New Rentals Needed

As reported a couple of weeks ago, houses for rent are scarce!! Although several properties came available since that last blog, we have rented them all, and once again, Ray White Beecroft has no vacant properties available (well, we are still advertising one, but we have two applications being considered by the owner)!
We have gained some new managements so have more properties on our books than ever before, but Nicole our brilliant property officer has been renting them faster than we can list them! Of course there is a steady turnover of people moving away or, recently, buying under the first home owner grant. But there are lots of people out there queuing to rent properties.
Stop Press - a tenant just advised us he is vacating immediately so we can now advertise another property!

All Five Birds Have Flown the Nest

Five birds, ten legs. This saga was first blogged on 19 October, where I expressed concern about the rescued chick's foot, which was trapped in the nest and covered with blood. It's really nice to see that the leg mended!

Last Birdie

This one is too scared to jump!

The birds are flying!

It looks as though mommy has stopped feeding the birds outside Ray White Beecroft's office, and this little one has started learning to fly. We will miss them when they are all gone!

Seven Lovely Ducklings

Peter Hewitt of Ray White Beecroft Real Estate Agency did his first official WIRES rescue today, responding to a plea from a lady in West Pennant Hills. A duck with seven ducklings were in her swimming pool, and she wanted them removed to somewhere safer from her dogs and neighbourhood cats.

Catching the ducklings was easy, just chase them with the pool scooper until they dive then catch them like fish.

Then we walked the basket to the Wirreanda Retirement Home, with mommy duck walking along beside us clucking furiously, but sensibly flying over the main road even though we were holding up the traffic for her. By the time we reached the lovely Wirreanda pond, mom was already in the water waiting, and we released the ducklings into her care.

Interestingly this was a repeat of something that has happened twice before, at one year intervals. Obviously lady duck breeds them near this house, takes them to the nice clean swimming pool to freshen up and get a feed of corn, and then expects to be escorted to the Wirreanda Retirement Home duck pond.

Apparently the residents love having ducks on their pond, and as you can see the pond is just ideal for ducks. By the way Ingrid, WIRES Waterbird Coordinator, subsequently identified them as native Pacific Black Ducks.

Rentals Going Strong

For the first time in a long time Ray White Beecroft had no vacant properties for rent at the end of a month! Typically there has been an average of 10 or 12 properties to rent at any one time, but this month there was quite unprecedented demand and Nicole our fabulous Property Officer was on fire, renting properties as quickly as they became vacant.
She found tenants for eleven properties in the month, including three that were new managements.

The Birds

We can now see that there are FIVE birds in the nest at the entrance to the arcade outside Ray White Beecroft!

All of them are hungry!

But mum is hard at work!

Christmas Lunch

Ray White Beecroft Real Estate held its staff lunch on Sunday at the Oliveto Bar and Restaurant on the waterfront in Rhodes, and all agree the restaurant is superb. Food, service and ambience all were outstanding! Thank you Oliveto.

Both birds are in the nest and seem to be thriving! (See the post of 18 October

Digital Window Adverts

Ray White Beecroft has four digital window displays using software by LymLive. New software allows us to set one screen to just display adverts, with as many adverts as we choose selected in turn then starting again.
















We are now offering local businesses the opportunity to advertise themselves on our windows. Here is an advert for Rosie's beauty salon.

Meanwhile the other three screens show "top properties for sale" on screen 1, "other properties for sale" on screen 3, and "houses for rent" on screen 4, which works really well.

Hornsby Council reducing greenhouse gases

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald describes how local governments are taking steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The first example they quote in quite a long list is Hornsby Council's co-generation system for its library. Well done Hornsby Council!

How's this for a testimonial

Email received from a VERY satisfied owner:

For the wonderful service you have offered, (owner's wife's name) and I would like to offer 0.5% more as the management fee over the management fee you requested.

