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Once you list your home for sale you may find it difficult to step aside and let your agent take over. You may be wrestling with the temptation to linger around while prospective buyers view your home, hoping to get the chance to point out all of the “bells and whistles” you know make your house more “sellable”.
If you really want to help, however, you will leave the house whenever it is being shown.
We have found that the sales process does not really begin until buyers have begun to voice their personal objections about a property, which makes their motives, plans and position much clearer to the agent.
Unsurprisingly, most buyers are unlikely to feel comfortable voicing their opinions in front of the home owner. Many buyers are walking through with family members or friends and want to be able to openly discuss the pros and cons of the home. Sometimes their objections are serious enough to remove your house from consideration. This may not be the case though, as oftentimes homebuyers have specific criteria they are “judging” the home on and just want to make sure it measures up the their wants and needs. If they really like the house they are going to want to talk freely and openly about the pros and cons of the home.
It is often difficult for the home owner to listen to buyer objections without taking them personally, and this is often the case sometimes even when the agent is conveying these objections to the owner. Regardless, it is important to remember that these objections often do not reflect actual criticism of your property, simply the “inner monologue” of a buyers thought and later negotiating process.
If a seller is standing at the agent’s elbow, the buyer won’t be comfortable enough to allow the process of raising objections take place. If the buyer feels intimidated or suppressed, the sale could be lost.
Also, if the home owner is pestering the buyer about how great their home is then they might feel like there is something that they are trying to cover up. The best way to help is to give your real estate agent room to make the sale. They will be viewed as far more impartial and this is ultimately what you have engaged their services for.
A quality agent, will have excellent credentials and come highly recommended. Ask them prior what training they have had, if they are trained in negotiation, and what associations/awards they have to their name
FYI: Read related articles on Real Estate Agents; or Luxury Homes; or Selling Your Home
More information: Marquette Turner Luxury Homes, 2008’s Winner of the World’s Most Outstanding Luxury Agency Under 2 Years Old, are tertiary trained in negotiation and are one of Australia’s just two Board of Regents for the prestigious Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate. Contact us to find out how we can represent you on +61 433 170 170 or email michael@marquetteturner.com.au
Ambition, drive, and commonsense will always stand you in good stead, but to really get ahead you must understand yourself. Here are some quick questions that I’ve found to be very useful in getting myself organised so that I can kick bigger goals:
- “What are my strengths?” – there’s nothing like critiquing yourself to better understand your skills, habits and patterns.
- “How do I best operate?” – do you work best by listening, reading, or watching and in what kind of environment are you most suited?
- “What are my values?” – knowing your ethics and morals will help determine the organization and people that are you are best matched with.
- “Where am I most happy?” – we all want to feel a sense of belonging and feel valued.
- “How can I contribute?” –your responses to the above questions will best determine what skills, strengths, values etc you can best contribute.
By answering the five questions above in an honest and pragmatic fashion will help you to better understand yourself. By better understanding yourself, you’ll be in the best position to organize and systemize your life for true greatness.
Last week whilst at the Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate Annual Conference and Award’s in Philadelphia, Michael Marquette & myself (representing Marquette Turner Luxury Homes) were awarded the title of the World’s Most Oustanding Rookie (New Luxury Real Estate Agency).
Therefore, as the “newbie” we were in the company of other winners, some that were being awarded for selling over a billion dollars US, which is obviously quite jaw dropping coming from Australia.
Here are five insights that I gained from the Conference:
- Social networking is very much embraced by leading businesses (even if not necessarily by all employees). Prior to our trip, whilst I knew of the major portals, I didn’t regularly use them all, and certainly not in a business manner. Now, I am increasingly appreciating how Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, My Judy all have a very useful position.
- Australian’s tend to be more shy about success. I am definitely one of these. My experience in the last few weeks, however, is that the Americans we came in contact with were very excited about where we’d come from, what we thought, and where we were heading.
- We’ve often been told that it’s difficult to “break the glass ceiling” in Australia when having new ideas, when you haven’t been around for a long time and aren’t particularly preaching to the converted (ie. you have new ideas). This isn’t true, despite our youth we have been embraced by Australian’s and others. Of course there are some people that take a little longer to warm to one’s ideas, but this just helps you tweak your concepts.
