We see realestate.com.au has today finally launched its new site for mobile phone access. The content is a reformated version of the same stuff you can see the old fashioned way (on your desktop!) but with the growing numbers of big screen phone owners REA wanted to upgrade the look and feel for your iPhone, Blackberry etc. We’d expect to see a lot more for sale signs on front lawns quoting the property ID number so buyers and tenants can get a drive-by viewing!
Posts Tagged with www.realestate.com.au
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 25 March 2009
Posted by admin on 18 January 2009
professional photos make all the difference!
My biggest bug bear? Rental advertisements! We just can’t understand why agencies/property managers don’t place the same importance on marketing a property for sale, as they do a property for rent. Actually, it’s called instant gratification. A sales person/agency will make in the order of almost $10,000 on an average property sale whereas, an agency will only make approximately $1500 per year from management fees. Plus, the rental market is strong and therefore property managers know they can get away with shoddy advertising.
In this day and age, 99% of rental enquiry comes through the internet. Now, we’d love to sit here and tell you that writing an advertisement is labour intensive, but the facts are, that once it’s done the first time, it’s a simple matter of pressing one button when the property comes up for re-let and wah-lah the advertisement reappears. Now then, how hard is it to spend some time on professional photography, floor plans and an enticing, descriptive prose the first time the property is handed to a property manager? It’s really not.
You would think that realestate.com.au charges by the letter wouldn’t you? DLUG, SLUG, D/W, A/C, etc. I can tell you, it doesn’t. Agents can literally write anything they like at any length they like. There is no word limit or extra charges for extra length. There is also a limit of 26 photographs – not 3! So why then are there still advertisements out there that describe (we use the term loosely) a property as “2 bed, 1 bath unit, nice Street, SLUG” – with one photo of the outside of the apartment? And why would a tenant be enticed to inquire about renting this apartment when they can see another comparable apartment with all its features listed. Would you go through the trouble of calling a rental agent, making a time to see the property, have them turn up 10 minutes late only to show you something you hated when you know by looking at the photos and floor plan that the other property is suitable? You wouldn’t, and neither would the tenants you are trying to attract.
When selecting a Property Manager, check their standard of advertising. Check they spell words correctly, describe the property accurately and in its best light. Check the photos – are they blurred, too dark, too light? Check to see whether the property manager/lettings clerk knows the rental rates in the area and is pushing to get the best rent.
When your property is up for re-let, do the checks above and just see whether you would rent your property. Chances are if you wouldn’t rent it at the price you are asking neither will anyone else – at least not the type of tenant you want to attract!
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 12 November 2008
As agents we’ve often thought it ironic how home-buyers tell us they’re after a place with a sense of community, where neighbours know their name, somewhere to feel they are included and “belong”. Whole housing estates and apartment buildings are marketed for this appeal. Yet once people move in to their dwellings they often install privacy fencing, black-out curtains and wait til after dark to take out the rubbish, lest they should bump into those loud-music-playing inconsiderates. (Admit it, you have!) Aussies would even prefer bikies living next door to a “nosy nanna”, according to a www.realestate.com.au survey!
With many of us struggling to share it won’t surprise you that recent stats show most Australian households have lots of spare bedrooms. Lots and lots of them. According to the ABS 78% of homes have at least one spare bedroom. A generation or two ago it was commonplace for widows and others to have a “lodger” or boarder living in. There was an acceptance that the extra income offset any inconvenience of hosting them, and in an era when for example women weren’t as accepted in the workplace, this was a handy solution. Male lodgers also took care of the ‘male’ jobs around the home, like lawn-mowing…
For those happy to share their homes there’s a massive market on offer in Brisbane’s inner city today. Largely driven by the international student boom and a critical housing shortage some home owners are earning up to $200 per week per student, providing little more than a modest room and amenities. Many of our Universities and TAFE’s run home-stay schemes to match owners and room-seekers. The ABS says a massive 98% of couple households have spare bedrooms so this housing ’supply’ can be turned on pretty quickly. Instead of filling the empty nest with Chihuahuas and poodles this gives home owners the option of some human company (and money).
