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Posted by admin on 20 September 2011

Last time you signed a real estate contract did the agent ask for your driver’s license? Probably not, but from now on that’s likely to be a more regular request. Those wacky guys who brought you the emails from Isabella Caromel (lone survivor of a tsunami with US$10.6m she wants to share), the tales of surviving insurgent rebellion with millions that need urgent transfer, and other innovative scams, are up to new tricks.

Last year a Perth property owner contacted an agent, listed a house for sale, signed an offer and received the proceeds on the subsequent $485,000 sale. Only one small hitch – it wasn’t their house. And this month a $1million Sydney apartment was listed for auction in the same style of scam, this time identified before its sale. Needless to say the legal gurus around Australia have been grappling with how this can happen. Could someone pretend to be you? While you’re on holidays or for your investment property? How much info would they need to give an agent to convince them they were the owner? The scary truth is it’s dead easy.

Many of our seller clients are interstate (Brisbane’s inner city has lot of NSW investors for example) and we never meet them. They give us their name and if it matches the title search we proceed. Their contact details are no guarantee as an email address can be set up in anyone’s name, no check needed. We don’t have anything to verify their signature against on a listing authority or contract of sale. So you’ll understand why identity confirmation is becoming more important in our process.

The lawyers who handle conveyancing have a few more challenges as that’s where the money changes hands and they’re the last gatekeepers. Especially if there’s no mortgage and no bank checking the transaction. It’ll be interesting to see what changes we see as a result of the scam.

In the meantime maybe Isabella will share some of her inheritance with that unlucky Perth property owner.

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Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | No Comments »

Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 2 September 2011

Brisbane’s inner suburbs have some of the best examples of this state’s unique timber architecture. But for such a sought-after style of house there’s almost no consensus on what we should and shouldn’t call a “Queenslander”. Real estate agents know that adding the term to an advert can spike the enquiry levels. Builders are working the word into their descriptions in fairly imaginative ways (one applies the name to brick homes with timber-gabled facades – really?)

Maybe if it’s built north of the Tweed any house can legitimately share the title. But today we thought we’d ask you to share your thoughts: what makes a Queenslander a Queenslander? Surely there’s 4 key elements: it’s elevated from the ground, has a hardwood frame and softwood linings, the main materials are timber and tin, and it has a verandah.

Looking back into our history there were plenty of practical reasons for elevating the homes: to keep residents cool in summer, to allow easy construction on sloping land, to avoid floods, and to keep the timber away from termites. Under the house used to be a place for playing out of the sun, hanging the washing and a bed for the dog (or even a not-so-welcome relative). In “modern” times we saw this as an opportunity for extra space for media rooms, studies and garages. Are these still Queenslanders?

During our early years there were plenty of variations on timber home designs. Those built from 1859 to 1901 are often called Colonials (for our time as a colony). Bungalow is the common term for the next generation of styles that were usually more elaborate and included gabled, asymmetrical facades. In the 1920’s we adopted elements of the Californian Bungalows – even way back then we were taking design cues from the USA. You’ll also hear them called “inter-war Queenslanders” and there’s a huge range of designs built through this era. Those with an eye for detail can often date a home from its verandah posts, balustrades and windows (see below). How simple was life when to keep up with the Joneses you just needed a bullnose tin sunhood?!

Not surprisingly the Great Depression saw more simplicity and conservatism in design and by 1933 bricks were considered a modern option. Fibro was first manufactured in Queensland in 1936 and its easy-care maintenance meant it quickly became a popular cladding material. We’re still ripping the toxic stuff out of homes today.

If you’d like a very thorough read on the topic try “Brisbane House Styles 1880 to 1940” by Judy Gale Rechner (1998). Maybe every real estate agent should have a copy so we can get the terminology right! There’s no doubt we’re proud of our Queenslanders and their rich history – whatever the name means to you.

courtesy: "Brisbane House Styles" Rechner, 1998

Please share your definition of “Queenslanders”.