- Share, share, share. It’s very difficult to grow, evolve, or refine when keeping everything to yourself. Putting your ideas out there not only gets you mountains back in return, but it also improves your understanding of your offering.
- Don’t be shy: if you can’t promote, sell and back your own ideas, thoughts and business in general, then it’s going to be very difficult to get others to.
I hope some of these insights help you as much as they have me in furthering my knowledge and ideas for the future. Simon Turner
FYI: Follow us on Twitter: Simon Turner & Michael Marquette
It is amazing to consider that there are 6 people under the age of 30 who are billionaires in the world. Surprisingly they are spread around the globe – In the USA, Europe, China and The Middle East. The best known to most people is Mark Zuckerberg – the creator of Facebook.
The inspiring thing for those with the will and desire is that it is possible to create massive wealth quickly. All you need is a great idea, an abundance of commitment and a dash of luck. Go for it!
| Name | Citizenship |
Age |
|
| Mark Zuckerberg | United States |
23 |
1.5 |
| Albert von Thurn und Taxis | Germany |
24 |
2.3 |
| Hind Hariri | Lebanon |
24 |
1.1 |
| Yang Huiyan | China |
26 |
7.4 |
| Fahd Hariri | Lebanon |
27 |
2.3 |
| Aymin Hariri | Saudi Arabia |
29 |
2.3 |
Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook Founder
In a time where debt is catching up with companies and individuals alike it is important to look at those who have led the way: what have they done to amass their wealth and importantly what have they avoided doing?
With banks and countries collapsing (Iceland is teetering the brink of bankruptcy), Japan is potentially already in recession and the EU and US are in disarray, it is hard to go past Warren Buffett in looking at the best way to handle difficult times.
Over the past thirty-five years, Warren Buffett has emerged as arguably the greatest investor in American history, and is currently listed by Forbes as the world’s wealthiest individual with a fortunate of approximately $US62 billion.
If you had invested $10,000 in Berkshire Hathaway when he took control in 1965, your holdings would be worth more than $50 million today. Buffett still lives in the same house he bought three decades ago for $31,500 and drives an older Lincoln Towncar.
This all points to avoiding excess and showing restraint, even in the good times. Warren Buffett had humble beginnings and has never lost sight of what it takes to continue succeeding and preparing for the tougher times. It’s certainly never too late to take notice: the sooner the better!
With both the United States’ Senate and House of Representatives having approved the $700 billion bailout of the US economy, and President George W Bush having signed the act into law quicker than you could blink, now begins the blame game to see how this crisis snuck up upon so many.
I, however, thought I’d first look at the scale of the figure and try to put it into perspective. From then on, you can judge for yourself this daunting amount.
Here we go:
If you were paid $1 per second, it would take you 22,197 years to amass $700 billion dollars in your piggy bank.
If you took 700 billion steps, you would stop walking in 10,318 years.
It is the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Thailand and Belgium, according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 2007 accounts.
+ 
20 under-five year olds die every minute in the world from preventable diseases, which is 30,000 per day when the vaccinations to save them cost less than $1 (I invite you to read our article on Kiva to find out how you can help save lives, one loan at a time).
Apple has sold 150 million iPods: this is 550 million too few for 700 billion songs.
How many ways can you put the gravity of $700 billion in perspective?
FYI: You can also read this article as a press release
The global market’s erratic performance over the last week has certainly called into question the financial strategies of many (including, it could be said, of the hapless President George W Bush). Regardless of whether one agrees or not in principle or practice with the Federal bailout in the United States, we should at least begin to see a little more stability.
That’s not to say that all will be bright from hereon in. The market crunch, or more specifically the credit crunch, has seeped into all nations and has affected all manner of finances, including Australia. Confidence has definitely been damaged.
The simple fact is that Australian property prices cannot help but be affected given the high levels of debt in Australian households, and our relatively high interest rates as a ratio of household debt to GDP compared to the US.
Even should interest rates be cut further in Australia, as they likely will, we are simply likely to feel an ease of the stress of mortgage pressure rather than an immediate flock to property: the credit crunch has reduced the amount of credit available, and many people have more than enough debt to suggest they’ll have a proclivity to take on more.
