“Home Opens” have been part of the real estate modus operandi for at least the past three decades. It is one of the prime methods of finding sellers (yes, sellers not buyers) taught by the various organizations who run the Real Estate Salesperson’s course. Every weekend come wind, rain or shine hundreds of real estate… Read More

While I was away in Germany I belatedly read a report that the Federal Government had banned live cattle exports to Indonesia. This is a typical policy on the run, poll driven, populist response to a TV program, in this case 4 Corners on the ABC. As a result, thousands of people are at risk… Read More

I’m back, and how good does it feel to be home again! While recovering from jet lag after a 36 hour journey home due to the Chilean Ash Cloud, I saw Prime Minister Julia Gillard being interviewed on TV and, for the first time I thought she looked stressed and under pressure. I could also… Read More

As my stay in Germany comes to a close my thoughts turn again to real estate and what is happening back home. As I was surfing the net I came across a story by the Real Estate Institute of Australia president David Airey, which stated that 10,000 out of 60,000 sales representatives have left the… Read More

I write this from Changi airport in Singapore where I am waiting to board a flight to Amsterdam enroute to Berlin. The easy part of the journey is done, now for the marathon flight to Europe. I’m off to visit my aunty and uncle who are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary. They escaped from communist… Read More

The mornings are getting cooler as the seasons move through autumn towards winter. We may be putting extra clothing on first thing in the morning, only to take it off again by lunchtime. Such was the case with my little granddaughter, Ellie, who turned four only last week. She goes to kindy a couple of… Read More

Okay, we’re going to step on a few toes today, so if you’ve got sensitive toes you may wish to stop reading at this point. Would you buy a business which was guaranteed to lose money for the next 10 or 15 years? Would you, as a taxpayer, be willing to reimburse the said business… Read More

So they finally got their man. The death of Osama bin Laden swept the Royal Wedding out of the newspapers without a trace. It’s as if the Royal wedding never happened or at best it now seems like a distant memory. It was an interesting contrast: the wedding of the 21st century representing something new… Read More

About 20 months ago I attended an information (self promotion) seminar hosted by a well known and respected property analysis company. The person conducting the seminar was a well known, respected and often quoted in the media, economist. It was around the time when the United State Federal Reserve (the equivalent of our Reserve Bank)… Read More

So said my 4 year old granddaughter’s kindy teacher as my granddaughter left the classroom with her mother at the end of term. Then it dawned on the shocked teacher what she had said, and, in a state of panic, quickly retracted her ‘… bye Sweetie’ and instead said ‘.. bye Ellie’. The teacher then… Read More

This may come as a surprise to you, but this is what my friend Geoff Baldwin, WA managing director of Remax was reported as saying in The Weekend West on Saturday April 16, 2011. Geoff said, “… many agents were proposing drastically inflated sale prices in free evaluations in a bid to win clients.” This… Read More

I know once upon a time it used to be the other way around but in this politically correct (PC) world we live in everyone is the same, according to Big Brother. If you want to know more about Big Brother, you must read George Orwell’s classic, “1984″. While you’re at it read “Animal Farm”… Read More

Some economists are predicting record petrol prices of $2 a litre over the next 12 months. Sounds a bit far fetched doesn’t it?? It doesn’t seem that long ago, eleven years to be exact, that petrol was selling for 60 cents a litre and predictions were for $1 a litre. No one believed it at… Read More

If you are a baby boomer, like me, you may remember your parents saying to you that the secret to a happy and prosperous life was to work hard, save hard and above all else do not go into debt. If you are a Gen Y you can be forgiven for thinking this philosophy was… Read More

I just read an article in the real estate section of the Sunday Times (27/3/2011) by a well known and respected CEO in the Perth Real Estate industry. The articles was entitled “US Housing Bounces Back”. I have known the author Geoff Baldwin for over 20 years from our time together at Roy Weston Real… Read More

President of the Real Estate Institute of WA (REIWA), Mr Alan Bourke, was reported in the Sunday Times (March 6, 2011) as saying that auctions are a poor choice for sellers. With almost 17,000 homes on the market in Perth, buyers are ever cautious with their money, following the GFC, in a market which has… Read More

That was the title of an article I read the other day by Kris Sayce, editor of the daily blog “Money Mornings”. Now you may or may not agree with Kris’s sentiments but nonetheless, his views are worth consideration as an alternative to the usual spruiking of vested interests in the real estate and banking… Read More