August Newsletter 2009
Monday, August 03, 2009
Understand your buyer to maximise your home sale price
In tough economic times, spending money to make money is a difficult prospect for many property sellers, who are carefully watching the purse strings. But experience shows that by focusing on some key improvements to your home, you can make $3 for every $1 outlaid, and sell your home in less time, with less stress.
Different categories of buyers can be spooked by a variety of perceived problems with the property – and a glossy brochure and professional photos can’t cover over damage to the walls or a garden that has turned to wilderness. Pick your target market and spend wisely. You’ll see the returns.
Romancing the First-Home Buyers
First-home buyers love that “brand-new” feeling, and when they fall in love with a property, they can become competitive enough to drive the price up significantly. However, they are easily scared off by cosmetic damage, which can cause irreversible heartbreak in their romantic adventure. If your property appeals to this market, fix any cracks in the ceiling, dripping taps in the bathroom and rust stains on the kitchen bench. You may know that the ceiling damage is only cosmetic and not symptomatic of any structural problems, but it can enough to kill the love affair. First-home buyers don’t require a glamorous renovation, but something clean, neat and functional. Spending a little money on replacing light switches, power point covers and door handles can modernise the look of the property, which may be enough to secure the First-Home Buyers’ passion, and their desire to bid up on the sale.
Selling a secure haven for families
Families with children are looking for comfort, safety and security. Renovations may be considered further down the track, but for the moment, the family wants to settle in to a comfortable home. If you target this market, make sure the home has a fence to protect wandering toddlers from the street and install locks on gates.
Create open spaces within the home where the family can gather comfortably. Borrow or hire a good quality swing set for the yard, include an outdoor dining table, and your buyers will be salivating over the prospect of backyard barbecues with the family in no time.
An easy life for empty-nesters
Couples in their advancing years are looking to downsize, and live in a secure and low-maintenance home.
They require plenty of storage for their lifetime of possessions, and possibly a spare room for the grandkids to stay over. Ground-floor properties are particularly sought after, but they must not have high maintenance requirements. Hedges that need regular pruning, expansive lawns and garden beds are going to be a turn-off for this group. Likewise, elaborate light fittings and cornices that attract dust and cobwebs are going to produce more work for couples in their twilight years. Best to go simple and minimal with your makeover, to reduce the upkeep.
DAFFODIL DAY
If you have a mother, father, sister, brother or best friend, there’s every chance your life will be touched by cancer. No matter who you are, Daffodil Day is for you.
This year Daffodil Day is Friday 28th of August
It’s a day for all of us to give hope for a brighter, cancer-free future for ourselves, and for those we love. Daffodil Day merchandise is on sale throughout August, and you can donate to Daffodil Day at anytime.
Sydney House Prices Defy Downturn
Sydney house prices have bucked the global downturn and risen solidly this year amid a flurry of interest from first-home buyers, latest figures show. They posted one of the biggest capital city gains of 1.1 per cent in May. A typical house fetched $582,543, according to an index published by RP Data and Rismark International yesterday.
Despite the burden of being a financial hub, Sydney house values jumped 5.2 per cent in the first five months of 2009 and 3.5 per cent over the year to May. The only capital cities to post bigger rises this year were Melbourne (6.1 per cent) and Darwin (5.5 per cent).
A surge in more affordable suburbs such as Blacktown, Liverpool and Fairfield drove the result. They had recorded the sharpest falls in the past five years. But prices for houses over $1 million continue to slump, and the most expensive 10 per cent of properties were 12 per cent lower than a year ago. A research analyst at RP Data, Cameron Kusher, said an influx of first-home buyers, attracted by low mortgage rates and the Federal Government's first-home buyers grant of up to $21,000, was helping to prop up prices.
At the same time, the supply of new housing is stalling. The Housing Industry Association said yesterday sales of new homes in NSW slumped 10 per cent in May, and predicted the number of new houses started in the state would hit a record low in the 2008-09 financial year. Mr Kusher said this looming shortage, alongside the first-home boom, suggested prices would keep rising. "At the time when we should be building more, we are really not," he said.
In a further sign of resilience, new figures from the Reserve Bank showed credit for homes was the only type of private sector lending to expand in May. Housing credit grew 0.5 per cent, while personal credit shrank 0.6 per cent after posting its weakest-ever result in the year to May. Lending to businesses shrank by 0.7 per cent as companies reduced investment plans. The trends have convinced some economists that house prices have bottomed, but questions remain over the sustainability of relying on first-home buyers to prop up the market.
An economist at the ANZ Bank, Alex Joiner, said the trends in house prices and credit ruled out an "Armageddon scenario" seen overseas, where home values are down by about 20 per cent. But he said cuts to the first-home buyers grant from December could slow growth to a more modest pace, with investors picking up some of the slack. "The scaling back of the federal first-home buyers grant ... will take some heat out of the housing market, yet we anticipate that investors and the 'upgrader' segments of the market will continue to pick up," Dr Joiner said.
But a Westpac economist, Matthew Hassan, said the response to lower interest rates from housing investors had been lacklustre compared with previous recessions. As more people lost their jobs, this could cause prices to plateau rather than rise.
However, Mr Hassan said first home buyers were typically younger people, who had been less likely than older workers to lose their jobs in past recessions.