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April 2009

5 Car parking options

by Chris on April 27, 2009
5 Car parking options

A beautiful garage doorIn Australia there are a few options for car parking and the kind of parking available affects the value of the house, the better parking there is – the higher value the house has. Let’s go over them all, from the cheapest to the most expensive one.

Street parking

The cheapest parking is, of course, street parking. Houses that have only a street parking and don’t even have a right of way (meaning they don’t have an entrance from the street to a driveway) are considered less valuable than houses with a right of way (of course this comparison is only valid within the same area).

Driveway

The more attractive option is the driveway. A car (or cars, if there’s enough room) can be parked in a driveway, and if it is parked behind a gate, then it is called a secure parking.

Carport

A carportA carport is the next best thing. We call a carport a roof supported by 4 posts, it can be either free standing or attached to the house. There are usually no walls, so the carport is a shelter for a car – although not an ideal one. It will keep the car protected from the rain and from the harmful UV radiation, but won’t protect you from the wind as you are getting in or out the car.

When I bought my first car in Australia and was getting it insured, I had trouble answering a very simple question: “Is the car parked in a carport or a garage?”. I simply couldn’t tell the difference between a carport and a garage – well, here is the explanation:

Garage

A car in a garageThe best car parking is a garage. Garage is a building, a part of the house or a free-standing one, it has a roof and 4 walls, with a roller (or whatever else) door for the car. Normally there is access from the garage to the house, so can leave the car go straight into the house. A garage is often used as an extra storage space – in fact, many people don’t leave much room for the car :)

Double garage

And the ultimate best is a double garage – a garage for two cars. If there are two cars in the household and only a single garage, it means that somebody is always blocking somebody else, which is a nuisance and can cause lots of arguments. Double garage takes that headache away, because the two cars are parked side by side with neither one blocking the access to driveway.

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Dealing with unwelcome guests in your house (part 2)

by Chris on April 22, 2009
Dealing with unwelcome guests in your house (part 2)

Let’s get it over with – here is the rest of my spiders list with pictures, descriptions, symptoms, and treatment.

With this list you can stop living in fear, because it tells you exactly what you’re dealing with. Sorry, little spiders, you don’t have the advantage of surprise any more!

Still, some ugly pictures lay ahead so don’t say I didn’t warn you and proceed at your own risk :)

Brown house spiderBrown House Spider

Usually found in dark places: cupboards, inside or under furniture, in sheds. It has a small brown body (4 – 10mm) with tiny white spots and long legs.

Symptoms if bites

Headache, nausea, small blisters around the bite site. Not deadly.

Redback spider
Redback Spider
All the other spiders look scarier than this little creature and yet it is the one you should really watch out for. The females can easily recognized by the red “hourglass” on their rear ends, whereas males have the same shape of marking, only white. The females are twice as large as the males; their body size is 10mm vs. 4mm in males.

Unfortunately these spiders like living close to us, humans, which is why we should be very careful when moving rubbish bins or old containers, sitting on the steps of our verandas or using outdoor toilets – always look under the seat. Personally, I always wear gloves for gardening or if I have to touch anything that’s been sitting outside for a while.

Symptoms if bites

Bad news – this spider is deadly. Good news – there is antivenene in every hospital, you just need to get there quickly. The symptoms are sharp pain, sweating, loss of coordination, vomiting. The bite site becomes red and swollen and in five minutes the pain increases significantly and spreads all over, the person gets very thirsty.

Treatment

Get to the closest hospital as soon as possible or call an ambulance.

Daddy Long Leg
Daddy Long Legs Spider
This is the most common spider and I have 5 of them living in my house at this very moment. I don’t do anything about those little guys for one reason – they kill and eat Redbacks! Which is why I think of them as guardians rather than intruders. On contrary to what many people will tell you, they are not venomous and present no danger to humans.

Daddy Long Leg are harmless, live in dark corners of a house, under the ceiling, behind doors or in cupboards. They have extremely long slender legs and smallish body and don’t look scary at all. If I could pick a “favorite” spider, it’d be Daddy Long Leg :)

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Dealing with unwelcome guests in your house (part 1)

by Chris on April 17, 2009
Dealing with unwelcome guests in your house (part 1)

Arachnophobia - a man with a spider on his shoulderWhat you’re about to read is not another article about Aussie real estate or the first home buyers – it is about spiders. You may rightfully ask “what spiders have to do with a real estate blog” and my answer is “they live in your piece of real estate and you need to learn to co-exist”.

I am afraid of spiders. Correction: I am not afraid, I am terrified of spiders. This was my only issue with this beautiful country ever since I arrived – the amount of spiders that a person keeps discovering in their house – supposedly the safest place on Earth.

To keep this phobia under control I follow the old saying: “Know your enemy”. For me this is the only way to stop freaking out every time such unwelcome guest crawls out of some dark corner.

I have compiled a list of the venomous and not so venomous spiders that you can find in Victoria, with pictures, symptoms if they bite and suggested treatment. It should help you to identify the spider (and then spray it), and if it bites anyone you care about, to know how to deal with the wound before you rush to the hospital.

And now the “getting to know your enemy” part – prepare for some scary pictures. People with heart diseases, pregnant women and children, kindly leave the computer screen or proceed at your own risk :)

Huntsmen spiderHuntsmen Spider

This is a large spider, with body length of 16-20mm (plus legs), it is famous for hiding in the cars (whenever you forget to close the window) and then unexpectedly jumping on your dashboard. How cute. It occasionally comes into houses, leaving it’s normal hiding place – foliage and trunks of trees.

