The term ‘negative gearing’ is almost synonymous with property ownershop in Australia. Australia is one of the few places in the world where people deliberately buy property with the intention of losing money. Lose money on property???? …. Never!!! Yes, to negatively gear a property is to lose money on the difference between the rental… Read More

There are a number of gloom and doom merchants out there, some from the other side of the world, peddling the line that Australian house prices are overvalued by 40% to 60%. It is true that property prices in WA were over valued following the boom of 2006, when the median price increased by 42%… Read More

Often the question in any seller’s mind is whether to use the local agent or to use someone they know and trust and who has the experience but is not local. There are aguments for and against. From a personal point of view as a practicing real estate agent with over 25 years experience and… Read More

The question many people are asking me as we return from holidays and the Christmas break is “What will real estate do in 2012?” It’s a fair enough question following the depressed market of the past two years. In fact the Perth property market has been trending down since the peak of the boom in… Read More

As 2011 draws to a close we can reflect on what has arguably been the worst year for Perth property prices and the number of transactions for over 25 years. The Real Estate Institute of Australia in it’s latest “Market Facts” reports that house prices in Perth declined by 6.3% over the September quarter, to… Read More

I was reading the Australian Financial Review the other day (29/11/11) and came across a story by economics correspondent Michael Dwyer. He begins with this, ‘Resilient as Australia is, there might be no escaping at least some of the backwash of the economic tsunami now threatening the entire euro zone”. Whilst the euro plays a… Read More

I’m sure everyone recognises this famous equation Einstein used to represent the Theory of Relativity. The question is how many people actually understand it and can explain it? Well, I for one certainly can’t but what I’ve done is come up with my own theory of relativity aptly named “Bernie’s Theory of Relativity”. Here’s how… Read More

Today I’m referring you to a recent report by consumer group ‘Choice’ about how much influence the real estate industry has over newspaper editorial content. You will find a link to the report at the end of this blog if you would like to read it. Essentially Choice is saying that the real estate industry,… Read More

Follow @bkroczek I saw a video recently where a real estate agent was suggesting that agents who do NOT charge sellers for marketing their property, were not acting in the seller’s best interest. I found this to be an interesting and different perspective on this rather vexed question of Vendor Paid Advertising or VPA. It… Read More

Follow @bkroczek I saw an article on a News Ltd website recently about what was referred to as “real estate agents latest tricks”. Some real estate agents in Sydney are using computer software to enhance photographs of properties, which are being marketed for sale on the internet. You know how it works, making a less… Read More

Follow @bkroczek You quite often see properties advertised for sale with no price. For example, headlines starting with the property suburb and then “OFFERS!” If you were in the market to buy something in this particular suburb what would your initial reaction be on seeing a property advertised without a price? Mine would be that… Read More

Follow @bkroczek I read an interesting article in last weekend’s Australian Financial Review written by Alan Stokes. The article as somewhat entertaining being written tongue in cheek, one would think, or maybe not. The essence of it was that due to the caution and lack of confidence prevailing in the property market nationally, but no… Read More

Follow @bkroczek I went in to my local newsagent this morning and was browsing through the popular magazines on display. My attention was attracted to the number of magazines on wealth creation and in particular wealth creation through real estate. Magazines with headlines such as “Cool Market..Hot Profits”, “How I spent $30,000 and made over… Read More

Follow @bkroczek Every year the Roy Morgan organisation conducts a poll on which are the most trusted professions. Typically the most trusted are nurses, pharmacists, doctors and school teachers. At the bottom of the pile are car salesmen, real estate agents, newspaper journalists and politicians. Nothing new there! Being a real estate agent, I have… Read More

Follow @bkroczek We’ve been off the air for a few weeks meeting the challenges of the day, otherwise know as ‘life stuff’, with Gai in England for two weeks and a new grandson just recently arrived. In the meantime, you would have had to have been on a different planet not to know about the… Read More

Follow @bkroczek I read a rather disturbing article in the real estate section of last Saturday’s West Australian (July 16) with the headline Aussies Home in on US Market for Bargains. The article read more like an advertorial promoting the benefits and rewards of purchasing cheap property in the United States and achieving something like… Read More

Follow @bkroczek I don’t know about you but I spent most of ‘Carbon Sunday’ glued to the TV, channel surfing between ABC News 24 and Sky News. It was riveting TV for a political junkie like me. So what do you make of all this carbon tax stuff? I have formed some views during the… Read More

Follow @bkroczek I was hoping to write about real estate today, but there is not really that much to say that you don’t already know. In short, the market is pretty flat nationally with Western Australia and Queensland faring worst. However, there is a glimmer that things may be turning around: my phone actually rang… Read More