Originally posted by voigtstr:Are you a Joss Whedon fan by any chance?[offtopic][biggrin]
Buffy etc tired me after a time, but Firefly is probably the closest thing to a perfect tv series for my tastes I’ve ever seen. Have you seen Serenity yet? Who knows when it’ll arrive in my 2 horse town…

Seems the aurhor is not sure of Foundation’s…[Read more]

In general, I think real estate agents tend to have a fairly short term focus. Demographers tend to have a long term focus. Both have a tendancy to fall into the modelling trap of using variables that can only result in rising or falling trends, not both. Thus, recent changes are projected into perpetuity. Only the magnitude changes.

On a side…[Read more]

From Australian Property Monitors via Cracker

Sydney Edition 29 September 2005

Week in Review

Grand finals and long weekends always have an impact on auction listings during this time of year – a time when listings normally fluctuate wildly.
What is also fluctuating wildly is the clearance rate on the Gold Coast, which hit its all time low…[Read more]

My opinion only.
Yes, but one largely shared. Buying a standard house in Melbourne and expecting it to be worth more in a few years as a standard house is for mugs.
I must be totally out of touch. I had no idea prices had gone this high. Surely they are unsustainable at this level. Does anyone know what the average weekly wage is for person living…[Read more]

From a purely contrarian perspective – possibly, but it may be better to wait until a price floor is well established and or the fundamentals (ie rent, wages) are in place to support the next boom.

on tonights news is “how you can benefit from the stock market boom… how long will it last and what stocks do the experts tip”!! makes a change from…[Read more]

Yes, I said “distant”. But this is clearly ponzi-style, hype-based, irrational exuberance inspired speculation, bearing no resemblance to value based invesment. And that’s fine by me. There can be good money made this way, but I wouldn’t recommend using a buy&hold strategy on these blocks, or you may find you’re the last in the line of “greater…[Read more]

Wayne (the real estate rep) really looks after the campers. He gets flood lights – portable toilets and on the morning of the release there is a bbq breakfast.
What, he encourages people to camp out? Astonishing. I must have tinitis this morning – either that or I can hear distant warning bells.
F.[cowboy2]

And despite the risk of appearing concieted (or multi-personalities) by replying to my own reply to my original message… Richard Doughty, the great “Mogambo Guru” sums up the way I see the world rather well in his latest commentary albeit from a very US-centric and off-beat perspective:
If you have ever spent any time reading economics history,…[Read more]

Hmm, that sounded a bit smug, and did not add much to the thread, so I’ll try again.

I think the classic economic clock is broken. (In answer to Simon’s question on another topic, yes I actually do think ‘it’s different this time’. Different in terms of mechanism, but not the result.) The clock stopped when the long-held relationship between…[Read more]

In my opinion there are always buy opportunities in the sharemarket, you just have to buy on value in sectors that are about to ‘take off’… [blink] Now where have I heard that before?

GDR +4.88%
OSH +1.66%
ROC +4.99%

Oh, and that’s just today’s gains…
Maybe I’m just a lucky stock-picker?

F.[cowboy2]

I have a comment…

<edited>

Sorry, that was a bit OTT… but I still reckon your predictions are so far off the mark they could be called crap.

Pasandbec, I like the way you think. With your strategy you will have a guaranteed outcome, whereas that suggested by Simon is based on a future prediction of the continuation of the mythological rule…[Read more]

…so assuming 52k net per annum, 2k per fortnight. Fixing 247k at 6.7%, $1,300 per fortnight repayments would see the house paid off in ten years. It is absolutely possible for a couple to live on $700 per fortnight for food, bills, petrol and clothes (I live quite comfortably on precisely half that – the remainder of my salary is invested), but…[Read more]

Nope, but if you can get a mate or two, a slab of beer, a telephone (to order building supplies), a drill, circular saw & spanner and a copy of Scott Cam’s book[jealous]… you’ll have a laugh, save a fortune and get a fantastic sense of achievement…
Cheers, F.[cowboy2]

I don’t know enough about the suject to comment on most of your points Celivia, but I saw a short piece on TV the other night (might have been Alan Kohler @ ABC?) where it was pointed out that mandating the blending of Australian produced ethanol would add to the price of fuel…

[hmm]

F.[cowboy2]

Oops, sorry, that really wasn’t directed at you, I was just ranting again…
When I said you need to dig a little further, I meant that not only has real estate speculation pushed house prices higher than they deserve to be, the associated borrowing/money creation is directly linked to higher petrol costs.

The gold comment was directed at, well,…[Read more]

One more thing – wasn’t today the latest official buy no petrol (aka ‘stick it up your ____’) day. How’d that all go then? I bought some, and yes, it was down to 132.9c from 137.9c early last week. Ripper.

F.[cowboy2]

…and perhaps you need dig a little further Wayne… a large part of the oil price rise story is inflation (oh yes, I’m on my favorite soapbox again!). The total money supply here in Australia has doubled in less than 10 years, mostly created by debt and most of that debt has been incurred in the pursuit of real-estate riches… If you double the…[Read more]

Originally posted by ubique:
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to move this property?
Errm… lower your asking price?
There are buyers out there, they’re just waiting for your price expectations to match their own. Don’t make the mistake of chasing a falling market down, always pricing your property at yesterday’s fair value…
Unless you…[Read more]

Heehaw… best post this week.
F.[cowboy2]

As a net energy exporter I should think we’d be worse off / more inclined to recession should energy prices fall significantly. Yes, we’re a net importer of oil (~20%?), but when gas & coal are considered we actually profit from higher prices, and all forms of energy tend to move together in price…

Originally posted by leoau:
So, no extermal changes, no need for planning permit. No removing of load bearing walls – no building permit.
…still depends on the location and total cost of the reno… under $5k you should be fine though.
F.[cowboy2]