Nerang Real Estate

It’s definitely an age thing…. you know…. as you get older the years just seem to fly and here we are again at the Christmas end of the year. Remember when you were sixteen and waiting to turn seventeen to get your drivers license?? It seemed like a five year wait the time went so slow. Not any more unfortunately.

The last 12 months in real estate on the Gold Coast has been challenging again and it will be great when we can finally shake this market flu called the G.F.C. The Gold Coast market place is like a race horse at the starting gate on Melbourne Cup day. It just wants to get out, break free and run fast but the Global Financial Crisis is just pulling at the bridle and holding it back for another day.

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This time of the year some of our local residents decorate their homes in an amazing display of Christmas lights. The sheer effort and expense that some people go to is incredible.

The Gold Coast City Council will be operating a nightly bus tour of the Gold Coast Christmas Lights competition entrants from Thursday the 10th of December right up to Christmas eve but if you want conduct your own private tour of the local Christmas lights on offer here is a list to get you started.

This list combines entrants and winners in the 2008 and 2009 Gold Coast Christmas Lights competitions and displays we have noticed ourselves.

Check back often as we will update this list with any notable displays we find ourselves plus the local  2009 finalists when they are announced. If you know of a local Christmas Lights display worth adding to the list then let me know at glenn@nfn.com.au.

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Many home owners are still unaware of the amazing Government rebates and subsidies available for them, many of which will have a positive effect on the value of their home. Nerang First National is always focused on achieving the highest possible price possible for homeowners and because many of these rebate are only available for a limited time we suggest that if you think you may be able to take advantage of them you investigate them further now.

A range of rebate and subsidies are in place to act as a financial stimulus and to influence Australians to go green. Australian Governements at local, state and federal levels are providing a range of rebates that is allowing homeowners to improve their property values with minimal or in some cases no outlay our of their own pocket.

There are currently a number of these rebates can be accessed by home owners for a range of  household improvements including these five examples. Read the rest of this entry »

CONSTRUCTION of a brand new $3.75 million fire station at Nerang has started by the Department of Emergency Services at Beaudesert-Nerang Road recently and here is the proof!

The station is expected to be open for operations by a single fire engine by February 2010.

Nerang’s last fire station was closed in 1973 and local residents who have campaigned heavily for the station to return,  including a 5000+ signature petition, can finally breathe a sigh of relief with some action underway.

This new Nerang fire station will service the whole district and provide much needed peace of mind to local residents.

If you have your real estate agent photographing your home soon for marketing purposes it is vital that these photos are at their best to achieve an optimum marketing effect.  These photographs will be used extensively  in newspapers, magazines, the internet and in the agents windows displays.

Whether you are a property seller or a tenant you will want to minimise the distraction of the property being actively on the market and make it as as short as possible.  Poor and unattractive photos fail to attract the interest of buyers, extending the time taken to sell your home. In contrast, quality photos showing the property at its best will attract more prospective purchasers, increase enquiries and overall speed up the selling process.

Nerang First National Real Estate has invested significantly in the digital photography workflow in the office from Digital SLR cameras, professional lenses, photography training and high end software for post production.  Sometimes we will even suggest you engage a professional photographer to photograph the property.

What you need to do!

Regardless of whether you have engaged a professional photographer or the real estate salesperson photgraphs the property there is some things that you as the occupier need to do to assist with in preparations for the photos.

Remove The Clutter

You may have organised your home to express yourself – your travels, collections, interests, favourite colours and unique tastes. However, when selling a home, the goal is just the opposite. It is to create a clean, simple background that many different buyers would like to move into. Excess items and clutter confuses and distracts buyers during inspections.

They should not be required to “look past” your possessions that you will be taking with you anyway. They are there to see if your house fits them, and their emotional level response is a strong factor in their decision.

Sometimes clutter can look good “in person”, but when captured in a photograph the rooms can look very untidy and small.  We have created a checklist at the bottom of this article covering the majority of problems we find.

Straighten Up

Crooked blinds, window shades and curtains, lamp shades, picture frames, throw rugs, sofa pillows — all can show up glaringly in a photograph.

Remove Furniture

Small rooms sometimes open up and look larger if some furniture items are removed so remove excess furniture so the room isn’t crowded.

Move Furniture

Move furniture into a neutral position to best display the room and to emphasize the homes positive features.  You may not use the dining table so it’s pushed over in the corner but that is going to look very unusual in a photo.  Arrange your furniture as though it was a show home which is exactly the effect we are after.

Brighten the Room

Often having plenty of light makes a small room look much larger, whereas poor light can shrink a large room. Open the blinds and pull back the curtains to let as much light in as possible.  When the photographer arrives switch on all existing lights in a room: lamps, ceiling lights, appliance lamps… everything except fluorescents. Turn on lights in adjacent rooms too, so visible doorways don’t look dark.