The Land of Opportunity
These are also the times of opportunity. With confidence dented all around and property prices sluggish and unlikely to head in any northerly direction for even close to the next 18 months, there are many good buys on the market now, and many that will come onto the market.
Those buyers that are willing to take a long-term view on property values – as one always should (the “quick-buck strategy” is never one that is risk-free) – as well as applying sensible purchasing decisions based on the amount they can borrow with a comfortable buffer in addition to intrinsic good value – will in a few years be looking back upon these times with great satisfaction.
Not panicking during an alleged crisis, taking smart, confident and unemotional decisions, and investing wisely will mean that property – right now and in future – is logical and rewarding as one can hope to find.
What Will Happen Next?
Expect an interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank next week and more in the following 12 months. Expect housing demand in Australia to remain relatively buoyant given our growing population. Expect an easing Australian economy (together with more manageable inflation) due to weakening demand from China, whose economy is heavily hinged on US demand.
Quite simply, so long as share market’s are unappealing, property investment will remain ever the attractive option.
With the average value of homes in Australia having increased by approximately 150 per cent since the millennium began, this well earned increase will generally be retained, and further goes to highlight the intrinsic opportunity that wise, long-term property investment provides.
IMPORTANT: If you are finding it difficult to cope financially, read our article on Coping with Financial Stress
With economic times toughening, there couldn’t be a more vital time to take a few minutes each week to keep up to date with the property market, see what’s moving & shaking, what’s good buying & what’s not.
The team at Marquette Turner Luxury Homes hope that by giving you insights each week, these pieces of information will amount to a mass of knowledge that will guide you forth so that when you do make a move, it is a smart one.
Remember that people make their fortunes by understanding what’s happening, and making their moves during times when everyone else is pulling their hair out.
We want you to become a property intellectual, whilst at the same time allowing you to indulge in some of life’s luxuries even if from afar.
Michael Marquette
Carbon Neutral 101 from the Green Building Council (GBCA) has recently received numerous queries on the topics of ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘zero net operating emissions’. We expect that we will continue to hear about projects wishing to pursue these goals.Buildings need to have zero emissions in their construction, operation and embodied energy to be truly carbon neutral.
The challenge has now been set for the property industry to take a closer look at how the buildings can be carbon neutral, including embodied energy by 2020.
Although it is possible to achieve zero net operational carbon emissions from buildings by 2020, truly carbon neutral buildings, including embodied energy are a significant challenge, unless carbon offsetting is used.
How Buildings Achieve Zero Net Operating Emissions
It is possible now for buildings now to achieve zero net operating emissions. There are already a number of projects worldwide that achieve zero net operating emissions.
New and existing buildings are already taking steps towards becoming carbon neutral now by including a range of initiatives and technologies:
- passive design – by using heavy façade, openable windows for ventilation, and thermal mass insulation it can reduce the heating and cooling load;
- on-site generation of energy from renewable sources – solar heating, photo-voltaics, wind and geothermal;
- change to efficient appliances and light fittings, turning off computers, purchasing green power and improving other behaviours; and
- introducing alternative ways to learn, work and play – hot-desks, working from home, taking lessons outside.
- In terms of existing buildings, project teams optimise, upgrade or remove HVAC systems, cooling towers, and lifts to reduce energy use.
How Buildings Can Go Carbon Neutral, Including Emodied Energy
Embodied energy includes all the energy it takes to produce a building. This can include energy required for producing and transporting building materials, on-site processes for constructing the building, as well as demolition of the building when time comes.
However, there are some things that can be done now.
- re-use and reduce materials;
- re-use and refurbish existing buildings as opposed to constructing new buildings;
- consider the mode, distance and fuel type when transporting materials; and
- begin measuring the embodied energy.
What About Green Star?
Green Star – Office Design and Office As Built v3 awards maximum points within the energy category to projects that achieve zero net operating emissions.
Currently in Green Star – Office Design and Office As Built v3 zero net operating emissions include the operation of HVAC systems, lights, hot water, lifts and other base building energy allowances.
Carbon Neutral is currently not specifically awarded in Green Star.
