JPP News

Melbourne Home Buyers & Investors show

Well it is that time of the year again, JPP Buyer Advocates and JPP Property Management will again be at the Melbourne Home Buyers & Investors Show. 5th � 7th October (Friday 12pm � 5pm. Saturday 10am � 5pm. Sunday 10am � 5pm) at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition centre. (Clarendon St Southbank).

If you are wanting to visit the show this year be sure to go to our website at www.jpp.com.au and fill in the form to receive a free entry. We will be at stand 128, be sure to pop in and say hello. If you are unable to attend and would like to catch up for a no obligation meeting, don�t hesitate to call or email us to make a time to suit you.. Phone: (03) 9523 1054 email: [email protected] We look forward to seeing you.

Sam James

Top

Market Overview

Selling your property? Which agent would you choose?

With the REIV stating a 64% clearance rate, spring seems to have come early for some vendors and agents. There were over 600 auctions on Saturday with another 526 private sales last week. This time last year there were approximately 628 auctions with only a 53% clearance rate and only 505 sold privately throughout the week. Obviously next week, with the AFL grand final there will be basically no results worthy of mention. I believe there will be less than 50 auctions.

Yesterday I attended several auctions, all of which successfully sold. However, one of the auctions highlighted to me why the Real Estate profession is not trusted very much. The auction started like most others; nobody opening the bidding. The auctioneer placed a vendor bid, and after a good three minutes finally received another bid. As this was the only bid at the time the auctioneer announced that he was going to seek instructions from his vendor and he went inside. I noticed another of the agents moving through the crowd and speaking to different people, obviously trying to drum up another bid.

When the auctioneer returned he began talking about the prospects of passing the property in to the highest bidder. It was at this point a further bidder entered the fray. With only the two bidders it was exceedingly slow and difficult work for the auctioneer but eventually he got close to what I thought the property would be worth. Probably a little light but with some half decent negotiating any reasonably effective auctioneer should have reached a slightly better deal than where the bidding had stalled. The auctioneer had done very well to get to this level leaving only a short jump to what I thought would be a good result for the vendor. With the only other bidder obviously out and having no other bidders I was expecting the auctioneer to call a halt and pass the property in.

Read the rest of the article here (source: JPP Website)

Ian James
Director
JPP Buyer Advocates

Chances are you will not buy under the hammer at auction

Well that�s it then! 66% clearance rate means the entire Melbourne property market has turned around and prices will begin to climb. Over 6 out of 10 properties sold at auction on Saturday! If I am buying a home now I better get ready to simply out bid the next guy!

Nothing could be further from the truth. Looking at the statistics offered by the REIV this week, 56 properties sold before auction out of 516 homes. That is over 10%. We know anecdotally that about 60% of the total properties that go to auction do not sell under the hammer. Many of them do sell in post auction negotiation and these results still go down in the sold at auction percentage.

If we add this to the 473 private sales for the week we can see that having to outbid somebody else to purchase a house might only be 1 or 2 out of ten properties. It is much more likely that you are going to have to deal one on one with the vendor or their selling agent. Once the vendors� statement (section 32) is available, a legally binding agreement on both parties can be negotiated.

Read the rest of the article here (source: JPP Website)

Ian James
Director
JPP Buyer Advocates

Top

New Address

Our new premises are now ready

JPP Buyer Advocates & JPP Property Management are relocating!

With advocates working all over Melbourne, We now have bases in Patterson Lakes, Berwick and Richmond, We are now able to service a wider area for our clients.

Our new mailing address is: P.O. Box 671 Patterson Lakes. 3197

Phone number remains the same: 03 9523 1054

Top

JPP Property Management

JPP Property Management offers a property management service that encompasses all of your investment property needs.

Our Property Management team will be there to do all of the important tasks from collecting rent and doing routine inspections to marketing the property and finding a suitable tenant.

Call Courtney for further information, and be assured our family business will look after your family�s investments. Phone: (03) 9523 1054.

Top

JPP Services

We also offer Auction Bidding / negotiating for people who have already found there perfect home, and already now what they are happy to pay. We can assist with contract signing.

Call Ian to discuss this further if you are interested.