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Posted in architecture and renovation, real estate marketing, trends in Brisbane property | 2 Comments »

Posted by admin on 16 August 2011

Real estate agents generally pay a flat rate subscription to the property web sites and can list as many homes as they like within that fee. And the more listings they have up, the more enquiry they get. But unfortunately none of the real estate portals yet have a system in place to “expire” the listings at any point.

When a new listing comes onto the market there’s a buzz around the place. Buyers eagerly await their e-alerts from the web portals and the enquiry often comes thick and fast in those first few days. (It’s one of the reasons setting your asking price is so important, capitalising on that early response. But we digress…) After a couple of weeks it can take tailored promotion, price reductions and a good dose of tenacity to capture buyer interest. And after 6 or 8 weeks many sellers, and their agents, lose interest in the process and give it up as too hard.

So buyers often get frustrated that the online info is out of date. Open houses details from weeks ago. Tenancy info on leases that have long expired. There’s two ads live right now on one of the portals that recommend you buy before August 1st to avoid stamp duty changes. Another says the property must be sold before Christmas…but they’re not talking about 2011. Many times the property has been sold or withdrawn from the market months ago, but there’s no requirement on the agent to remove the listing.

Buyers are tired of dredging through this rubbish. They deserve better too – considering the hundreds of thousands of dollars we’re asking them to spend. In Brisbane CBD this week there were 531 properties for sale on realestate.com.au. Have a look at your suburb. Toowong (114) and New Farm (176) have a heap of listings on the web too. But how many are current and relevant?

If you’re selling make sure your agents keeps your ad fresh. You need to stand out of the crowd. Change the hero shot and headline around so the home has a better chance of standing out in those tiny search result lists. (Professional pics and an ad that’s relevant and targeted are always essential). Use a “last updated” date at the bottom of each ad to let buyers know it’s current. If your property’s not attracting any enquiry a “spruce up” of the web ad is a quick and free option.

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Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | No Comments »

Posted by admin on 25 July 2011

Are the body corp fees really the single most important feature when you’re choosing a home? The location, the size or the age of the apartment maybe? The views or even the condition of the kitchen perhaps? These are the big ‘value’ items and naturally our ads focus on them. So would it surprise you some buyers are selecting which home to inspect based on the amount of the annual body corp fees? 

We wrote recently about that mythical place called Buyer’s School and the trend for many home buyers to consistently ask similar questions. Surely they’re all attending some briefing session before hitting the open homes! And the latest must-ask question is focused on body corp fees.

Now we’d be the first to acknowledge that these do vary a lot between buildings, but we’re now being asked for the fees before a buyer will even inspect an apartment. Before they want to know about any other features. And it seems to us the focus has drifted to the wrong concerns.

The first comment is this: no-one makes a profit in a body corp. The fees are set with a budget so if they’re higher it’s costing more to run the building. Lifts, onsite management and insurances are big ticket items. So if you’re happy with stairs or waiting a little longer for your lift, you will save money. One CBD tower has 5 lifts for nearly 500 apartments while a South Brisbane mid-rise has 2 lifts for just 40 lots. Of course one is cheaper. Some bodies corp do put a lot away for rainy days; others run tight. You get what you pay for.

Buyers are naturally drawn to low fees but they need to ask if it’s not just a clue that the building is being run on a shoestring. Is the sinking fund forecast being followed? Will they cop a special levy of thousands, payable immediately, for all sorts of unbudgeted expenses? We’re not defending misuse of your funds and we agree that some bodies corp don’t keep a close enough eye on things. But if you’ve ever volunteered your time for a committee you’ll know it’s a thankless job and many owners don’t even bother to vote at the AGM, let along give their input into budgeting. So cut them some slack – or better still, get involved!

Right now we’re witnessing buyers who are spending half a million dollars or more, weighing their choice heavily based on annual fees. If the fees seem $1000/year too much why not offer $5000 less when you buy it and that’ll cover the next few years. And you’ll have time to join the committee and get the place in shape!

Please give us your comments? Why are body corp fees so important to buyers?

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Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | 3 Comments »

Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 14 July 2011

pic courtesy: 2011flood.blogspot.com

Real estate agents, in my humble opinion, are often wrongly cast as fibbers and cheats. A vast majority of us work hard, do the right thing and know that to be in this career for the long term we need to look after our clients.