Next Step
Moving from neutral impact to positive impacts…
The environmental impacts beyond energy must be considered. Environmental impacts from buildings must be negated, buildings should be restorative to our environment.
Green Building Council Australia
BECOMING a property developer can be as simple as buying a block of land and slapping a house on it or buying an existing house, knocking it down and building a new one.
However, becoming a successful property developer is a different story. It requires time, research, patience, and a willingness to take calculated risks.
The president of the Urban Development Institute of Australia (SA), Peter Jackson, says there is no real definition for property developer, which ranges from people involved in sub-dividing land to those renovating for resale or knocking down and rebuilding.
“Essentially it’s somebody who is going to take a financial risk with respect to the purchase, construction, marketing and selling of real property. That ranges from an individual home right up to a major CBD building,” said Mr Jackson, who is also executive general manager at AVJennings.
He said being a property developer was not a recipe for quick, easy money.
“You won’t make a fortune in five minutes – it’s a risky business. Every time we do a project we learn something.”
Most developers start with residential property.
Getting started
Doing your homework is vital, property experts say.
“It’s a bit like the share market – educate yourself, talk to people, and look at what other people have done,” Mr Jackson said.
There are a variety of courses available to help budding property developers. The UDIA runs intensive one-day seminars in conjunction with Lynch Meyer Commercial Lawyers. Its next course – a property development master class for serious developers – is being held on Friday.
A six-month part-time property investment course is also run by TAFE South Australia, and has been so successful that it is now licensed to other TAFEs and universities around Australia.
Course co-ordinator Peter Koulizos suggested two books, Australian Residential Property Development: A Step by Step Guide, and An Intelligent Guide to Australian Property Development, both by West Australian author Ron Forlee.
“Educate yourself – knowledge is power,” he said. “And don’t believe everything you read or everything you hear. Do your own research.”
Mr Koulizos said it was important to see what other property developers were doing, and what suburbs they were targeting.
“Tour a suburb you like. In property you don’t want to be a trend-setter,” he said.
“You need to build what sells. Be creative with your own home.
“If you make the wrong move you don’t go back to square one, you go to square minus-10.”
Where to develop
Rossdale Homes developments manager Denny Havriluk said research was again the key to success.
“Look for an area that is going through a growth phase, where the population is expanding and there is demand for rental homes,” he said.
“Consider the proximity to schools, shops and public transport as this will increase the home’s appeal.”
Mr Koulizos said would-be developers should get familiar with a particular council area and read the council’s development plan – or at least the part of the plan related to residential development.
“Every council is different. The key to all of this is the development plan. Every council has a development plan – the problem is some of them are 400-500 pages long.”
Finance
The chief executive of finance company Finance Mutual, Jason Di Iulio, said it was crucial to keep financiers involved in the development process at every stage.
“This strategy will enable the developer to understand their financier’s position, expectations and requirements at every turn,” he said.
“Funding failures is one of the most common forms of development failure in every size of development.”
Mr Jackson said new property developers should expect to have to put more of their own equity in a development to keep the banks happy.
“If you are borrowing money, the banks require you to have security. They look for experience and track record,” he said.
“If you are starting out, they will probably require a greater level of security, which means you have to put more of your own money into the development. Expect the banks to be a little more cautious in terms of what they will lend you.”
Mr Havriluk said it could take 12 to 15 months from the time you bought the land until the property started generating rental income.
“This includes a minimum of six months to subdivide the block and arrange appropriate titles, plus the time it takes to build the home,” he said.
“You need to ensure you can manage your cashflow and debt during this time until you start to receive rental income.”
Mr Koulizos said in property development “time is money”.
“The most common thing that sends a budding property developer broke is delays,” he said.
Council approval
It’s important to speak with the local council before making a commitment to buy.
Ask if there are any zoning restrictions and make sure you can subdivide if required,” Mr Jackson said.
“You also need to consider potential pitfalls such as significant trees that may interfere with your building plans.”
The next step was to contact a surveyor, he said.
A surveyor will help you map out the block, including plans for subdivision.
“These plans are then submitted to the Development Assessment Commission, and once approved the Land Titles Office will issue the appropriate titles for the subdivided land.”
Mr Havriluk said investors should consider the type of title they wanted issued for their land.
“Torrens Title is a title in its own right and generally provides better returns,” he said.
“However, Community titles, which share some common property such as a driveway, garden area or mains water connections, are becoming more popular and can help you to keep your costs down.
“Once you’ve confirmed the land titles, you can start making plans to build.”
New versus old
Mr Havriluk said there were many advantages in building new homes rather than redeveloping an existing building.
“If you are buying undeveloped land, you only pay stamp duty on the land and not the cost of the building,” he said.
“This can result in significant savings when compared with the stamp duty on an established home.
“There are also tax advantages in addition to negative gearing, such as depreciation on the new home.
“New homes are also easier to rent. Tenants prefer to rent new homes as they generally have better floor plans and less maintenance issues.”
Source: SMH
It may seem that now is not the time to buy property – the economic climate may have spooked all but the most seasoned property investors.
However, if you stick to Marquette Turner’s basic rules below you will certainly be on the right course.
1. Set your budget. Have a meeting with a mortgage broker or financial planner to determine what you can comfortably borrow. With the current interest rate increases, it is important to consider all the options, from a fixed to a variable loan.
Some buyers choose to have 50% of their mortgage fixed and 50% variable, so that they reduce the risks associated with increasing rates. Knowing what you can spend should include all solicitor’s fees, duties payable and even moving costs. This allows you to finalise all the numbers and to enter the market with confidence. It also ensures that your head remains in charge and your emotions don’t try to cash cheques that your finances won’t allow.
2. Develop a list of all the things the property must have. For some people, bedroom and yard sizes are the most important, while for others functionality of the kitchen and bathrooms play a vital role.
Although you can always renovate or upgrade components of the home, make sure you have allowed for these additional expenses in your budget.
3. Work out your preferred areas. It is possible to have the same home on two different sides of a street and have two very different sales results. Consider what you can purchase for the money you have available.
Before you purchase, consider how long you will be in the home. If you intend to stay for a long time, then views might be a really important factor as opposed to a slightly better home at the time of purchase.
4. Communicate with your agents. There are a lot of people who are thinking about doing something in real estate. Often, the speed of inquiry can make you feel that the agents don’t care about you and your purchase.
To find the best homes, you may wish to keep in contact with a few key agents to keep abreast of what is coming onto the market. Also, don’t treat the agent as the enemy – too many people attempt to keep their cards close to their chest and not converse with the agent. This is a mistake as they are ultimately the ones that can help you and the process the most.
5. Be savvy & knowledgeable Doing your research doesn’t simply mean looking at many properties to get an idea of what’s on the market. It’s also about knowing the processes involved and the questions to ask. Knowing what the economy is doing, is likely to do, and the different nuances involved in different areas – the potential benefits and pitfalls – is extremely important.
Keep your ear close to the ground, read the news as often as you can, and our best suggestion is to checking out Marquette Turner’s blog every day for new (and previous) stories.
Simon Turner
As recently reported by the ABC following an imaging study, stress from high house prices and sporting failures is shrinking Sydneysiders’ brains, compared to those of their counterparts in Melbourne.
The study, published in the journal Australasian Psychiatry, is the first scientific study into the long-standing rivalry between Australia’s most populous cities.
A team of neuropsychiatrists at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, scanned the brains of 20 Sydneysiders and 20 Melburnians to look for differences in brain structure.
In their study, the team leader Dr Velakoulis and his team used magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to study the thickness of grey matter, or ‘cortical thickness’, of the anterior cingulate cortex.
This is a part of the brain that helps control decision-making and moods.
Without knowing which city’s residents they were imaging at the time, the researchers found that residents of Melbourne had a statistically thicker layer of grey matter.
The researchers corrected for age, as the older you get the thinner your grey matter is likely to be. Additionally the researchers also controlled for intracranial volume, since the taller someone is the bigger their overall brain will be,yet still the thickness was still thicker in Melbourne than in Sydney,” says Velakoulis.
FACT: Stress shrinks brains
The researchers wanted to test the theory that the differences between Sydney and Melbourne brains were from stress, which evidence suggests can cause a thinning of the grey matter in the anterior cingulate cortex.
They first looked at the influence of financial stress by calculating the median house prices in each city and correlating this with cortical thickness. The median property price in Melbourne in 2005 was A$347,000. But it was A$517,000 in Sydney.
The team concluded that the greater the median house price the less the cortical thickness.
Correlations: Sporting and academic success
The researchers also looked at how sporting and academic success differed between Sydney and Melbourne.
They found that since 1960, Melbourne has had 37 Australian Football League (AFL) premierships whereas Sydney only had one, in 2005.
This was when the Sydney Swans defeated the West Coast Eagles, says Velakoulis, who declares a possible conflict of interest as a Sydney Swans supporter.
Melbourne also has had more National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants awarded to its researchers than Sydney, the researchers found.
The higher house prices and relatively poor sporting and academic performance all adds up to stress that is likely to be responsible for the thinning grey matter in Sydney brains, they say.
Competing hypotheses
The Marquette Turner team, however, query such conclusions, particularly given the only sporting focus being on AFL – there are not only many other football codes such as League and Union (both which would give negative support to Melbourne), there are numerous other team sports. Additionally, what of the individual sports such as Tennis, Horse Racing, Golf etc.
We suggest analysis could go one step further and look at those Melbourne and Sydney siders that are both academics AND sports players.
We could also look at this analysis from a different angle and suggest that as the brain matures it gets rid of unnecessary connections and becomes more efficient. It could be that Sydneysiders are much more mature and refined and, as one member of the team suggests (a Sydney-sider no less!) they have gotten rid of unnecessary brain connections but therefore have a thinner but more efficient cortex.
What happens next?
The team are hoping to further test this hypothesis with money from the AFL.
Marquette Turner question whether not only this continued focus on AFL may scew further results, but we also wonder whether the fact that Melbourne house prices are catching up to Sydney’s could in fact be leading to a shrinkage in Melburnian brains.
And finally, Marquette Turner are quietly breathing a sigh of relief given that our team covers both Sydney and Melbourne. 
Simon Turner
PS. For those sceptical amongst you, the team consistsed of 6 Melburnians and a single Sydneysider.
The amusingly named Hillbilly PhD blog has a post on the five qualities of leadership:
Don’t let circumstances control your behavior
Be persistent
Assess yourself honestly and thoroughly
Learn from failure
Follow your purpose.
This is my condensation of his entries. As with all such lists, easy to say, harder to do — he cites leaders like Lincoln and Gandhi, people who stand out in history for a reason. For the full discussion of these, head to his site. He says he’ll focus on these characteristics for some time to come.
A cartel is a coalition of political or special-interest groups having a common cause, as to encourage the passage of a certain law.
In Australian real estate the cartel is indeed alive and well. I posed the question in part one – “how has this situation been allowed to happen”?
The answer to the overarching problem has two origins:
1. The different guidelines governing real estate in every State and Territory
2. The different level of training required to be an agent in every State and Territory
The formation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 gave the States the power to regulate real estate. The States made little if any effort to pass uniform laws governing the industry and as a result we have a mish mash of requirements across the country. There is the Office of Fair Trading in NSW which is charged with the responsibility of looking after real estate agents in NSW.
There are equivalent bodies in every State and Territory and co-operation between these departments seems limited at best. Therefore the laws under which agents operate and the training required for real estate have been vastly different across the country since Federation. Bringing the States and Territories together and gaining agreement for a National system has been impossible to achieve.
Like any industry lobby groups act to alter decisions in favour of themselves. Each State has a Real Estate Institute and there is also a National Body. The Real Estate Institute of NSW has always been a major advisory body to the NSW Government when decisions have been made to alter the requirements of real estate agents or the real estate industry.
The Real Estate Institute of NSW like any organisation relies on the money it receives from memberships from real estate agents and other related bodies and as such it would unwise of them to get offside with a large number of agents by pushing for reforms which would revolutionise the industry – reforms which might be unpopular with their paying members and thus reduce the amount of money received in the form of annual memberships. Even worse would be to get a major franchise chain like LJ Hooker or Ray White offside as the risk to membership monies would be all too great.
So in understanding who is acting to advise and lobby the Office of Fair Trading and other Government bodies we start to see the cracks start to appear in the assurance of the integrity of any advice. It is also important to note that the Real Estate Institute in each State is a major training organisation, making considerable money from providing training courses like the Certificate of Registration and the Real Estate Licensing programs.