(This is a true story, resulting from Lydia's handling of a rather complicated multiple-property rental swapping with tight deadlines, including landing a first class tenant paying significantly more rent than the owners had expected to receive)

Ray White Beecroft exceeds expectations again!

A plug for Hornsby Shire tree department

Someone we know lives on the edge of a Shire-managed park. He noticed a tree on the edge of the park had died, with branches threatening to fall on his property. He phoned the shire, they noted his concern and he heard no more. Just as he was thinking of phoning to ask what was happening, he looked out the back of the property and noticed the tree had been cut back to just a short stump! Hornsby shire, quiet achievers!

The Bird Survived?

On 18 October I advised the rescue of a nestling bird right outside our Ray White Beecroft office. I am pleased to advise that mom is still doing her stuff, although so far we have only seen glimpses of the babies.

Advertise your Beecroft Business with RWB!

Ray White Beecroft real estate is offering advertising space on our large full colour digital window displays right outside Franklins! As a Christmas Special Deal for $120 for the first five applicants, we will photograph your shop or staff, create an advert, and display it on our screens until the New Year.

Application for Tenancy

To make an application for a tenancy on one of the Ray White Beecroft properties, just print off the four forms below, fill them in, and email them to us at beecroft.nsw@raywhite.com.

Property Movements

There are conflicting reports in the papers about Sydney house sales, following the reduction in first home owner grant, rising interest rates, and what looks to be a surge in shares. All three could result in investors moving out of property, the question is, has that happened? One report from the weekend was of a new four bedroom residence sold recently for $1.6, nine months after it was bought, with a knockdown house on it, for $685,000. Whatever they spent on the new house, they must have made a tidy profit! But does this represent a "typical" case, or a once-off? You need to know the property had been on offer for six months at $799,000, so clearly was sold at the depths of the financial crisis by someone who either needed to sell, or doubted things would ever improve.

Property Deal Signed up by the Roadside

Ray White Beecroft property management department had arranged with a new tenant to sign the contract late one afternoon. It was important for her that she signed that day, but late in the afternoon the prospective tenant phoned to say she was caught in heavy traffic coming out of Sydney and would not make it on time. So Victoria asked where she was, and told her to stay put, then drove down to meet her, going towards Sydney so with light traffic, and they signed the contract in the lady's car!

Insulation Grant Changes

Okay the rules are now clear. Any contract entered into before the new rules came into force are valid so long as the work is completed within two weeks. So the contractors Ray White Beecroft have signed up on behalf of their owners are going to have to work fast to get the contracts completed before the deadling.

Home Insulation Grant Cut Immediately

With no warning, the NSW government has cut the grant for home insulation from $1600 to $1200. Presumably people who have already signed up for free installation will still be covered by that contract, and the company doing that installation will be out by $400 per house! Very strange situation for the government to put small businesses into.
Meanwhile Ray White Beecroft has about 20 landlords now entering contracts for such installations, and it is not at all clear who will be paying the extra money required. Many of our houses are too large to be covered by the earlier $1600 grant so the installer had quoted on the basis of the government paying $1600 and the landlord paying the extra. Will the installer be happy to absorb the $400, or will he pass it on?
We don't know yet.

US Figures Revive the Market

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the sharemarket broke a four day losing streak yesterday, to end the week on a positive note, after the US released figures showing its economy has returned to growth!

Sold a house in Denistone!

Carmel Stewart of Ray White Beecroft sold a property in Chatham Road, Denistone, at auction last Saturday. She was given the listing by a satisfied client, and she found the buyer through our extensive client data base.

WIRES Training Worthwhile

Guess what, at 1pm on Monday, less than 24 hours after finishing my WIRES course, a lady came into the Ray White Beecroft office to ask if anyone had a ladder! A fledgling bird had fallen out of its nest nearby and was hanging by one leg! Although I am not yet accredited I reckoned I could handle this, got a ladder, released the bird, calmed it down, and put it back in the nest along with a second chick who fell out in all the excitement. Now we wait to see if mom returns, and whether the trapped chick's tangled leg is okay.