But occasionally I’m reminded why a handful of idiots drag our industry back into the gutter.

A friend rang the other day, excited that he’d seen an apartment in a near-city suburb that looked like a great buy. From the description it sounded good value and it was close to cafes and a train station. But because we know inner-Brisbane well, my thoughts immediately turned to January’s flood levels. I came back to the office, double-checked the maps and rang to let them know that water had inundated that street.

But the advert didn’t mention it, nor did the agent when the buyer had called to book an appointment. Maybe the water missed this property, so my friends went ahead with the inspection today. They decided to wait for the agent to raise the issue, and after a thorough look through the apartment the conversation went something like this:

Buyer: “This looks great, new floor tiles and fresh paint?”
Agent: “Yep, looks good doesn’t it?”
Buyer: “Ok, anything else we need to know?”
Agent: “Nope, that’s pretty much it.”
Buyer: “What about the flood level in January?”
Agent: “Oh yeah… well yes the water came inside the apartment and (running his hand along a line on the wall 10cm from the floor) rose to about here”.

If confronted this agent might argue that he would have told them about the flood had they proceeded to make an offer. Maybe. But of course this buyer would have preferred to have known in advance so they could make a decision on inspecting or, at worst, have been told at the start of the inspection so they could see the place with a full understanding.

It was 6 months ago yesterday that Brisbane held its collective breath as the murky waters rose from the waterways. Plenty of homes were inundated and there are still buyers for them. Some of the discounts are not as bad as first feared. But covering the facts is childish and illegal.

What a shame January’s floods didn’t flush away more of our rubbish.

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Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | No Comments »

Posted by admin on 15 June 2011

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve surveyed tenants living in Brisbane’s inner city, asking them to rate the importance of 22 features of rental homes. Tenants were reminded that extra features in a home do cost them more in rent, so the survey responses are a collective ‘shopping list’ – the items they’d like to have as their budget affords. It gives landlords a better insight into buying and improving their investment properties.

The most important item in a rental home:
Outdoor living space. Even with a dose of cold weather during the survey tenants say they want an area to get outside. Balconies, decks and courtyards are a bit hard to retro-fit in your rental property but it’s food for thought when you’re buying your next one. And it follows that improvements you make to those outdoor areas, for example adding a roof over a deck or even some simple privacy screening, would be welcomed by your tenants.

Clean and modern:
You’d expect tenants to want a modern home and they do. Three of the top 7 features they seek relate to the condition of the home with “a modern home or one in great condition” scoring a close 2nd on their overall list. Tenants are prepared to put their hand in their pocket to have modern fittings. We regularly hear tenant feedback that rental homes need fresh paint, new carpets and other simple updates. As a landlord it can be hard to keep an eye on these things but they have a clear impact on your rental return.

And the features tenants won’t pay to have:
The wooden spoon goes to gymnasiums, closely followed by swimming pools. Those of you forking over big body corp fees to maintain these items might be feeling a little frustrated with this finding but it didn’t surprise us. We’ve been surveying tenants since the late 1990’s and both items consistently rate amongst the least important in a rental home. Buyers and re-sale interest in them might be another story.

If you’d like a copy of our full report for landlords just email info@beesnees.com.au and we’ll forward it on. How tenants choose their rental home’s location and plenty more info is included. Keep in mind the surveyed tenants mostly live in apartments in suburbs within a 5 kilometer radius of the CBD so the findings should be read in that context.

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Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market, architecture and renovation, real estate marketing | No Comments »

Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 25 May 2011

Out there somewhere is a place called Buyer School and they teach home buyers all the questions they need to ask agents. There must be – because at any open home there’ll be at least one buyer who’ll ask us: “So how long it’s been on the market?”, with just a glint in their eye that adds “and I’ll know if you’re bluffing!”

Apparently any answer of more than 3 weeks allows the buyer to nod knowingly and think “So no-one wants this one.”

One of the prominent market researchers is reporting Brisbane’s average days on market as 85 for a house and 90 days for an apartment. So if you buy a place that’s been for sale for 12-13 weeks that just makes you average. And out of interest one American Realtor’s blog we follow reports her local market has an average days on market of 180 – and their market’s improved.

