We have created a page on our website where glimpses of this area can be displayed and enjoyed, even posted to Pinterest or downloaded as screensavers. We have our own Pinterest site as well: pinterest.com/remaxhc

Some photographers have been kind enough to provide us with several photos already and we are looking for many more!

We would love for people to share their great Adelaide Hills photos with us. If you can help, please contact John Sexton on johnsexton@remax.com.au

The housing sector plays a crucial role in the Australian economy. While contributing up to $40 billion in taxation revenue each year, it also provides long-term financial and social benefits to homeowners and the community. In Australia, there is limited data available on the non-financial benefits of homeownership. In contrast, a number of studies have been undertaken internationally. It has been found that psycho-social benefits such as personal independence, autonomy, control, freedom from surveillance and security, ultimately may contribute to social outcomes including improved education levels for children, better mental and physical health, higher levels of social connectedness and participation in local community and voluntary organisations.

SOCIAL STABILITY
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) 2007-08 Survey of Income and Housing, people renting privately were very mobile, with 87 per cent of surveyed private renters having moved at least once in the last five years. In contrast, only 29 per cent of people who owned their home were recent movers. Remarkably, people owning their home outright were less mobile compared to those with a mortgage. By remaining in their homes for a longer period than private renters, homeowners contribute to the stability of their neighbourhood.

CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT
The recently released report by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), Housing and Children’s Development and Wellbeing: Evidence from Australian Data shows that there are statistically significant relationships between a range of aspects of young children’s housing and the child’s wellbeing. The study has discovered strong association of housing tenure with children’s socio-emotional wellbeing. Frequent moves and renting, as opposed to owning the home, have been found to have a negative impact on children’s social and emotional wellbeing.

EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS
In the US, a number of studies have found that homeownership makes a positive impact on educational achievements. Findings included: young children of homeowners tend to have a higher level of achievement in maths (9 per cent higher) and reading (7 per cent higher) and fewer behavioural problems (1 to 3 per cent lower); the decision to stay in school by teenage students is higher for those raised by home-owning parents compared to those in rented households (the dropout rate was 2.6 per cent lower than renters’ children); daughters of homeowners have a much lower incidence of teenage pregnancy (5 per cent lower); and changing schools negatively impacts children’s educational outcomes. In Australia, the ABS shows that housing outcomes are associated with education for both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous populations. Higher levels of Indigenous household ownership and lower levels of overcrowding appear to be strongly associated with higher levels of education for the Indigenous population. However, this association is not as strong for the non-Indigenous population, where rates improve only slightly with higher levels of education.

HEALTH BENEFITS
Another AHURI study, based on information from the ABS 1995 National Health Survey, investigated the extent to which housing tenure contributed to inequalities in health in Australia. The study found that compared to homeowners, renters were significantly more likely to report fair or poor health status. They reported a significantly higher average number of serious health conditions and were more likely to visit a doctor. Renters and homeowners with a mortgage were significantly more likely to be smokers compared to those who owned their home outright.

CRIME
A number of international studies discuss reasons for homeowners being both less likely to be victims of or commit crime. It has been found that homeownership significantly reduces criminal activity with not only higher homeownership rates leading to lower crime rates but also the rate of criminal activity increasing significantly slower in areas with high homeownership rates. AHURI has found that low income housing areas and public housing estates in particular, tend to have a higher incidence of crime and a disproportionate concentration of those with criminal records.

CIVIC PARTICIPATION
Homeowners tend to be more involved in their communities than renters. International research has found that homeowners are more politically active than those who rent, with homeowners participating in elections more frequently. It also has been found that homeowners are more likely to be engaged in volunteer activity. National and international research confirms that promoting homeownership is socially desirable. Non-financial benefits should not be taken for granted in order to achieve a high level of social cohesion through homeownership.

This article is brought to you by REIA Research Officer, Evgeniya Hawthorne.

Evgeniya can be contacted at evgeniya.hawthorne@reia.com.au

These 6 easy tips will add street appeal and hopefully more money in your pocket when you sell.