(Yes she did! See pic!)

WIRES Training

After rescuing the five stranded ducklings last week, I did the WIRES basic rescuer course over the weekend and discovered how much I had done wrong for the little things! If you find yourself faced with distressed animals of any kind, remember the basic is Warm Dark Quiet - not at all what we did! The ducklings looked cute strutting around the Ray White Beecroft office, but the main objective of WIRES is to return native animals to the wild, and it is essential to avoid them becoming fixated on humans. Keep them in a box, put a hot water bottle or lamp under or beside the box for warmth, cover the box with a towel so they cannot see any light, and don't keep peeking at them to see if they are happy. Hey, that's just the start of it, if you want to learn more join WIRES!

Hugely successful auction

There was a huge turnout for Ray White Beecroft's recent Sale by Auction in Albert Road, about 80 people there and 15 registered bidders. A long standing customer of Ray White Beecroft, Mr Naga Nagarajah, a mortgage broker from Aussie, provided a mobile coffee van dispensing free coffee, which was very welcome.
Bidding was fierce and the final bid of $999,000 was just under $100,000 above the reserve.

Ducklings all part of Property Management

Early yesterday a Ray White Beecroft tenant phoned to say they had found five tiny ducklings with no mom, and had put them in a box in their garage and were heading off to work, would we please deal with it. I collected the box and phoned WIRES but they couldn't take them from me until the evening. So five ducklings spent their day in the Ray White Beecroft office! We got them warm, fed them bread and milk (apparently the milk bit is wrong, water is better) and fell in love!
Handing them over to WIRES was heartbreaking, and the WIRES man said, you mustn't get attached to them because sometimes they die. I looked at the angelic little faces we had known all day and thought how could you not get attached to them.
Anyway I have signed on to do the WIRES training course this weekend so next time I might be able to keep them!

Another Property Sold Before Auction

Ray White Beecroft is pleased to announce the sale of 54 Chapman Avenue two weeks before the scheduled auction.

Ray White corporate policy is to encourage vendors to go to auction, for many reasons including because the auction is the best way for the vendor to determine market interest in the property, and to put pressure on prospective buyers.

In the Beecroft and Cheltenham areas buyers are often reluctant to put their hands up during the actual bidding. Even so Douglas Macarthur, Ray White Beecroft Property Sales Director, strongly supports the corporate policy. Not long ago RWB had three properties scheduled for auction on the same day. One of these sold prior to auction, the other two were passed in. But one of those two sold that evening, while still under auction rules, and the other sold a week later to a bidder at the auction.

One benefit for the vendor in opting for Sale by Auction is that there is no need to be swayed by the ambitious promises of unscrupulous estate agents. Asking too much in a sale by private treaty wastes the key selling time, when the property first goes on the market. Buyers lose interest before the vendor gives in and drops the price, and the final sale price will often be well below what could have been obtained either by asking a realistic price, or simply saying "We are selling by auction, you tell us what you think the property is worth".

Where are Interest Rates Going?

Weekend Australian Financial Review contains an article on this that seems to make a lot of sense. "The Reserve Bank of Australia is unlikely to waste much time lifting interest rates from their current emergency levels and driving them up towards 5 per cent."
It says this 4% level could be reached "in the next twelve months", and that this level is broadly seen as neutral.
A bit more alarmingly for real estate investors is a later comment in the article that the RB governor Mr Stevens "might try to talk up interest rates as a way to head off the possibility of any property bubble developing".

Interest Rates on the way UP!

The Reserve Bank of Australia today raised interest rates by .25% to 3.25%, the first country to do so after the emergency reductions forced on the financial world in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Homes for Rent in Beecroft price increasing?

