Orleigh Park catching up with family and friends. With slippery slides and see-saws small enough for a 2 year old to enjoy, it’s a great picnic spot for young families. There’s also a giant frog with a slippery-slide tongue and a giant pumpkin big enough to hide inside. There’s heaps of shaded parking at Hill End Terrace or you can get off at the West End Ferry stop.
Archive for December, 2008
Posted by admin on 14 December 2008
Posted by admin on 11 December 2008
Brisbane City Council has written to South Bank Corporation to raise concerns about the construction of the ABC’s new 4000m2 4 story production centre (next to QPAC). Issues raised included the reduction of green space, the impact of extra traffic in Grey Street & the effect on sewage infrastructure. I’m sure the local cafes will enjoy the extra lunch traffic, plus the increased rental demand by those ABC workers wishing to live close by.
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 4 December 2008
Depending on your point of view the USA are ahead of us in many industries. In housing, and certainly in real estate service, we keep an eye out for their genuine innovations. Two of our team has just returned from Florida where, along with 21,000 American realtors, they attended their Association’s annual conference. So here’s some of the latest from the land of the Big Mac:
Online everything. Their use of the web in real estate is miles ahead, with much richer content on the properties, their neighbo(u)rhoods and the realtors themselves. One site even charts the map location of all nearby registered pedophiles! Home buyers and tenants are armed with enormous quantities of info, they’re overwhelmed with choice and in such a crowded marketplace only realtors with innovative marketing are helping their clients’ properties stand out.
Blogging is the great opportunity for sharing with millions of people (or just your mum if it’s purely self-promotional) and a handful of agents are doing this well, providing useful and entertaining content. One seminar speaker credited Obama’s presidential success to a savvy online campaign with viral email content, blog pages and genuine interactivity where voters felt their opinions were heard.
TV’s in bathrooms. With the average American watching more than 8 hours of TV every day (Australia averages 3.2) it’s pretty much mandatory for new U.S. bathrooms to include at least one flatscreen. Video is taking over the online world too with content quickly moving away from long paragraphs of text. Many American buyers are finding their next home on YouTube and through other social media sites.
A market that’s bottomed. Setting aside some positive thinking (famous for it those Americans) we got a genuine sense the approx 20% drop in house prices was at it’s worst. Volumes of sales have improved enough to give confidence (up 29% in California’s Orange County one realtor told us) while banks are staying the executions on the 1 in 6 of mortgages that are “upside down”, that is, the debt’s more than the house value.
A banking system that’s the butt of jokes. Home owners unable to make their repayments are free to simply mail the keys back to the bank (called “jingle mail”) and a bad credit rating is the only consequence for a default. Loans at 100% created massive demand and builders quickly oversupplied the nation. One Los Angeles realtor explained it like this: “Some of those folks could never afford a home, then they could, and now they can’t again. They had some years living the great American dream so good luck to them!” He agreed their banking model was “craaazy mannnn”.
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 3 December 2008
The Real Estate Institute has just announced their finalists for best in the industry for 2009 and Bees Nees is in the running for Medium Agency of the Year. (“Medium” is size – not our service standard!) This was only possible with magical support from our clients and plenty of hard work from our team – so thankyou!
Posted by admin on 3 December 2008
Work is well underway by the Priest’s Home Retirement Fund who is building 7 units on the Corner of Browning and Besant Streets, South Brisbane. The total cost of construction is $2.7million. Find out more on the new home for retiring South Brisbane Clergy
Posted by admin on 3 December 2008
1. Eliza asked her Sunday School class to sketch a picture of their favourite Bible stories. She was puzzled by Tommy’s picture which showed four people sitting in a plane, so she asked him which bible story it was meant to represent. “The flight to Egypt” said Tommy. “I see … and that must be Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus,” Eliza said, “But who’s the fourth person?” “Oh, that’s Pontius – the Pilot.”
2. A man visited the vicarage on Christmas Eve and asked to see the vicar’s wife, who was well known for her charity. As he spoke to her he said in a voice breaking with emotion, “I’d like to draw your attention to the terrible plight of a poor family in this district. The father is dead, the mother is too ill to work, and the nine children are starving. They are about to be turned out into the cold streets unless someone pays their £1000 rent arrears before Christmas.”
“How frightful!’ exclaimed the vicar’s wife. ‘May I ask who you are?” The visitor wiped his eyes with his handkerchief and wailed, “I’m their landlord.”
