Read more… or Read more right here… »

Do you even feel like answering these questions? Nahhhh… me neither

I’m just thankful for having you as my readers, no strings attached, no questions asked, you are welcome here any time and I am wishing you a very good year.

When you’re all back from the holidays and are sober enough to think straight, it will be my pleasure to continue writing about my favorite thing - Aussie property world.

Let’s just hope for the best, forget about the worst and step into the future (as if we had a choice!)

By the time the countdown is over, it’s HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

photo source

« Hide it

Subscribe to Homeiown.com - click here

Read more… or Read more right here… »

We may not have the snow here in Australia, but we sure have the spirit! We’ve decorated our gum trees with ornaments, and put on our Christmas shorts and thongs, because it’s too hot to be wearing anything else.

My best wishes to you in this festive season, may you get lots of presents and give even more. Have a nice holiday, and then come back to my website, check what I’ve been up to

Happy Holidays!

photo source

« Hide it

Subscribe to Homeiown.com - click here

Read more… or Read more right here… »

1. Ask your friends what they like and dislike about your house. The reason why is that you can’t be objective about your own house, so you need a “second opinion”. Think how you can enhance the areas they liked. Think how to make areas they disliked look more attractive.

Example 1. You ask your best friends Fred and Linda what they like about your house. They say it’s your deck. Buy some flowers in hanging baskets and hang on the deck to make it look like a little piece of paradise, buy a nice candle holder and a beautiful scented candle and put it on the table to make the place look more romantic. These are just a few ideas, I am sure you can come up with more.

Example 2. Fred says he doesn’t like your ugly coat rack and shoe rack by the front door. You remove the coat rack and hang a picture to hide holes in the wall. Instead of the shoe rack, you decide to put an plant in a pot by the door. Again, when you think of your specific home, this may seem as a silly idea, but it’s only here to emphasize that you shouldn’t be afraid of moving things around.

2. Go to inspections of other houses in your area. Make a list of all the negative things that you notice there, and then compare it to your property - does you house have any of them? What can you do to fix them or make them less noticeable?

3. Make a list of the good things you notice about other houses for sale in your area, can you make yours look the same?

4. Have your house spring-cleaned (even if it’s the middle of winter). Clean windows will make it look brighter, nicer and well looked-after. Get a cleaner if you’re too busy to do it yourself, but get it done before the first inspection.

5. Have your carpets cleaned (especially if you have pets). You may not notice the smell, but the buyers certainly will. Pet hair is a major turn-off even for people who have pets themselves, not to mention that some folks are allergic to it.

6. Cover ugly spots on the carpets with little cute rugs. Any house with wall to wall carpets will have stubborn stains that can’t be removed even by professional cleaners, but with a little creativity you can mask those using rugs.

7. Put slipcovers on dirty or worn out furniture. This is the a much cheaper alternative to reupholstering. They will make your furniture look so much nicer with so little effort. On top of everything else most slipcovers are machine washable and you get to keep them even after you’ve sold the house.

8. De-clutter. Take this as a general guideline; my next post will have specific tips for de-cluttering the problematic areas of your home.

9. Each room needs to show what it’s for. If you’re using one bedroom as an office / study, make it look like a bedroom again. Yes, it’s a nuisance, and no, you shouldn’t leave things as they are. Otherwise potential buyers might remember your house as 2 bedroom instead of 3 bedroom - see the difference?

10. Put stylish pictures on walls.

11. Make your bathroom(s) look nice. How? Using colours. Instead of choosing towels and rugs of the same colour as bathroom walls, chose a different colour - the colour of tiles or floors or of accessories, such as soap dispensers etc.

12. Add a stylish touch to your bathroom cabinets - replace the old knobs and drawer pulls to make them look SO much better. Same goes for kitchen drawers and cabinets.

photo source 1 photo source 2 photo source 3

« Hide it

Subscribe to Homeiown.com - click here

Read more… or Read more right here… »

We’ve heard a lot about foreclosures in the USA, but not so much here, in Australia. Nonetheless, apparently we’re not doing too well on that front - Port Melbourne was identified as an area where people are experiencing a pretty strong mortgage pain. According to ratings agency Fitch, 4% of households are behind on their payments.

Port Melbourne is not the only spot - the mortgage defaults rate in Oak Park, Mornington, Hoppers Crossing, Melton and Boronia is over 2%. Read the full article in The Age here.

Do not assume that people who default on loans are owner occupiers - there are investors as well that can’t keep servicing their mortgages. This article in Sydney Morning Herald puts this in a totally different light - when an investor defaults on a loan, what happens to the tenants? Do they become homeless? The article speaks about Sydney, but I wonder how many people in Melbourne are being forced to look for another home - and the rental market is tight as it is already.

Economists expect the interest rates to go up in 2010, to be more precise they expect a raise of 1% in 2010 and a raise of another 0.75% in 2011. This would mean that on a mortgage of 300K the increase of monthly repayment will be $190 in 2010 and $340 in 2011. As if people didn’t have a hard enough time already, with all the financial crisis, unemployment and unaffordable housing. Read the full article here.

And this last article is on entirely different topic. Did you know that Aussie homes are the biggest in the world? Australian Bureau of Statistics says that the average floor area of a new Aussie home is now 215 square meters.

Ironically, although the houses are becoming bigger, blocks of land are getting smaller. If you think of it, this is exactly the opposite of what you’d want - you have now more of a depreciating asset and less of an appreciating asset. Go figure Read the full article in Australian Property Investor magazine here.

photo source

« Hide it

Subscribe to Homeiown.com - click here

Read more… or Read more right here… »

Let me give you some reasons to be skeptical about the huge rise in sea level by 2100. The climate change report is full of predictions based on assumptions. When I mentioned that people have been building relatively close to the shoreline because the sea level around Australia was pretty stable over the years, I didn’t back that - well, here are the numbers.

Between years 1842 and 2002 the sea level around Australia rose by about 17 centimeters. If you do the math, 17cm divided by 160 years gives us about 1 millimeter per year. Which means that if the sea level continues to rise at the same pace, 100 years later we will have a rise of 10cm - no big deal.

The report also assumes that greenhouse gas emission will continue at the present rate - well, maybe they will and maybe they won’t. The awareness has clearly been created and is being backed up by legislation and regulations of all sorts, to have the emissions reduces, etc.

It is also not a given that we, humans, have caused the global warming and there are quite a few scientists who claim that we’re now going through a natural process of global warming which has been closely followed by Ice Age in the past - in which case we need to worry about icy roads, not flooded houses.

All in all, I would say - if you love the ocean view, there’s still no reason to give up on it, especially if this climate change report affects the coastal property prices and creates some opportunities for you. One thing to bear in mind is that you would be facing difficulties insuring property that can be inundated - probably would be a wise thing to call an insurance company or two and ask about their policy regarding coastal homes.

photo source

« Hide it

Subscribe to Homeiown.com - click here