O'meara Property

Knowing how to tell whether the market is starting to change  – whether it’s trending up or down – can help purchasers determine how to go about their property search.

If the market is getting weaker, then they have more time to buy without seeing prices getting away from them. When it’s getting stronger, many wish they had tried to make up their minds sooner to avoid missing out or paying more. So what are the signs of a market on the move?
 

Trending Up:

If the market is trending up (i.e prices are likely to rise), watch for:

• Properties that have been on the market for a long time are selling.
• Increased attendance at Open Houses.
• Increased bidding at Auctions.
• When you ring an agent about a property, you find they are already sold or if you ring back to make an offer you find that someone else has got there first.
• Even really challenged properties are selling.
• Sales at auction go above the reserve set by the vendors.
• Gazumping is occurring.

Trending Down:

Conversely, purchasers can take their time if the following signs of a market slowdown leading to lower prices are occurring. Watch for:

• Little interest at Open Houses
• Many of the properties for sale have been on the market for a long time
• Auctions have no buzz and bidding seems to proceed very slowly
• Auction prices falling below reserves set by vendors
• More properties passed in at Auction
• Properties selling before Auction

Research shows that about 40% of day to day energy use comes from heating and cooling the space we live in. In these days of climate change awareness, passive solar building design is not just a do-good feel-good gimmick – it means measurable day-to-day cost-saving which will also be reflected in higher sales prices when the property is eventually sold.

Many home owners realise that by the time they sell (homes sell on average every seven to ten years), energy-savvy design will be even more highly sought after as energy prices come to match environmental impact concerns.

Read on to find out what’s involved in incorporating passive solar design into your building or renovation project.

Passive solar design – in its simplest form – means keeping the heat of the sun out of the home in summer and attracting the sun inside in winter. Most passive solar features cost little or nothing if incorporated at the design stage so if you’re building or renovating a home, it’s worth talking to whoever is designing your home.
The following points will help you ask the right questions and get the energy efficient outcomes you are looking for.

1. Orientation
Orientation comes down to intelligent use of the sun. It doesn’t cost anything but the decision about which way the home will face must be made before the foundations are laid. Choose the ideal direction to maximise sun use during winter and restrict sun use at the hottest times of year (in the Southern hemisphere this means a north orientation for day use areas and south for night use).

2. Zoning
Clever zoning means placing the daytime areas of the home towards the northern side and the night time areas to the south or east (it’s easy to stay warm in bed and days are spent in the living areas.)

3. Glazing
Well-placed and well-sized windows reduce the need for artificial lighting during the day. At the same time, the fact that glass is a poor insulator needs to be taken into account; double glazing or some other form of insulation such as heavy curtains may be necessary at night time or on sunless winter days in most climates. Unprotected single-glazed windows lose ten times more heat in winter than the same area of insulated wall. Windows can also be designed to let sun shine on interior walls and floors that can be built of materials that have the thermal mass to store it.

4. Insulation
No matter what the climate, insulation for walls, roofs and floors is crucial in energy-efficient design, keeping heat inside the house during winter and outside in summer. In some cases the building material itself may be the insulator (e.g mud bricks, double brick).

Most home sellers probably know someone who has ‘staged’ their property for sale even if they haven’t done it themselves. Making the home look good in order to sell it is becoming more common and is certainly a way of getting more sales dollars, especially when an empty house is furnished and decorated to have the wow factor and camouflage unattractive areas. But some people overdo it, thinking that any staging (even bad) is better than no staging at all. When does staging go too far?

Most experienced agents will tell you that anything overly contrived and unreal is unlikely to convince purchasers to believe in (let alone identify with) a lifestyle and is therefore unlikely to make them feel like making an offer.

Many home sellers like to display pictures of super attractive people such as models or celebrities in their house as opposed to the “normal-looking” people who actually live there. This might seem like a good subliminal selling trick suggesting the upmarket, perfect lifestyle the current owners have and by association, the upmarket, perfect lifestyle buyers will live if they buy the house. The problem is, most buyers spot the trick and are put off by it. A better idea would be to hire some ‘good’ paintings to use in the staging of your home rather than pretending to be a cast member from “Sex and the City’ or The Bold and the Beautiful”.

The smell of fresh coffee might be convincing but putting flower petals in the master bathtub or tinting the water to match the décor is another overly contrived gimmick. Buyers know you don’t actually live this way and instantly feel they are being set up.

A well-staged home shouldn’t look obvious or contrived – it should look effortless and stylish as if efficient but busy people with good taste happen to live in the home.

While many investors still own every investment property they ever bought as part of a self-funded retirement portfolio, there are others who want or need to sell a property because their circumstances – personal or financial – have changed. Is it better to give the tenant notice to quit before putting the property on the market or should they sell it while the tenants are still in place?

The obvious answer is to keep the tenants in residence. This incurs the least loss of income and unless the house is really dirty and untidy, a house usually presents better with furniture and household items making it look lived in.

However, there are times when a tenant in residence could be a financially less rewarding scenario. Tenants who do not want to move can put a lot of obstacles in the way of a sale. They can limit and postpone inspection access almost at whim in spite of legally having to provide ‘reasonable access’ (what is ‘reasonable’ to one person may not be ‘reasonable’ to another). By the time this sort of obstacle is sorted out, valuable time has been lost and many purchasers have moved on. If the market is not trending up, this can result in a lower sale price as the market drops before the property can be sold. Furthermore, if the seller is using the money for another financial project, delays in having the money available could cost them the project or render it more expensive if bridging loans are required.

Disgruntled tenants can also highlight the property’s faults in order to put off prospective purchasers and while many owners are happy to absent themselves from the property to allow the agent to show the purchasers around at their leisure and improve their selling prospects, tenants have no such motivation to leave the property and many reasons to stay watchfully present.

Sometimes property owners have no inkling that tenants will behave badly in the event of a sale, but there is a bit of basic research investors can do to try and determine whether their tenants will play ball. Ask your agent how easy it has been for the agent to get access for periodic maintenance inspections or for tradespeople who have been contracted to carry out work on the property. Tenants who have been slow to concede access for activities such as repairs that will benefit them are highly unlikely to come to the party when they think they will ultimately lose their home to a successful purchaser.