”

“Our experience with our Glenelg Property Management business is that most property investors want to communicate with one person for their day-to-day needs” said Ms Bonet. ”They don’t want different jobs to be managed by different personnel (task management); they want their whole portfolio to be looked after (whether they own one property or several) by one person who is responsible for all tasks relating to their properties – arrears, re-letting, repairs and so on”.

When it comes to hiring a property manager, here is a checklist you can run through to reassure yourself that your agent is doing the best thing by your investment. Here’s a checklist thatall Property Investors should ask themself;

1. Does your property manager talk to you on the phone or does he/she send emails or text messages? Most landlords are baby boomers and prefer to discuss things directly when there is a problem so if you feel your property manager is hiding behind emails or text messages when you need to talk, let them know.  
    
2. Do they respond to your requests quickly? Property managers who take longer than half a day to respond to phone calls and emails are letting you down.
    
3. Most landlords prefer minimal vacancy; it’s obvious that even a week’s vacancy is money that will never be recouped.  If your property is vacant, don’t let your property manager ‘give it another week to see how we go’. If it isn’t rented in 10 days, it’s time to drop the rent by 10%.
    
4. Are you getting the best referenced tenants? Keeping the rent at 95% of market value minimises arrears, vacancies and maintenance – and therefore increases net return although the rent is slightly below market. Landlords who go for the highest rent lose money in vacancies and repairs – so check that your agent isn’t setting the rent too high.
    
5. Does your property manager keep you informed about further ‘good’ investments? This could be via an email with links to their website and properties for sale.

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

Watch this Video to hear from Raine & Horne SA’s CEO Kevin Magee, to find out what is happening in the SA Real Estate Market in March 2011.

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

Watch this Video to hear from Raine & Horne SA’s CEO Kevin Magee, to find out what is happening in the SA Real Estate Market in January 2011.

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

Watch this Video to hear from Raine & Horne SA’s CEO Kevin Magee, to find out what is happening in the SA Real Estate Market in December 2010.

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

Watch this Video to hear from Raine & Horne SA’s CEO Kevin Magee, to find out what is happening in the SA Real Estate Market in November 2010.

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

Watch this video … to get the latest in the South Australian Property Market Updates

This video is to brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts

Watch this video … to get the latest in the South Australian Property Market Updates

This video is to brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts