Author: McDonald Partners

Battle of the Disrupters | No Agent v Cheap Agent

The traditional real estate agent is under attack from the left and the right. On the one hand, companies such as Buy My Place are teaching consumers how to sell without a real estate agent. On the other, UK outfit Purple Bricks hit Sydney in recent times to offer home sellers a real estate agent…Read More→

What is a Digital Footprint?

The internet has made some amazing changes to the way we buy and sell real estate. Buyers can now easily search for their next home whenever and wherever they please. Also, sellers have the option to include multimedia like videos, floorplans and images to attract buyers. There are some negative elements associated with using the…Read More→

Demographic Disruption – Baby Boomers Set to Make The Change

The property market is always susceptible to ‘disruptive’ forces of one kind or another. The last two decades has seen constant digital disruption as websites and databases decimated print. The digital disruption changed the way real estate is purchased and sold forever more. In 2014, there was an influx of foreign buyers into the Sydney…Read More→

Sydney Real Estate – 2017 Previewed

The Sydney property market begins 2017 in better shape than it begun in 2016. That fact almost seems counter-intuitive, but it is true. In late 2015, APRA stepped in and enforced tougher lending criteria on residential investors through the retail banks. APRA’s intervention had a noticeable dampening effect impact on the property market in late…Read More→

Inspecting the Strata Books

As more apartments are constructed, many people will be moving into strata living arrangements for the first time. If you are purchasing a strata title property it’s crucial that you buy into a good apartment and a well managed building. Many people who buy into a building mistakenly make their purchasing decision exclusively on the…Read More→

VPA on the rise

The cost of advertising a home is rising and beginning to resemble the newspaper era. Owners are being offered or sold advertising campaigns up to and above $10,000. The cost of the campaign is paid upfront by the seller regardless of the success of the campaign. VPA stands for Vendor Paid Advertising. Agents will also…Read More→

Mystery shop potential real estate agents

The selection of the selling agent is usually decided upon from an interview and/or a sales proposal process. Whether it’s an interview or a sales proposal that you are using to determine your agent, neither actually shows the agent in action. Agents are fully rehearsed with scripts and dialogues to ensure a slick presentation when…Read More→

How much will it lease for?

Investors entering the property market need to protect themselves against overzealous rental quotes. Often the agent spruiking the proposed rental return is a sales agent and not a property manager. To protect yourself against an unwanted and unexpected shortfall in the income on your new investment, disregard a selling agent’s rental assessment. That’s not to…Read More→

Emotion versus Logic in Real Estate

Buying or selling residential real estate is likely to be one of the most emotionally charged transactions you will do in your life. Buying or selling in an emotional state can sometimes lead to poor decisions. Whether it’s the buyer that overpays or the seller who declined the best offer, we are all susceptible to…Read More→

Navigating the Pest and Building Inspection

When you are selling your home, a poor pest and building inspection can derail the sales campaign. Genuine issues that neither the seller, buyer or agent expected can be damaging. The buyer can think crucial information has been withheld and the seller can feel as though the buyer is using a tactic to lower the…Read More→

Real Estate in the Sutherland Shire

As we approach the end of winter we can now reflect back on the real estate market of the last few months in the Sutherland Shire. Winter always shows a trend of slowing, there is no denying that as the weather cools down humans also tend to hibernate, so the idea of moving home or…Read More→

How’s The Market?

Despite the negative talk surrounding property prices in 2016, it is now becoming apparent that what experts warned could happen has not actually happened. The May interest rate cut has stimulated the Sydney housing market right at the time that many felt the boom was done for. Many economists will state that this is unhealthy…Read More→

Identifying the Real Return

When a property sells for $1 million and later resells for $1.5 million, many people jump to the conclusion that the owners made about $500,000 profit. You often see this type of commentary in the property pages of newspapers about the real estate transactions of sports stars, celebrities and socialites. We know that there are…Read More→

Who can you trust in real estate?

For some people, stepping into the real estate arena feels like stepping into the Colosseum with lions on the loose. When you are about to buy or sell your most important asset, conducting the transaction amongst contradictory advice and other people’s vested interest is daunting. It does beg the question, ‘Who can you trust in…Read More→

The Shire of Units

The Sutherland Shire has plenty of development ahead and you may have noticed that in some areas you expect and even in some areas you wouldn’t there are large residential unit complexes either being built or in the process of getting council approval to be built. Over the next 3 years we can expect thousands…Read More→

The Property Escalator

The property market is like an escalator. Sometimes it goes up – as it has recently. And sometimes it goes down. In different areas, it may move at different speeds, even in different directions. One area may be falling while others are still rising. Sometimes the escalator stops. In some areas, right now, the escalator…Read More→