Symptoms if bites

Local severe pain and swelling, sweating, nausea and vomiting. Not deadly.

Treatment

Firmly apply a compression bandage first around the bite site and then around the whole limb. Immobilize the limb with a splint to delay venom absorption. If you don’t have enough material to cover the whole limb, apply a broad tourniquet to the limb, it is better than nothing—and keep the person from moving.

Black house spiderBlack House Spider

Mostly found in the corners of windows and door frames. Their web has a form of a funnel but they are not the famous Funnel Web Spider, people call them the Window spiders. As the name suggest, they are black, big, with body length 10-20mm and hairy legs.

Symptoms if bites

Nausea, sweating, localized pain and swelling. Not Deadly.

Treatment

Same as for Huntsmen.

To be continued, I know you can’t wait :)

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The “who is who” of real estate: 4 generation profiles

by Chris on April 12, 2009
The "who is who" of real estate: 4 generation profiles

The who is who of real estateMany newcomers may find it difficult to understand the situation in our real estate market today. It resembles a giant puzzle and you can try your best to make sense out of it, but to no avail because one important piece is missing. I am talking about some background information, or more precisely, knowing the forces that operate beneath the surface.

Aussie population (just like in any other country) consists of generations and every generation has it’s characteristics, certain goals that it pursues, the stage in life it is at right now and , of course, a nickname.

Let’s start with baby boomers. Baby boomers are the generation that was born between years 1946-1961. The nickname implies the soaring childbirth rates 9 months after the WWII ended and the servicemen came home. Right now baby boomers are in their 40s, 50s or 60s, they are representing the high income bracket and are the major players in the real estate market. No wonder – they entered the workforce much younger than any of today’s young adults (age 21 as compared to 27), move out of their parents’ homes early and started to manage their own financed at a younger age. Also the house price to income ratio used to be 3.8 to 1 back then (whereas it is 9 to 1 now), which means that the housing was 3 times more affordable for baby boomers than it is now. This pretty much explains why many of baby boomers are high profile investors at present.

Generation X are people born in the 1965 – 1976. They are today’s young professionals and real-estate-wise can be characterized as apartments-favoring buyers. Their lifestyle demands living close to the CBD and being unable to afford full size houses, they compromise on the space but not on the location. On top of housing affordability issues generation X is paying more tax as compared to its predecessors, which makes it harder for them to purchase a full size house within 20 km of work.

Generation Me are people born in 1970 – 1990. The name describes the nature of this generation. These folks never had to put anything else above their own good. It’s not that they are selfish – they believe that everything starts with the needs of an individual. Right now they are in their 30s – 20s (or even teenagers), didn’t live long enough to make/save a lot of money, which means they are not wealthy, and therefore don’t affect much the real estate market.

Generation Y consists of people born between 1980 – 1995. They are the offsprings of baby boomers and have grown up during the longest boom in Australia’s history. Many of them fell victims of bad lending practices of financial institutions, in other words it means that they are up to ears in debt, and many more are heading there because banks are continuously targeting these young people, selling them pre-approved credit cards, etc. Generation Y’ers are not prepared to sacrifice their lifestyle, which makes them renters rather than home buyers, because there is no way they can afford to buy a property close to the CBD.

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Is my money safe in a bank?

by Chris on April 3, 2009
Is my money safe in a bank?

Money in a piggy bankThis is not a pure paranoia speaking – any recession is a weird time and strange things can happen. In the past 12 months we’ve seen defaults of a number of financial institutions overseas and by now understand that similar things can happen in Australia as well. I sure wouldn’t like to see my money go when a bank goes bankrupt.

Let me draw a picture of the worst case scenario I was thinking about: I am saving up for a deposit, finally the 20% are in the bank, waiting for me to find the right house and sign a contract, I am going to the bank to get bank cheque prepared and they are telling me “Unfortunately we are experiencing cash problems, can you wait a couple of months?”.

So far I’ve described the problem – now it’s time to discuss a solution. Getting the money out of the bank is certainly not the way to go. Although for some types of bank accounts my worst case scenario is possible, there are other accounts that you can keep your money in and still sleep well at night.

Here is the deal – having seen financial institutions fail (in USA in particular), Australian government decided to protect us and from 12 October 2008 announced it will guarantee deposits in Australian owned banks, locally incorporated subsidiaries of foreign banks, credit unions and building societies for a period of three years. Any deposit under a threshold of 1 Million AUD is guaranteed with no extra fees involved, and for anything above that amount there is a fee.

The guarantee doesn’t cover all the accounts, so read carefully which ones are covered:

  • Separate mortgage offset accounts (with either 100% or partial offset) are covered.

    • However, home loan accounts with a redraw facility are not included

    Included are all standard deposit accounts, such as:

  • Transaction accounts
  • Online accounts
  • DIY deposit accounts
  • Term Deposits

However, Market linked investments such as Shares and Managed funds and life insurance are not included under the Government’s program because they are not considered by the Government to be eligible accounts.

And, of course, if you have any specific questions, it’s best to ask at your bank.

I’d like to ask you – did you think about this problem before? How safe do you think your money is in your bank? Have you ever considered your bank’s credit rating? Do you know what “credit rating” means?

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