Remember, you’re trying to create a difference from others that may well be the same as yours. Excellent presentation may not only get more interested buyers and speed up the sales process but if you are the seller it might also increase the perception of value leading to a premium price as well.

De-Clutter Checklist

We have gathered a list of tips to de clutter your home and have it looking at its best for the photos.

Outside

• Make sure the yard is mowed and edged, and remove toys, junk piles, empty flower pots, etc.
• An evenly cut yard is pleasing to the eye. Overgrown, woody shrubs give an old, tired look. Trim or remove them.
• Coil hoses and place any tools inside the garage.
• Remove cars from the front of the house and driveway and close the garage doors.
• Remove pool equipment and hoses for the day as pools look better without them in photos.
• Pickup toys and any loose equipment
• Take washing off the clothes line.

Living Areas

• Move large pieces of non essential equipment – musical instruments, telescopes, exercise equipment, children’s toys  etc. to the garage or off-site.
• Reduce as much as possible personal collections and photographs.  A few decorative items or photographs on tables are fine, but reduce these to just a few nice pieces.
• Brighten the room and open window blinds and curtains and for better lighting.

Kitchen

• Remove purely functional items – such as baking pans, small appliances, vitamins, phone books, plastic bags, etc.
• Remove notes, magnets, children’s paintings or photos on the refrigerator.
• Clear the counters completely, then add back a few decorator items. if you have them
• Some suggestions: Flowers, fruit, cookbooks, wine, bowls, antiques, small designer appliances, etc.
• Remove rubbish bins, dishes in the sink, washing up cloths and tea towels hanging up.

Bathrooms

• Start by removing everything from the bathroom counters.
• Put items that you use daily – toothbrushes, soaps, razors – in a container, and place the container inside in a cabinet.
• Carefully folded or hanging towels are fine as long as they are neat.
• Never leave medicines, money, magazines, jewellery, or personal possessions of this type on display.
• Clean shower screens and mirrors. Slight marks on glass look really ugly when lit up by a flash.

Bedrooms

• Bedrooms should appear restful and serene. Sparsely furnished is best.
• Use your best bed coverings.
• Clear off the bedside tables, and add back just a few books or nice items.
• In the children’s bedrooms tidy up the toys and avoid an overcrowded look.

Lastly, for a laugh, step by our Funny Real Estate Photos post we did a little while back which includes some photos that agents have posted on the internet for some clients.

Residential real estate investment has been the investment vehicle of choice for many Australians that just don’t trust the share market’s rollercoaster effect when they can have the security of land, bricks and mortar.

The Gold Coast is Australia’s most popular holiday destination and attracts over 3.4 million Australian visitors every years to its combination of theme parks, beaches, glitzy shopping and natural hinterland wonders.

The attractions of the city have been attractive to many and the city has sustained some amazing growth over the past decades and behind the tourist strip  is a thriving modern city that is now Australia’s 6th largest behind Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Gold Coast real estate investment has provided exceptional returns for many from right around Australia but everything that glitters is not gold.  Some marketeers have leveraged the Gold Coast’s high visibility, popularity, population growth statistics and increasing property values to market their own properties direct to the public through investment seminars around the country.

These seminars targeted inexperienced investors using hand picked statistics, far fetched forecasts and high pressure sales. They were combined with free flights and accommodation to the Gold Coast and  rental guarantees to convince  investors to seal the deal. In hindsight many of the investors sold on the their properties through these investment seminars have regretted the purchase with hindsight as the properties were often oversold and way over priced in comparison to local property values.

Like many Gold Coast real estate agents we have seen the after effects of  this sort of investment and how it turns into a family’s financial nightmare.  The marketeers excuse is that they asked a price and they were able to find people gullible enough to pay for it and since something is worth what another  is prepared to pay for it, then they really sold it at market value.

One of the latest examples seen a developer sell townhouses in a new townhouse complex to out of town investors for around $1 million and more.  These were certainly very nice townhouses  but just 10 min research on the internet would have revealed dozens of luxury free standing houses in the Outlook Estate in Highland Park double the size and with better quality fittings and panoramic views of the Gold Coast for the same price or even less within 200m of the complex.

Within months of these properties settling many of them had been repossessed by the bank and re-sold for between $400,000 and $500,000 which was were many claimed their true value always laid.

These sales make up only a tiny fraction of all sales on the Gold Coast but because of the substantial losses some out of these out of town investors have sustained the stories gain publicity. A few have even made it to front page of major newspapers and feature articles on Today Tonight, A Current Affair and many other television programs.