Several years ago Ray White Beecroft had quite a few properties for rent at prices in excess of $1000 a month, typically to senior executives of large companies over here on ex-pat contracts, with the company paying the rent. This market dried up almost completely a year ago as the financial crisis hit and companies stopped sending ex-pats. Many existing tenants negotiated reduced rents when their lease came due, recognising the lack of competition in that market.
So it was pleasing to note that RWB's Property Management department just rented a property within a week of it going on the market for just under $1000! So maybe this end of the market is getting up steam again!

Great Work the SES!

Sydney residents will remember this long weekend as being the rainy days between two beautiful sunny working weeks. For large property management departments like Ray White Beecroft, torrential rain always means problems, and rain at weekends normally means expensive callouts to reluctant tradespeople.
This weekend, as the rain teemed down on Saturday night Lydia's home phone rang, a tenant reporting cascading rain water flooding into their kitchen through the ceiling! Knowing how hard it would be to find a contractor able and willing to attend quickly, she advised the tenant to phone the State Emergency Service. The SES won't accept calls from a Real Estate agent, only the resident can ask for SES help.
Within the hour, and before Lydia had managed to find a contractor, the tenant rang back. The SES had attended, and had replaced a broken roof tile!!!
What incredible service! Well done, and thank you, all you great SES volunteers!

Big Ray White Commercial Sale in Beecroft

On Thursday last, Ray White Doublebay sold 5 Wangala Crescent, a large Beecroft commercial property, for $4.95 million.

Sydney house prices are rising

RPData says Sydney home sale values rose 8.6% in the first eight months of this year.

Ray White Tops of Google!

Internet users are searching for Ray White more than any other real estate group, a Google reporting tool has found.
The findings were revealed on real estate technology website Business2, who used Google Insights for Search to compare the relative brand strength of different real estate brands right around Australia.
“One way to measure a brand’s effectiveness is what the public are actually searching for,” author Glenn Batten wrote in his article Australian Real Estate Brands Compared.
“Google released a product a while back called Google Insights for Search which you can use to compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties.”

Interest Rates

Until very recently most people were saying interest rates would not move up before Christmas. But increasingly there are signs that an earlier increase could happen. Economic figures released this week suggest the economy is continuing well even as the stimulus packages are being phased out. House and apartment prices have risen for the last eight months in a row. Retail sales rose nearly 1% in August. Alex Joiner of ANZ says that "high levels of confidence may be able to weather interest rate hikes".

Benefits of publicity

It's been interesting looking at the statistics of visitors to the Ray White Beecroft website. The day after Beecroft in Bloom, more people visited the website than ever before! Coincidence? Or evidence of the obscure way that charitable acts pay off?

Pensioner rents

The Federal government is making a fuss about NSW government proposals to increase rents by $7.50 when the new pension increase of $30 comes in. However apparently council rents have "always" been set at 25% of the pension, so the increase is consistent with that existing policy.

Auctions in Upper North Shore

Residential property sales by auction over the weekend achieved below average clearance rates of 55% this weekend for the upper north shore and northern beaches. Lower north shore achieved 63% and eastern suburbs 77%.

Website success

Our website, raywhitebeecroft.com.au, had 220 visitors to the site last week, half of them new visitors. We also advertise on Google and elsewhere, further increasing our visibility to potential buyers and renters.

Digital Display of Adverts

Ray White Beecroft used its four digital window displays to promote the recent Beecroft in Bloom event, showing who the early sponsors were, and thereby apparently encouraging a rush of new sponsors eager to appear on the display lists.

Kellyville house prices

Ray White Beecroft manages quite a few residential properties out to the west of Beecroft, including Cherrybrooke and Kellyville. The Spring Property Guide shows that house prices in Kellyville fell only 1% last year.

Property Price Changes

The Sydney Morning Herald published their spring property guide this last weekend. House prices in the Upper North Shore make interesting reading. House prices in Beecroft are shown as having dropped nearly 10% over the last year, but are forecast to increase 9% to 12% over the next twelve months. Sounds like a great time to buy! And for home owners, they have to decide how long they will hold onto their property waiting for this predicted increase.
Homes for sale in Cheltenham are reported to have dropped 6.7%, and are predicted to rise the same as Beecroft. Houses for sale in Epping dropped 10% last year. Homes for sale in Carlingford fell 8%.
Interestingly, houses for sale in Pennant Hills dropped only 1.3% last year, and in West Pennant Hills residential houses fell 2.8% while units rose 13% and are predicted not to gain value next year at all.

Another quick sale

Ray White Beecroft clocked up another excellent sale yesterday with Peter Raco driving off into the night to deliver contracts. All looks to be sewn up and I will publish details after the cooling off period.

Cocktail Party Success

Beecroft in Bloom got off to a great start with a cocktail party sponsored by Ray White Beecroft at the opening of the art gallery. Greg Smith, the local MP, attended and gave an excellent speech praising the work of the Lions Club.

About a hundred people attended the cocktail party, and numerous pieces of art were sold from the art gallery during the evening.

Beecroft schools attract

The Illawara Mercury reported recently that
"Parents are sharing houses, providing false addresses, renting and buying property in a fierce competition to secure a place for their children at some of Sydney's top comprehensive high schools. Schools including Cheltenham Girls, Burwood Girls, Epping Boys, Killara and Cherrybrook high schools perform well educationally and are being swamped with enrolment applications."
Ray White Beecroft is very much aware of this, a significant majority of applicants for rental property admit the attraction of living in Beecroft is the number of superb schools available in the area.

Ray White monthly meeting

This Friday the northern districts group of Ray White real estate agencies gathered for their monthly campaign meeting in the offices of Ray White Beecroft, Hannah Street, Beecroft, NSW 2119.

Presents from grateful clients

Our residential property sales department received some lovely flowers for selling Victoria Avenue, and the Property Management department received a huge tin of chocolates for sorting out problems with a tenant in North Sydney. The good thing about that issue was that the tenant was left happy too.

Rorke Street house finally demolished

Late last year Ray White Beecroft sold a very old house in Rorke Street. Although the Ray White Beecroft property management department had been managing a tenant in the property for nearly ten years it was obvious that the house was becoming unfit to live in. The tenant was happy but the owner decided the house had to go. The Ray White Beecroft house sales department took over and advertised the property for sale. Lots of people came and saw the lovely old house, but they saw the cracks in the walls and I don't think anyone considered renovating. The buyer made no secret of his intention to demolish and rebuild. Well now the house is gone.

Swimming pool repair

The Cherrybrook swimming pool repair is finally done. What a saga. The pool had been blowing bubbles out of its return pipe, but otherwise seemed to be performing fine. But investigating the suspected leak showed a leak under the bush near the poolside filter. Removing the bush, we found its roots had broken the pipe, and digging further we found a five inch diameter root from a tree near the pump had grown along between the two pipes, crushing them out of shape. Presumably the bush roots had caused the initial leak, and the water in the soil had attracted the other tree, which had grown the bigger root over the time since the first leak started. The moral is, don't have bushes or trees near your pool pipe work. And if you see bubbles coming out of your return line, investigate. Well done the Ray White Beecroft property management department for not ignoring this problem.

Art Gallery

The Beecroft in Bloom art gallery to be held this weekend in the empty offices in the module above Ray White Beecroft will feature some lovely paintings, photographs, ceramics, and other work from talented artists.

Beecroft in Bloom

Ray White Beecroft has been heavily involved in the preparations for Beecroft in Bloom this coming weekend. Lydia Merrill, proprietor, and Peter Hewitt, Business Development Manager, went to the Annual General Meeting of the Lions Club of Beecroft/Cheltenham, who organise the event. Since then Ray White Beecroft has been advertising on our digital display screens to promote the various sponsors. Sharon Aldrick, our Marketing Manager, who has had her artistic photography exhibited and has a long career promoting and curating artistic events, is assisting with the Art Galery.