So is this really the most important question for home buyers? Often, more often than not, the seller’s asking price has been adjusted since the home came on the market. RP Data report Brisbane sellers are currently dropping their prices almost 8% between that first day on the market and the final agreed price. Usually the final asking price, the list price at the time the sale happens, is only a couple of a percent higher than the final sale.

Could a better question be: “How long’s it been for sale at this price?” And here’s an insider’s tip: often sellers have run marketing campaigns in their early stages and after a few weeks on the market they’re left with just the web in their promotional toolbox. Less promotion means less enquiry and when interest is lowest that’s your best opportunity to buy well.

Ironically we all desire something most when it’s fresh, sought-after by the crowds and there’s a buzz around the place. In other words, when it’s at its dearest price. For my money I’d do my homework, seek out the place that really suits me, the home that fits the bill, and ignore the crowds. That’s what they should teach at Buyer School!

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Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | 1 Comment »

Posted by admin on 24 May 2011

With a huge percentage of Aussies now running around with smart phones Bees Nees have started printing QR Codes on all our promotional material. Maybe you’ve seen these QR (Quick Response) fuzzy boxes on all sorts of ads and posters in recent months? If you have a smart phone you can download a scanner for free (we just searched “barcode scanner” on the Android Marketplace on our team’s phones) and using the phone’s camera, home buyers and tenants can link straight to the web ads we have for each property.

In plain English? Looking in our office window a buyer can hold their phone up to a brochure and in approx 10 seconds open the web ad for all the details – and take that home with them. It’s a quick way to bring the off-line and on-line worlds together and in real estate marketing we have so much extra info we want to share with buyers and tenants.

Buyers and tenants want to receive information in easily digestible pieces. The introduction of QR Codes is another small step in improving this.

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Posted in real estate marketing | No Comments »

Posted by admin on 20 May 2011

The official Flood Inquiry progresses and we wait to hear whether there’s an easy place to lay the blame for January’s flooding. In the meantime Brisbane City Council has published their updated FloodWise Property Reports.

If you own a Brisbane property we’d recommend you take the time to check the interim Brisbane flood maps, because home buyers and even some tenants will be making use of them. And they won’t be fully accurate.

So how did they create the maps? The flood line is a joint effort from the State Govt and BCC using aerial photography taken between January 13th and 15th, then verifying these against “digital elevation models and contours”. Naturally some things are hard to spot from the air. Large trees and buildings create shadows, muddy water might be confused with gardens etc.

Apparently in the aftermath of the 1974 floods paint marks on the streets showed where water had reached and no doubt some enterprising intending home-sellers got the metho onto those pretty quickly! In this digital age the public record stands, but it might be worth everyone approaching the maps with some caution.

If you’re looking to buy and aren’t sure about floods levels why not ask a neighbour? Even now, 4 months on, the visible signs are still there with watermarked garden walls for example.

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Posted in Brisbane's rental market, Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | No Comments »

Posted by admin on 29 April 2011

BRW Magazine has announced their “Fast Starters” list for 2011, and Bees Nees City Realty has been recognised as one of Australia’s 100 fastest growing start-up companies.

Bees Nees  is the only Australian real estate agency recognised and one of just 15 young businesses from Queensland to make the list. According to BRW the quality of the 2011 Fast Starters was as high as ever, as “businesses and entrepreneurs presented the solid business practices required to deliver growth in a downturn, exhibiting innovation and resilience.”

The national business magazine’s list ranks companies from across Australia and has key selection criteria for start-up businesses to qualify. This is the second consecutive year Bees Nees has been recognised.

Rob Honeycombe founded Bees Nees in 2006 and says he’s proud of the team’s achievement.

“We’re firmly of the view that our property managers, our salespeople and our support team are the life and blood of the agency. We’re a service business so we’re entirely reliant on the professionalism and attitude of our team members.”

“It’s great to be recognised as fast-growing but that’s not our goal. That’s just one of the side-effects from delivering great service to our landlord and seller clients.”

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Posted in real estate marketing | No Comments »

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