And the feedback from home owners we’ve talked to? For the most part these are positive experiences with great friendships made. One couple told us they’d travelled to visit former lodgers in their home countries. Another said their children kept in touch with previous home-stayers on Skype, and were hoping to study in that country after school. Maybe we need to put our distrust of strangers aside a little. Our homes are still getting bigger, we want the 42″ plasma today and we don’t want to live in the ‘burbs. So putting a lodger into the room at the end of the hallway might be a happy compromise.
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 12 September 2007
If you’re like most real estate buyers the first (or at least second) thing you want to know about a property will be the price. For years we’ve heard buyers’ frustrations with not knowing whether the home is anywhere near their budget and the feeling that some agents take you for a fool. As far back as the mid-1990’s we saw a USA home buyer survey that reported more than 2-thirds would not respond to an ad that didn’t have a price. And last year www.realestate.com.au surveyed 1000 Aussie buyers – and a whopping 92% said they would be unlikely to enquire about a property with no price indication.
So why do agents persist in leaving the price off ads? There’s always been auctions with no prices, then there were price ranges (some agents had colour coded bars and all sorts of confusing clues), but now, with perhaps more insult to buyers’ collective intelligence, there’s the “offers over” line. Becoming increasingly common in Brisbane ’s inner suburbs this often sees a home worth $800,000 being promoted as “offers over $725,000″. And here’s why it happens: some agents are scared to tell their sellers the truth. Rather than advise what their research shows (e.g. “recent sales and current competition suggest your home’s worth approx $800,000″), a lazy agent can duck the issue and throw it to the market without a firm price.
They also avoid losing the job to another agent who buys the listing by telling the seller “$875,000 will be no worries mate”. Agents can justify the “offers over” spiel by saying it “feeds the greed” and captures maximum interest from buyers. But surely it also wastes a lot of people’s time.
We listed a house in Annerley last week and there was a collective sigh from buyers who responded to the ads, pleased that they knew the price and, while it was priced high to test the market, we sold it in the first week for very close to list price. Sellers delighted, buyers contented and no-one misled at any stage.
Here’s a recent horror story of one agent: having listed a home for “offers over $520,000″ she sold it for $572,000, telling the buyer she couldn’t accept an offer for any more than that. Why? She’d been told that if a home sold for more than 10% over her advertised price she might be accused of misrepresentation or bait advertising! Sad ending to the story is that home may well be worth $600,000.
Auctions certainly have their place (not nearly as often as some agents use them in our opinion) and good promotion should always focus on getting a quicker sale at the best possible price for the seller. But some agents would do well to consider that buyers are informed and have little time for games and deception.
Posted by admin on 6 June 2007
If there was ever any doubt we’re a shallow bunch… a recent survey’s confirmed Australians check out eachother’s homes before getting serious with a date. According to the www.realestate.com.au questionnaire 72% say a clean and tidy home are “essential” qualities in a partner and, in a finding that’s sure to upset some of the “fabulous darling” interior designers, twice as many respondents want a cosy home versus a trendy one.
And if you’re single and have 45+ years on your odometer don’t even think about renting…. almost 2/3rds of those eligible bachelors and bachelorettes will run a mile when they find out you don’t own your own home!
Posted by admin on 1 November 2006
Got to love these online polls…. Latest survey by www.realestate.com.au shows Australians would prefer to live next to a bikie or a crying baby ahead of a nosy old lady! Seventy per cent said the worst neighbour is a non-stop party animal, but almost 5 times as many people rated interfering oldies as worse than bikies!
If we’re to improve our neighbourly relations maybe we should take a leaf from our UK cousins: In a similar poll almost 20% of them have admitted to getting about “without their kit on” outside their home and, perhaps unsurprisingly, only 16% say they mind if their neighbour ‘does an Adam and Eve’ in the back yard!