• Replace welcoming elements: The letterbox, house numbers, door mat and door hardware can have a huge impression on buyers. These small elements can send a welcoming impression and are relatively inexpensive to replace.
• Symmetry: Add pots of colour to either side of the front door for a visually dramatic entryway. Depending on the season, recommended are Succulents, Violas, Pansies while even herbs are also very fashionable.
• Renew garden beds: Get them into shape by pruning growth, pulling weeds, planting flowers, and adding mulch to restore colour that was taken away by sunlight and harsh weather.
• Be sure to keep driveways & parking areas clear and tidy. No vehicles under repair, spare parts or even rubbish bins at the front of your house.
• Evening street appeal: During the sales process, consider always leaving a few interior lights on plus any exterior lights at the front of your home. Buyers may drop past to view at night.

Another option is to install a modest amount of solar powered lights to emphasize a path or feature.

The answer of course depends on your individual situation. Both selling your home and renting it out have its own advantages, as well as disadvantages.

Each real estate market is different, so avoid national news and newspapers, sometimes even local news can give you wrong information. There are a few ways to go to get the necessary information you’ll require to make an educated decision. First you’ll want to select an Adelaide Hills based real estate company and speak to a professional selling agent as well as a property manager. You may get 2 or 3 in to give you a spectrum of ideas on price, and other factors involved. Of course, you could also appoint a professional valuer to give you a valuation on your home in the current market, but sometimes, they don’t have information that’s as up to date as real estate agents.

Often property owners who can’t sell for the price they’re after will settle on renting till the market heats up, only to find that they have to pay more also when they purchase later.

Here are four questions to ask yourself when tossing up whether to sell or rent your home out:

1. Can I financially afford to sell my home? If you owe more that your home is worth, and would have to bring money to the table when selling, renting could be your best option.
2. If I can financially afford to sell my home, should I wait for the market to improve in an attempt to make up lost equity? This is where a crystal ball would come in handy. You need to figure out how long you’d be willing to be responsible for that property. Think of the unexpected. How long will you have to wait for an improvement in the market? Are you willing to wait that long? Will it be worth the wait?
3. Do I plan to back to the old location again? If yes, it may be a wise move to rent your home out with the view to moving back one day. If the home won’t suit your family’s needs in the future, then selling might be the way to go.
4. Am I ready to be a landlord? Being a landlord, especially if you’re moving a distance away, can be fraught with difficulty. Though if you have a great support team in place, things will be much easier.

John Sexton

So picking out paint colours can be an extremely confusing experience, leaving you racked with indecision as you peruse swatches from paint companies seemingly intent on driving you crazy!

Trying to figure out which of those colours will mix harmoniously on your living room wall is enough to make you turn straight to the ecru and eggshell-white family and never leave.

One way to go, however, is to use a complementary colour scheme. Proving the rule that opposites attract, these pairings can always be found at opposite ends from each other on a paint colour wheel. When put together, they bring out the best in each other, making both colours look cleaner and brighter than if either were mixed with, say, a neutral grey or a different shade of the same hue.

An essential tool for paint pros everywhere, the colour wheel is constructed to help you see the relationships between different hues. The bases are three primary colours: red, blue and yellow. These are then combined to make the three secondary colours: orange, green, and purple. Finally, the remaining six colours on the wheel are known as tertiary colours and are mixes of the secondary colours, including such hues as red-orange and blue-green.

Familiarising yourself with the colour wheel can help you understand how to best mix and match a cool colour with a warm one, for a naturally balanced room.

Please contact us and we’ll email you a colour wheel to help you in the process.

Follow these tips to help you sell in a timely manner and at a premium price.

1. Make sure the clutter is cleared out of your entire home. Most homes can benefit from removing about ¼ of the furniture and belongings. Create a home that feels spacious. Open up the floor space.

2. Remove extra decorations on table tops, shelves, etc. Give a spacious feel to all horizontal surfaces.

3. Give the home the most complete clean it has ever had, inside and out. Include: cleaning carpets, blinds, curtains, cleaning inside cupboards, drawers – nothing can be ignored.

4. Make sure the entrance is especially attractive. This is their first impression of the house and it gives prospective buyers an indication of the condition of the rest of the house. Trim back bushes along the front path. Remove all weeds. Keep it immaculate, with lights turned on, a new doormat, and have something flanking either side of the front door, such as two pots of lush, healthy plants and flowers.

5. Make sure that you and everyone in the family wants to sell the house. If anyone in the family is anti-selling, it will affect your ability to attract the right buyer.