We can also assess and negotiate for you if you have found your perfect investment or home, but are unsure of what you should do from here.. In our current market the uncertainty of what you should pay, and what your best way to proceed can be daunting. Get an expert on your side.

Sam James

Top

Special Note

Please note, our email service will be down for approximately 24 hours from Thursday evening until Friday evening. For any urgent response please call the office or your advocate�s mobile.

Please note: Worksheets will be unavailable at this time as well.

Top

Spotlight On Melbourne Suburbs

In our regular spotlight section we examine a selection of Melbourne suburbs, highlighting what's happening in these areas right now

Balwyn

Municipality: City of Boroondara
Population: 15,312 (2006 census)
Postcode: 3103
Location: 10km from Melbourne CBD

Located 10km east of Melbourne�s CBD with a population of 15,312 (2006 Census). Balwyn is an affluent suburb renowned for its high end real estate prices and the prestigious Balwyn high school. Wide tree lined streets, large blocks of land, and grand McMansion style homes don the streets with abundant park land making up the landscape. Whitehorse Rd is the main east/west thoroughfare and cuts directly through the centre of Balwyn. Located on the intersection of Balwyn Rd and Whitehorse Rd is Balwyn shopping centre featuring a range of shops, restaurants, cinema complex, and various community services. A large number of residents in Balwyn are primarily employed in the finance and banking sectors and as a consequence house prices took a hit during the 2008 financial crisis as the banking and share market faltered forcing the need for quick sales. Balwyn High School is located in North Balwyn, however the school zone extends into Balwyn and property prices reflect competition from families who are required to live in the zone for enrolment. However the school is already at maximum capacity and with a large international student population, even a property in the zone may not guarantee a place in the school (the school zone). Although Balwyn is much loved by the residents, its also known as one of Melbourne�s most boring, uninspiring suburbs. An article in the AGE newspaper (2008) �Balwyn mauling� sums it up nicely when it states �among all the suburbs of Marvelous Melbourne, Balwyn was just plain old boring.� . However it�s considered a safe suburb � quiet and private, and under continual gentrification, is now attracting a fairly large Asian proportion of Asian families who join together to afford the grander properties on offer.

Amenities

Main Schools:

• Balwyn High School (North Balwyn)
• Deepdene State School
• Balwyn Primary School
• Fintona Girls School
• Belmore School

Transport - Closest train station is Canterbury � major tram routes and bus services operate along Whitehorse Rd

Shopping - Whitehorse Rd Shopping Strip (Balwyn shopping centre) located at the intersection of Whitehorse Rd and Balwyn Rd.

Balwyn contains a mixture of post war housing much of which has been replaced by luxurious mc-mansions similar to those found in Toorak. The suburb is largely owner occupied with approximately 54% owning their properties outright. A much smaller proportion rent and as such apartments and small villa units are not a prevalent feature. However they can be found around the shopping strip and transport hubs. Modern single and double story town residences are common, and usually designed to attract down-sizers.

Top

Recent Articles Of Interest

Rental Vacancy Rates In July

According to the REIV�s most recent data on the rental market, the availability of rental homes has contracted slightly in the three months ending in July.

A vacancy rate of 1.9 per cent was recorded across metropolitan Melbourne, with the lowest level of vacant rental homes being found in the outer suburbs, where a rate of one per cent was recorded.

Read the rest of the article here (source: REIV Website)

Doors open on the future of Melbourne

The state government is currently holding two simultaneous consultations; and the outcome of each will have a substantial impact on how the city changes for the future.

The Plan Melbourne process, which will replace Melbourne 2030, will provide a plan for the city�s growth.

Read the rest of the article here (source: REIV Website)

Median house prices on the up

Perhaps proving property prices have hit the bottom of the cycle, median house prices across Australia�s capital cities increased 1.4 per cent over the June quarter

In addition, other dwellings were up 0.6 per cent, according to the latest data from the Bendigo Bank/REIA Real Estate Market Facts report

Read the rest of the article here (source: Real Estate Business Website)

Sam James

Top

Technology Monthly

Samsung Galaxy SIII

I find it funny that Steve Jobs said in his 2007 iPhone announcement that the iPhone was 5 years ahead of it's competitors, and as far as I am concerned he was correct...this is the year everyone else is catching up.

