From all of us at Mike Brown Vendor Advocacy, we wish for everyone to have a safe and joyful Christmas and New Year.

May 2012 bring everything you want.

Regards Kane, Mike and David

As advocates we get the unique opportunity of seeing the entire Melbourne market, and let me say it has been the toughest December I have seen in 8 years.  Buyers are very reluctant to commit and sellers do not know what to do.

Some sellers have been on the market with 2-3 agents before they call us and so they are naturally distressed and concerned. Our first job as advocates is to find out what went wrong with the past campaign/s. Usually it comes down to 2 things. One is price the other is presentation.

Presentation – There are hundreds of helpful hints on the internet on how to present your property for sale eg.(  Insert link). But one must be careful not to over capitalize or take too long getting it ready, as you may miss the market as one of our sellers did recently. Their home was valued by three agents last year in the mid to high 550’s and now is closer to 430-450k.

Price – It all starts and ends with price. Sellers want last year’s prices and Buyers feel it will drop more. From the USA, Europe to Queensland and beyond, property prices have dropped, so home owners in Melbourne should not be surprized that their properties are dropping too. It is simply part of a cycle that happens every 20 years. Yes ultimately prices will go up after 2020 according to my research. In the meantime sellers need to analyse why they are selling?

To change homes – This is the best time to change homes, IF you sell 1^st then buy. In a dropping market with low interest rates you can sell now on a long settlement and look for the best home for you, either renting for 6-12mths in the short term. MBA has helped hundreds of happy sellers last year to sell, that are now buying way less than they would have earlier.

From Geelong to Portsea we see properties just sitting around. Agents taking December off just to keep their sanity. You can’t force buyers to buy in a market where interest rates are stable to dropping. There is no urgency.

Tuesday’s announcement of a 25 basis point reduction in interest rates, the second consecutive month of cuts, bringing the official cash rate to 4.25 per cent is good news.

The big banks were reluctant to pass on the reduced interest for 2 reasons. Share holder Profits and the fact that fixed home loan customers will now have more reason to change their fixed home loan and change over to variable loans.

Here is the chart that shows the time line of Real Estate market sales activity peaks and lows. You can see that interest rate levels are in direct opposition. I believe the Real Estate market cycles in 40 year peaks and lows. However interest rates are artificially low at the moment due to the government intervention.

Christmas has come early for mortgage holders with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) further reducing the cash rate 25 basis points to 4.25% today.

The announcement follows the RBA’s decision to reduce the cash rate by 25 basis points from 4.75% to 4.5% on Melbourne Cup Day, the first rate cut in two years and the sixth consecutive time it has moved the rate up or down on cup day.

Today marks the first time since February 2009 that the RBA has made back-to-back rate cuts.

The move comes as strong growth figures out last week indicated Queensland is rebounding from the floods and with the knowledge there is not another board meeting until February.

Economists had suggested another rate cut may be on the cards in time for Christmas due to the co-ordinated action by six of the world’s major central banks to ensure commercial banks don’t fall foul of the European debt crisis.

The central banks of the US, Britain, Europe, Japan, Canada and Switzerland joined together last week to provide cheaper money for banks, a move that was welcomed by global financial markets that have been persistently dogged by the woes of Europe.

A spring revival in house price growth in Australia’s housing markets has so far failed to emerge according to latest Australian Property Monitors data. The national median price for houses fell by 1.6 percent over the three months ending October 2011. National House prices have now fallen by 4.2 percent over the year ending October.

The unit market continues to outperform the market for houses, with the national median price falling by 1.0 percent over the quarter. National unit prices were down by 0.9 percent over the year

Although Sydney and Melbourne both recorded falls in median house prices over the October quarter, they remain the best performers of all the mainland capitals. Sydney house prices fell by 1.1 percent and Melbourne was down by 1.2 percent. House prices have now fallen by 2.3 percent in Sydney and 4.3 percent in Melbourne over the year ending October.

Brisbane and Perth housing markets remain weak with median house prices in Brisbane down by 3.1 percent over the quarter and Perth prices down by 2.2 percent. Over the past year median house prices have fallen by 6.9 percent in Brisbane and are down by 5.7 percent in Perth.

Australia’s economic prospects remain positive as indicated by the latest OECD Economic Report forecasting above trend growth of 4 percent next year. Despite continued bright economic prospects courtesy of the resources boom, buyer confidence remains fragile and is particularly sensitive to continued mixed international economic news and its negative impact on local equity and finance markets.

As a consequence expect prices growth to remain subdued in most capital city housing markets over the remainder of 2011.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Senior Economist for Australia Property Monitors.

One of Melbourne’s most iconic and recognisable houses in St Kilda West is

for sale for around $1.5 million.

The property is widely known as the ‘Pamela Anderson House’ because of the

facades patterned glass mural that features an enormous image of Pamela

Anderson. The striking residence was famously designed by award winning

architect Cassandra Fahey for it’s original owner, footy’s funny man Sam Newman

who sold the house in 2002.