6. (This is a bit woo-woo) Write a letter to your house thanking it for being a wonderful home for your family and your willingness to now let another family benefit from it. Gather the family together and read it out loud to your house.

7. In the kitchen insist on clear counters, a clean organised pantry, and bins and knives out of sight. Place a small, lush plant and jar full of home-made biscuits or a bowl of fresh fruit on the bench top, make the kitchen smell and look good. Do not use those cheap plug-in deodorisers from the supermarket.

8. Create a spa feel in the bathroom by hiding all your personal items, buyers do not need to know which toothpaste brand you prefer. Toilet lids should remain down. Repair dripping taps and showerheads. Buy showy new white towels for the bathroom, to be brought out only when prospective buyers are on the way.

9. Make all necessary repairs.

10. Create a pleasant fragrance by cooking ¼ cup of cinnamon with 1 cup of water in a frying pan 30 minutes before you show your home, until the aroma drifts throughout the house. The cinnamony fragrance will trail throughout your home, like you just baked a wonderful dessert and will suggest a comfortable, at-home feeling to potential buyers.

If you follow and apply the 5 steps below, you’ll dramatically reduce the chance of “leaving money on the table” when you sell.

Property Presentation Tip #1:

Clean your house from top to bottom, inside and out

And then do your best to keep it clean and tidy until sold.

Cleaning costs nothing but if the carpets and curtains could do with a professional “deep clean”, it’s well worth the money.

Cleaning your house is possibly the biggest chore you’ll face when selling, lots of people do it half-heartedly – all the better for you! Eliminating bad odours is part of this process. We won’t go on about this but:

• Cooking
• Smoking
• Pets
• Damp
• Blocked drains

All produce odours that turn-off buyers – get rid of them. Make sure you clean all your blinds too.

If your house stands head and shoulders above your competition, you’ll be the first to sell.
 

Property Presentation Tip #2:

De-Clutter and Depersonalise

Get rid of the clutter and your house will look bigger. It will feel to buyers like a tidy, well-ordered place to live – just what they want!

What’s more, de-cluttering your house is a cathartic experience; it’s also the best way to mentally prepare for your move.

The act of de-cluttering helps you to:

1. Start looking at your house as a commodity for sale (essential if      you are to make sound, business-like decisions).
2. Manage the emotional bond with your house that in extreme cases can      cloud one’s judgment and stop you from selling.
3. Focus on the new life you’ll create when you move.

Unless experienced first hand, this emotional side of selling is easy to underestimate.

Don’t be surprised if at first you find de-cluttering tough.

We would urge you to persevere because you’ll be rewarded with more money in your pocket and less worry on your mind.

Throw away (or donate) as much as possible and then throw away some more.

After this, look again at your cupboards and other storage areas – are they full to bursting?

If they are you need to consider thinning down your house further (possibly even consider renting a personal self-storage unit).

Ideally, cupboards and storage areas should not be more than 75% full.

Serious buyers will look inside your cupboards. If there isn’t enough storage for you, they’ll assume there isn’t enough for them.

Depersonalising is just as vital. Buyers will fall in love with your house when they can imagine themselves living there (when they can imagine your house as their own).

It can’t be done with evidence of you or your family everywhere.

That’s why show homes are always anonymous. You’ll never see a family portrait or anything personal.

Here’s what you do to make your house look lived-in without looking like anyone actually lives there – pack away into storage:

• All family photos
• Holiday souvenirs
• Trophies & certificates
• Collectible items
• Children’s artwork

Buyers do not want to buy your home – they want to buy your house and then make it their home!
 

Property Presentation Tip #3:

1^st impressions count and catch-up on routine maintenance

It’s never too early to start making a good impression.

Your house may be stunning inside but if the outside doesn’t look great you’ll immediately put your buyer into price reduction mode.

Look at your property from the road. How does it compare to other houses in your street?

As you walk from the footpath to your front door, does every element of your property look cared for and well maintained?

A well maintained house screams out that it’s “well cared for” (a desirable attribute that buyers will pick-up on).
 

Property Presentation Tip #4:

Go neutral!

This continues the idea of “depersonalising” your house. It’s key to pulling off a quick sale! Colour is a personal thing – one person’s harmonious colour scheme is another’s crime against humanity.

Don’t let differences in personal taste affect your sale price. Take colour out of the equation all together. It’s cheap to do, just paint your walls a neutral colour (something like “Antique White” from Dulux works well).