For the last 3 years, I have been a dedicated iPhone user, as there was no other device in the market that I felt could stand up to it...that was until this year. I decided to try a new phone and the Galaxy S3 was coming out at the right time for me to upgrade, so I thought I would give it a try...and after a few weeks with the device, I cannot see myself ever going back to an iPhone.

First the basic specs:
Dimensions - 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm.
Display - 4.8 inch Super AMOLED capacitive screen with a 720 x 1280 pixel resolution.
Storage - 16/32gb (in Australia) with a card slot supporting up to an additional 64gb MicroSD card.
Data - HSDPA 21mbps, 802.11a/b/g/n wifi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, MicroUSB slot.
Camera - 8.0MP 3264 x 2448 autofocus rear camera, 1080p video recording, 1.9mp front camera with 720p video.
OS - Android 4.0.4 (ice cream sandwich).
CPU - Quad-core 1.4GHz Cortex A9 Processor.
GPU - Mali-400MP.

The first thing you will notice with the phone is the beautiful screen and the speed...there is none of the usual lag you get with most other android devices and the display is bright and very crisp. Since having the device I have put it on Android 4.1 (Jellybean) as this incorporated "Project Butter" which was a term Google came up with for the various techniques they used to speed up android even more. I have tried a few custom roms and I found hypergalaxy to be the best one yet, a guide to install it can be found here.

I had been so used to the iPhone that for the first few weeks, I found myself trying to make it look and act like an iPhone with various apps and software, but as time went on I started working out that the S3 works in it's own way and I have greatly enjoyed some of the unique features that the Galaxy has to offer, such as the ability to play a video while using other apps, using a custimized keyboard, installing custom roms and customizing the home screen with widgets/apps as well as the proper back and menu keys.

The only negative things I have to say about the phone are: Due to the plastic backing the phone can have a little bit of a cheap feel when copmpared to some other phones, and while the Google Play store has some great software, it is barely monitored by Google leading to some very dubious apps (always check what permissions an app asks for and install anti-virus on your phone)...also as there are so many different phones running android, an app is not always guaranteed to work on your device.

To finish off, I saw this great chart on Phandroid.com (click this link and scroll down) comparing the new iPhone 5 to 3 other current top phones (Galaxy S3, HTC One X and the Droid RAZR MAXX HD)...while the article does do a fair bit of Apple bashing, which I don't really support, I just found the chart really interesting as it showed that most of the "new features" in the iPhone 5 are in other, sometimes older phones.

UPDATE: Since I stated writing this article, I had been looking around for a gaming controller for this device and I must highlight one being created by the brilliant team who created the Open Pandora. The iControlPad 2 is currently on kickstarter, so please support them if you are interested - Kickstarter.

*Image from Phandroid.com

Chris Thursfield

Top

Recipe: Grand Final Basil and Feta red-hots

Ingredients:

• 12 mini ready-to-bake bread rolls
• 12 mini frankfurts
• 1/4 cup (70g) pizza sauce
• 1/2 cup small basil leaves
• 1/4 cup drained marinated feta

Method:

1. Place the bread rolls on baking trays and bake according to packet instructions or until light golden.

2. Leave the bread rolls to cool slightly.

3. Cook the frankfurts in a large saucepan of simmering water for about 5 minutes or until heated through, then remove from the pan and drain.

4. Cut slits into the top of each bread roll and brush the insides with pizza sauce. Place a frankfurt in each roll, top with basil leaves and crumble over feta.

Top

Special Note

Please note, our email service will be down for approximately 24 hours from Thursday evening until Friday evening. For any urgent response please call the office or your advocate�s mobile.

Please note: Worksheets will be unavailable at this time as well.

Top

Kind regards from the team at JPP.

If you have a friend or family member looking for property, please feel free to forward our newsletter on to them.

Comment on our Market News Page.

JPP - Facebook and Twitter

For our overseas clients and visitors, JPP has a website translator located in the sidebar of our site.

Having trouble viewing this newsletter? The online version with pictures is available here.