The home is spread over 3 levels with a sleek Miele kitchen which opens to a

north facing terrace and lap pool. It also features three bedrooms and two bathrooms

not many people really look forward to Christmas – do you… really?…. I actually love it! Time for family and friends to come together after a year of hard slog, to reflect, enjoy and relax! It’s a time when we can truly appreciate what we have. A time to think of the less fortunate and maybe even do something to help.  I was told of a good idea once, to chose a charity you may be passionate about and donate all your money that you would otherwise spend of gifts. This particular friend of mind has made it a family tradition which even the kids do now.  Just a thought…………but in the meantime I have found a few tips that I think are good ideas so I would like to share them with you.

The stress involved in organising and preparing meals, buying gifts or arranging a Christmas party can have the opposite effect to what most of us would like to achieve at this time of year. And the financial anxiety that can eventuate when credit card bills arrive in January can be a very unwelcome hangover.

The good thing is that you get another chance each year to do things differently so you can have a different and much better Christmas this time around.  Here are some ideas:

Work out a rough budget for your Christmas gifts. It’s a good idea to start a Christmas savings account during the year that takes the pressure off. But if you worry about spending too much, suggest changes to the way that you and your family or friends give gifts—perhaps giving to children only, buying gifts under a set figure, or buying for just one person each in the group (aka ‘Secret Santa’). An even better habit is to leave your credit card at home when you go shopping. By taking only cash you will be sure to stay within your limits.

Start shopping for gifts early. A survey found that 60% of Australians dislike Christmas shopping and no doubt much of this feeling would be due to the pressure of last-minute trips to overcrowded shopping centres. Make a list of the gifts you need for each person in advance so you don’t waste precious time “browsing”. And don’t forget a few extras such as shortbread biscuits for those unexpected guests.

If you are having family or friends over for a Christmas meal, share tasks with your guests rather than doing everything yourself. Ask everyone to bring a plate to create a buffet style meal. Arrange an activity that will help everyone to enjoy their time (such as backyard cricket or pool games) and even games at the table will help to avoid any problems caused by conflicting family relationships.

Like anything, when you plan ahead, you remove a lot of the pressure… Christmas is no different.  Here’s to a Merry Christmas to you all – a bit early I know but like I said, I love Christmas!

We know the stress of selling before Christmas for some can outweigh the joy of Christmas

As every home needs instant impact even in the festive seasons below are some simple ideas, so you can keep your home presentation ready throughout the Christmas period.

1. As beautiful as Christmas trees can look: It’s best not to put one up when a property is on the market. They are space greedy and often dominate the room making it feel smaller than it really is.

2. Take advantage of the plentiful fruits. Instead of Christmas decorations fill bowls of fresh cherries and summer fruits to give the hint of Christmas.

3. Natural sparkle. A spotless house, I mean a freakishly clean house, cannot help but hold appeal. The cleaner the property is the less work it feels like goes into maintenance. Just make sure you hide the cleaning products.

4. Illuminate any spot in your home: Always make sure lamps and lights are not during open for inspections. When a lamp is welcoming from the back of the room it invites home hunters to walk over to the lamp. The more people walk the longer they stay and the bigger the property feels to them.

5. Fight the accumulation of clutter: Rather than load the house and cupboards full of large presents, why not give the gift of an experience or a voucher. Oh and if another family member offers to have Christmas at their house, take them up on the offer.

Just recently MBA Vendor Advocacy has launched MBA Multisell.

Attached is a profile of our new 8×6 photo board.

What do you think?

Two of our recent cases have involved the feeling of being ripped off.  One landlord felt like he was being ripped off when his tenant managed to sub-lease some low-value space for a high rent.  Why couldn’t the landlord have achieved that rent for the premises?  Why did the tenant end up getting a better rent from the sub-tenant than the landlord could get from his tenant?

In a separate case, one of our tenants felt like it was being ripped off when it received a demand by the landlord requiring the tenant to undertake over $1m of repairs and maintenance works (most of which were clearly landlord responsibility).  If those items had always been the responsibility of the landlord, why was the tenant being asked to fix them up before moving out?

Although the answers to these questions are beyond the scope of these few paragraphs, it is obvious that people don’t like being ripped off.  But so often we see people ripping themselves off by refusing to get professional advice, or getting advice too late.  In the world of property law, no two documents should be the same because no two property transactions are the same.  The presumption that things are fine because the documents are the same as others you have seen is a dangerous presumption indeed.  Don’t rip yourself off by the false economy of being self-advised. Whether you are an owner, investor, buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, agent, advocate, valuer, guarantor, franchisor or franchisee; nothing can replace the value of expert advice.

One of the aims of our newsletters is to regularly share with you the things we learn in our property & construction dealings.  The lessons we learn have little benefit until they are applied by our clients.  So when you are getting into your next property or construction transaction, don’t walk the tightrope without a safety net – get on the phone to your professional advisors and give yourself the greatest likelihood of success.

We trust that you have every success in your world – happy reading