Repainting boldly coloured or highly individualised interiors to something blander is the most cost-effective way to add value to your property. Rooms will immediately appear bigger and brighter (major selling points). You’ll also create a blank canvas. This helps buyers to project positive visions of what their life could be like in the house – part of the process of “falling for” a property.
 

Property Presentation Tip #5:

Define the use of each room!

While living in a house the use of certain rooms can become blurred over time, for example:

• The lounge becomes part office.
• The spare bedroom becomes a storage room.
• The dining room becomes the kids play area.

If this has happened in your house, think about converting these rooms back to their original use.

This makes sound financial sense and helps you sell for more because certain rooms hold a greater perceived value than others, for example:

• Buyers perceive bedrooms to be worth more than offices.

This is now also a good opportunity to make your house look bigger.

Remove all the furniture etc, that isn’t essential to the function of the room. This will free up a lot of space.

You’ll see for yourself the minimum amount of furniture needed to define the use of a room and achieve a maximum sale price for your property.

Aim for this because at the end of the day, space sells.

Conclusion

The 5 steps above make sure your house is saleable however, if you want to go further and get creative, you need to understand an important concept:

“Buyers are not looking to buy property! What they’re really looking to buy is a better life (property just happens to be the way they’ll get it).”

For the presentation of your house to really attract buyers (and the highest offers) you need to make buyers want what you’ve got – give them a glimpse of a better life and you’ll guarantee the maximum sale price for your home.

In this day and age, one can easily get educated about selling your home by looking for information online, on your sofa and in your pyjamas. Yet there are still many aspects of the process that are best communicated one to one.

Here’s a list of questions that will assist when you start the process of listing your home for sale.

1. Do you have a list of service providers I’ll need to get me through this process to maximise my profit? Eg: Mortgage broker, painter, gardener, maintenance people, stylist, photographer?

2. What are the negatives of my home? What will stop buyers from buying in other words? What additional features do competing properties have? These questions will help you ascertain if an agent has difficulty in conveying the tough stuff that you need to know in order to sell your home. His/her answer to this question will help you discover if you’ve chosen a seasoned agent or not.

3. Can you give me two instances where you listed a home and it didn’t sell? The answer to this question will give you a good feel for the agent’s commitment to communication.

We hope this article has been informative. Drop us a line if you’d like us to write on a specific real estate-related topic.

We’ve put together a list of the three top tips so that when the time comes, you’ll be prepared to get the best possible valuation for your home.

1.   Overall Presentation: The home must be in a similar state of repair to your open houses. In other words, pristine. So after you’ve agreed to a price and signed the contracts, don’t drop the ball and let clutter accumulate and the garden become unkempt.

2.   Outdoors, Kitchen and Bathrooms: These are the high-price-tag rooms. If they’re well-presented and not dated, they’ll have a huge impact on your property valuation. It is important that the bathroom & kitchen are well presented, even if the valuer is inspecting the property early in the morning.

3.   Recent Sales Evidence: Stay abreast of property sales in your area by attending any auctions or opens leading up to and including the time of selling your home. Grab a brochure to make your notes and hand this evidence to the valuer. Your sales agent will be supplying the valuer with any additional information they have as well. This up-to-the-minute information could be very useful, as sites commonly used by valuers can sometimes have information that’s 3 or more months old.

Has this information been useful? Please drop us a line or leave a comment below.

John Sexton has been elected as a Vice President to the Australian Chapter of FIABCI.

The International Real Estate Federation – FIABCI, is a non-political entity whose objective is to help its members add an international dimension to their business. FIABCI helps members acquire knowledge, develop networks and optimise business opportunities all over the world. It is represented by chapters in 48 countries. Its membership includes real estate professionals from 60 countries, it is a federation of 100 real estate associations & it is a special consultant with NGO status to the Economic & Social Council of the United Nations Organisation (ECOSOC).

FIABCI offers Australian real estate professionals the ability to market properties internationally but more importantly it provides opportunities to connect & build networks with other like minded  business people from overseas. Throughout the Asia Pacific region, the International Real Estate Federation – FIABCI, is very well know & respected and is a great way to make those initial connections.

For more information on FIABCI visit www.fiabci.org  and for enquiries about membership ( particularly from South Australian real estate professionals) contact John Sexton direct on johnsexton@remax.com.au