Would it be in the interest of these bodies to advise the Government in every State and Territory to form a national system? By doing so each State and Territory Body would be unnecessary and in doing so they would all be out of a job. Would it be in their interest to advise the Government to increase the educational standard of real estate entrance to Bachelor level, thus reducing their training revenues and moving education across to Universities?
As we begin to pull the process apart it becomes very apparent that the entire advisory system has self interest at heart and changing the status quo will be extremely difficult indeed. It takes just one person to start a revolution and as we continue to examine and expose the real estate cartel next week we will look more closely at the influence of the large franchise chains and existing real estate agents in maintaining the status quo. In doing so a National Forum in 2008 may be possible and true change as part of the “Education Revolution” might be just around the corner.
Last week each of us at Marquette Turner committed ourselves to visiting one Public and one Private School within the week. We are awaiting confirmation of the times from the schools and will let you know more as soon as we can. Michael Marquette
Following the lead of Prime Minister elect Kevin Rudd and the new Labor Caucus each Director or Partner of Marquette Turner will be visiting one Government and one Private School by next Wednesday.
We are determined to do our part in assisting primary school children to start developing an understanding of real estate, with a particular emphasis on “green living” and “environmentally friendly homes”.
In next week’s E-Magazine we will report back on the feedback we received and announce the details of our “Year 2020 Green Home” competition where there will be prizes at different levels including the school, class and individual who comes up with the best all round “2020 Green Home”. This will be an annual Marquette Turner initiative and we are incredibly excited about helping to create a greener Australia.
Michael Marquette
An “Education Revolution” has been at the heart of “Kevin 07” campaigning and what education could mean under a Labor Government. The question is what this could mean for real estate?
I have some very strong views on the current training requirements for real estate agents in New South Wales and would like to think that 2008 will be the year that truly brings about a revolution for this industry. The only problem is that Federal laws do not govern the real estate industry and every State or Territory has its own set of guidelines. Most of them are fairly similar, however they are different enough to make the process of operating legally across the entire country almost impossible for any one agent or agency.
There are three main initiatives which would constitute an “Education Revolution” in 2008 for me. Firstly, a national set of guidelines under which all real estate agents operate would be an enormous step forward. The Property, Stock and Business Agents Act 2002 (NSW) governs real agents only in NSW – a Federal Act covering Australia would be wonderful but of course this would require co-operation between the Federal, State and Territory Governments.
Secondly, a national approach to the “Certificate” requirements for all real agents is essential. A completely revised entry program for all new agents must require more than a 3 day course, which currently fails to provide the basic skills required to succeed in the industry. We need to totally ban correspondence entry courses which require only a mailed assessment task. I know of many real estate agents who have simply printed off the answers from a friend and not completed a single minute of study when completing their Certificate of Registration.
Thirdly, a national approach and total overhaul of the current Licensing requirements is a must. Currently in NSW there are multiple providers of Licensing programs which vary in length of time from less than one week to up to 2 years. Assessment is inconsistent and there is a culture of “pay and pass”. A was told recently of a student studying the licensing program at TAFE who was passed to avoid the administration nightmare of failing him/her (Identity Protected). The teacher was unable to fail the student who had not turned up to class or had left the class early almost every night. To make matters worse the student did not complete assessment tasks on time and still received a pass. This system is resulting in sub-standard agents with poor knowledge and the big losers are the general public and the industry as a whole.
The real estate industry is struggling to lift its image and yet bodies like the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales fail to push for reform in such basic areas. To truly enjoy an “Education Revolution” the real estate industry requires a complete overhaul, necessitating a “clean slate approach” to rebuilding the educational requirements of the industry to attract people who would otherwise choose other consultant roles. The status quo will result in the continuation of real estate as a dumping ground for those who have failed elsewhere and have nowhere else to go.
The annual turnover of agents is around 80% (first year agents). This attrition rate is completely unacceptable and exemplifies the failure of real estate training as it now stands. By lifting the calibre of real estate newcomers we will lift the image of the industry.
Michael Marquette
Stumble It!
Seed Newsvine