Despite this the Gold Coast remains an exceptional opportunity to invest in residential real estate and the vast majority of investors never purchase property at inflated prices through these marketeers.  Like all investments you need to do your own homework and you need to ensure you are paying fair market value and remember the golden rule, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably isnt.

One of the easiest ways to do this as an out of town investor is to research property through local real estate agency websites like Nerang First National‘s site www.nfn.com.au.

Nerang First National’s primary trade area includes Nerang, Highland Park, Carrara and Worongary which features some of the Gold Coast’s most popular suburbs for investment. These suburbs are centrally located, affordable and most importantly when considering an investment, they are popular amongst locals.

If your thinking of investing in residential real estate give one of the team at Nerang First National a call. The sales team can find you a perfect investment property to start or add to your portfolio and the Property Management team can help make that investment  trouble free. Contact the team today on 07 55960055

Are you thinking of Selling this Spring?

One of the most common questions we get from potential sellers is when is the best time of the year to sell their property and it is also one of the most complex questions to answer. There are actually “pluses and minuses” to consider when selling at any time of the year.

Often making this decision will usually come down to your own personal plans and circumstances.

When you look at it closely, there and “pro’s and con’s” to selling at any time of the year, but there is no absolutely right or wrong time.

Spring is the Prime Selling Season

For many people, Spring is viewed as the “Prime Selling Season” for real estate.

And why not?

Our landscaping and gardens tend to be looking at their best, pools and outdoor entertaining area look at their best, the weather is normally neither too hot nor too cold, and many families like to buy at a time that will allow them to move and settle during a comfortable time of year.

Whether it has something to do with the birds chirping while the flowers are blooming or extra cash from tax time, spring is the number one time to sell a house. The only drawback to selling in Spring can occur if large numbers of people decide to do the very same thing!

Quite often the law of supply and demand can become very evident during spring if a large number of homes come onto the market all at the same time.

If the set number of buyers suddenly have a vast number of more options to choose from, this can lead to a drop in the number of buyers per property, and therefore diminished competition.

Because a property’s highest period of activity during the sales process is in the first few weeks it is absolutely essential to get the asking price right from the very start. With so many new properties coming on to the market and over priced property quickly becomes stale and is replaced by fresh listings. Re-assessing the list price can be too late and the missed opportunities can be expensive.

The simple fact is that the best time to sell your property is when it suits YOU best. For many that perfect time of the year is Spring. The secret to ensure you obtain the best selling opportunity in Spring is to get in early before the typical Spring stampede gains momentum and because of the increased competition ensure your price is right from day one.

If you are ready to sell at a particular time, then that is the time you should sell. With a little helpful advice from Nerang First National Real Estate, you can achieve an outstanding result at any time of year.

First National is currently running a Queensland Only competition called the “Grab for Cash” and the Australia wide Play to Win competition called “Reduce Your Footprint to Save the Earth”.

The first $1,000 draw of the Grab for Cash competition has just been done and we are very excited to reveal that the winner is Karen Miller a  Nerang First National Client and local  Highland Park property owner.

We will hopefully get a picture of her receiving the booty!

There is still two more $1,000 draws in the “Grab for Cash” competition so if you have not entered already check it out here…   and don’t forget your chance to win $5,000 (plus another $5,000 for a local charity)  for just playing in the “Reduce Your Footprint to Save the Earth” competition.

********** UPDATE  **************

Here is Nerang First National salesperson Susie Gale (left) presenting the cheque to the winner Karen Miller.

The Oaks Seaforth Resort - Sunshine Coast

Despite a fair smattering of “Doom and Gloom” in the industry at the moment and the economy in general, Nerang First National has had an absolutley amazing 12 months.  

It started off with being selected the Australian First National Agency of the Year in the medium agency category.  Things quickly got even better as we were awarded with the REIQ Queensland Agency of the Year again and final three position in the REIA Australian Agency of the Year awards in the medium agency category. That is truly an amazing result when you consider there is around 10,000 agency’s in Australia.

As a 6 times finalist, current and past winner of the REIQ Queensland Agency of the Year,  and four times winner of the REIQ Gold Coast Agency of the Year, all since 2000, Nerang First National has been consistently selected by the real estate industry as one of Australia’s Leading Real Estate Agents.

During all this we have expanded our sales and property management teams whilst many of the industry are downsizing. 

So How Could We Thank the Community for their Support?

These recent successes are a resounding client and community endorsement of integrity, trust and performance so how can we say thanks for that support?  Nerang First National has secured hundreds of Accommodation Vouchers at two different 4 1/2 Star resorts allowing a holiday for up to 6 people for 3 or 4 days.

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