sounds like the owners were just looking after their own interests. am i right in assuming that you hadn’t submitted the written offer to the agent or owner before the weekend?
were you and your partner made aware that there were other parties showing interest in purchasing the property?
Prospective buyers love it but have been told they wont get finance because of the size so they arent even trying .
i’m not sure how your agent has worded his or her advertising text but maybe try changing the text the net / paper / flyers etc to reflect exactly what you’re trying to sell.
eg.
Pocket rocket!
immaculately fitted out 34sqm unit. located on the 13th floor with leafy outlook….
i’m no expert but i have a strong family background in advertising who’ve always told me ‘let the buyers know exactly what they’re getting’ that way you eliminate the surprise factor.
perhaps that way you’ll attract people who’s finance isn’t an issue.
Add $1000 to the price (or to your confidential reserve price) and add $1000 to the salesman’s personal cash bonus if he sells within 30 days at or above your confidential reserve.
Watch him go.
By The way – I have found EBAY to be an excellent source of second hand books! they are a bit cheaper and you can still own them
absolutley agree with you alwayscurious (and a great source for sass and bide )
Peter, i bought your book ‘wealth magic’ six months ago and have read and re read it eight times. Your writing style is so easy to read and coherent, i think it’s one of the reasons so many people realate so well to you.
So now that you’ve got two sucessful books under your belt and are well recognised and respected in wealth creation circles, where to from here?
it’s nice to see that we have some generous and kind hearted people on the forum, i think people really are ‘giving’ at heart.
I remember when i was five and my family was on holiday in NSW, i got lost walking home from the park (you wouldn’t beleive how lost you can get as a five year old)anyway it was winter and getting dark so i did what most kids would do, sat down and started crying.
A few minutes later a lady found me and took me home and sat me down to have dinner with her family and watch tv with the other kids and she personally rang every hotel, motel and holiday destination looking for my parents (no mean feat).
anyway that story has little bearance on the topic here but the kindness of strangers never fails to surprise me.
well i can’t wait, i want to go and see m night shaymalan’s (spelling?)the village. will drag rod (partner) along…he hates scary movies and i get a sort of perverse pleasure out of seeing him jump
sorry if it came across as if i were criticising the concept, i personally donate to childrens trusts for abuse and support the red cross when i can (does blood donation count?).
I was just interested in seeing what causes the other forum members supported.
And i agree:
Money is not everything and you need to experience this by giving it away…
Prior to that OFI did the agents do any background work in getting the buyers there ie. letterbox drops, calling their priority buyers, mail outs and phone cavassing the area?
If he did and you were pleased with the work perhaps you could write a letter to that extent and nothing more. You’ll find that agents ‘edit’ the majority of their testimonies anyway to reflect just the parts they like.
If you ask the agents for 1K of their commission back in return for an overly favourable letter, isn’t that cash for comment???
The other thing I’m fairly pedantic about is REA commission, i work on a debit credit system (as do many agents in qld) whereby each time we make a sale we have to ‘pay back’ our (minimum) wage to our employer. Considering the cut of commission that agents in our franchise get (30 to 40%) many agents i work with barely break even.
That’s not meant to make you feel guilty or indebted to the agent, simply aware that commission is how we make our living.
you could ring around a few of the local Real Estate Agencies and get yourself on an open for inspection list to cut down the time you spend in the car.
someone very wise once told me to look at absolutely every property in my price range no matter what the condition, style or location of the home was. That would make the ‘bargains’ or those properties under market value become very obvious.
i think it’s Dolf de Roos (sorry about the spelling) who uses the 100:10:1 rule…
thanks jo, i appreciate your honest feeback (as always)
i agree with aussierogue:
i reckon if interest rates go up you might see a shift back toward public education.
has it always been this expensive to raise, let alone educate children?
richmond, it’s just my opinion nothing else, but i found that differnt schools develop or ‘ingrain’ different values.
For example some schools attract students with a strong sports, musical, or artistic background. The value i found in the high school i attended was there were alot of other students who had similar interests and values that i shared.
just a quick question, monopoly (hi!) you mentioned that:
Although, my children have always been given the option to choose for themselves where they wanted to go!!!
At what age did you give them the choice? and were your kids schooled under both private and public systems before they made their decision?
Personally i attened a state primary school and private highschool (scholarship) and couldn’t put a dollar value on the extra learning tools, specialist teachers and resources that i was exposed to as opposed to some of my friends who attended state highschools.
There’s always going to be a debate over how funds are distributed to both sectors of education, yes there should be a far greater persentage allocated to public as that is where the majority of Australian children are schooled. That’s just plain logic.
The real value that i see in a private education (and this is only my personal opinion so don’t shoot me down) is the different mindset of the students who attend.
neil jenman has some great ideas and endorses strategies that he has designed to better protect the vendor and buyer during a property transaction.
However i don’t know that all of the ‘bad agent’ publicity has necessarily benefited the public, perhaps it’s made them more aware of the mechanics involved in a sale but I believe it’s main purpose has served to make him a much richer man through book sales.
As for the q’s you ask agents yack, any decent REA worth their salt should be able to answer them on the spot (if they can’t defend their valuation of the property, signage, right to commission or otherwise they’re probably not going to be the best person to protect your biggest asset).
But that’s just my opinion, love him or loathe him Jenman certainly isn’t going anywhere for a while…
i’m a long way from retired and i don’t know how interesting my plan is to you but here it is anyway:
Retirement age: 27 (roughly 7 years)
Plan:
* finish saving my deopist for an older style unit in Annerley (found a two bedder with city views for $160,000) and add value through a rejuvenation / rennovation (very handy when your partner used to be a builder.)
*live in the property for 6 to 9 months and purchase additional properties as i free up capital and or save some more money.
* My partner (Rod) has been trading shares for around 5 years now and has built a solid understanding of the sharemarket has profitted well in the last 2 years in particular. So i guess i’ll always have an interest in shares as well.
Anyway reading back over that that’s not really much of a plan, but it’s a starting point i guess…
Our office has a rent roll of around 900 so we currently employ three PM’s to handle the owners, tennants and arrears. The upside is their job can be really rewarding (vendors sometimes send in hampers and chocolates to say thanks) on the flip side they have to deal with irrate tennants who are behind in rent etc.
If you want to go ahead with applying you can do the courses through TAFE or The REI of your particular state.