Our property settled on May 26th so time for a tenant. The agent put it up on the web for rent at $510 per week...and we waited...and waited...and waited.
After one week he told us the bad weather in Sydney was affecting the property market and we needed to drop the price to $490. As you can imagine I was totally unimpressed. But I had to take his word for it - isn't he the professional? I'm over here in HK so what would I know about fair rental values? So the price was lowered.
Two weeks later and still no interest and now he's saying to drop it to $460! I exploded. Countless filthy emails were composed (and deleted) along the lines of how can he call himself a professional and then ask us to drop our price by 10% in less than a month?! The rest of the Sydney market was increasing so why weren't we?! What rubbish methodology did he use to come up with $510 in the first place?!!! (Ok, b r e a t h e )
After calming down I decided to look at the online ad to see if it held any clues. Real Estate websites are paramount in Australia; they're probably the most important property marketing tool.
Imagine my horror when I saw our advert - OMG it was rubbish! Dreadful! Dull, ugly photos and a short non-descriptive blurb that ignores all the key features. And excuse me but what is a LUG? No wonder people weren't interested. The properties advertised either side of ours had over 200 views each - mine had only TEN in the same time! And my property was the one with the ocean views and it was closest to the beach.
In a fit I rewrote the ad and forwarded my version to him, demanding he replace it immediately (in the nicest possible way, of course). Then I very cheekily quoted the weather report and told him it would be sunny for the next 2 days so he'd better get out and take new pics :)
To his credit he changed the text immediately and one day later we had 45 hits! Vindication!! 400% increase in views (my boy sarcastically pointed this out to the agent haha).
Three days later with both new pics and new text we were up to 75 hits. Ha! Bad weather my butt. More like lazy real estate agent.
This is the sad reality of property ownership - there's no such thing as set and forget.
Lesson learned - lazy agents try to drop the price as a first (easy) measure. Instead, make sure your property is being promoted properly to show off its best features first! It could earn you $$$ more in income.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
change
About 12 months ago I started to feel a growing disquiet within...something just wasn't right and I didn't feel completely satisfied with my role (financial planner). This came about for a number of reasons but one in particular was the role's lack of creativity. Trying to speak to my manager about not liking my job in the midst of a global recession seemed like career suicide so I kept it under my hat for a while. Instead, my focus was trying to work out what it was I really wanted to do and what it would take to get there.
Straight out of high school I'd originally studied journalism, and then dabbled in marketing for about 4 years. This was where I felt my heart was wanting to go. There's definitely scope to combine marketing and financial planning, it was just a matter of convincing the boss. The first few conversations didn't go so well. She couldn't understand why anyone would want to change roles when they were doing well in the one they had. Lucky for me the existing marketing person's interest in her role soon expired and a vacancy was created.
So now I've started my new journey in finance marketing/corporate relations. This role comes with management responsibilities so I'm re-learning all those skills too. In the past my previous staff were all a good 10 years younger than me. This time its a whole different kettle of fish with one being about 15 years older and the other the same age.
Given my expanding interests I'm going to expand the themes in my blog...I guess I'm using this as a personal scrapbook of-sorts to dump great ideas that I've come across in areas of marketing, HR and finance too. Even if no one besides me ever reads this, at least I can use it as my own reference tool :)
Here's to new challenges and opportunities.
Straight out of high school I'd originally studied journalism, and then dabbled in marketing for about 4 years. This was where I felt my heart was wanting to go. There's definitely scope to combine marketing and financial planning, it was just a matter of convincing the boss. The first few conversations didn't go so well. She couldn't understand why anyone would want to change roles when they were doing well in the one they had. Lucky for me the existing marketing person's interest in her role soon expired and a vacancy was created.
So now I've started my new journey in finance marketing/corporate relations. This role comes with management responsibilities so I'm re-learning all those skills too. In the past my previous staff were all a good 10 years younger than me. This time its a whole different kettle of fish with one being about 15 years older and the other the same age.
Given my expanding interests I'm going to expand the themes in my blog...I guess I'm using this as a personal scrapbook of-sorts to dump great ideas that I've come across in areas of marketing, HR and finance too. Even if no one besides me ever reads this, at least I can use it as my own reference tool :)
Here's to new challenges and opportunities.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
joint bank accounts
I was having a chat with a girlfriend this week about joint v separate bank accounts for couples.
She and her hubby only have the one joint account where both their salaries are paid into. From here they pay all their bills, holidays etc.
While I am strongly in favour of joint accounts, I think you also need a separate account each person - purely for 'ME' stuff.
My friend, let's call her Alice, felt that having separate accounts was a headache - more accounts to remember and possibly get mixed up. But I disagree - only one account can be messier if someone overspends (which happens more often than you think).
I'm going to write a longer post on how the boy and I sort our accounts, but for now here are some interesting links on the subject:
She and her hubby only have the one joint account where both their salaries are paid into. From here they pay all their bills, holidays etc.
While I am strongly in favour of joint accounts, I think you also need a separate account each person - purely for 'ME' stuff.
My friend, let's call her Alice, felt that having separate accounts was a headache - more accounts to remember and possibly get mixed up. But I disagree - only one account can be messier if someone overspends (which happens more often than you think).
I'm going to write a longer post on how the boy and I sort our accounts, but for now here are some interesting links on the subject:
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Market update
Wow, the volatility in global markets continues...
In summary:
~ AVOID long-term government bonds
~ Now's a good time to buy in to quality assets when their price is down BUT short the Euro (meaning = expect the Euro currency to continue to fall)
In summary:
~ AVOID long-term government bonds
~ Now's a good time to buy in to quality assets when their price is down BUT short the Euro (meaning = expect the Euro currency to continue to fall)
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Money tool for Americans
I've stumbled across this great website which tracks your ACTUAL spending by getting direct data from your bank accounts.
Looks like it's only relevant for American residents though, which is a shame.
Definitely worth a look if you want to see what you really spend, rather than what you think you spend. Plus they lots of interesting articles and links on personal finance.
http://www.mint.com/
Looks like it's only relevant for American residents though, which is a shame.
Definitely worth a look if you want to see what you really spend, rather than what you think you spend. Plus they lots of interesting articles and links on personal finance.
http://www.mint.com/
Saturday, May 1, 2010
TWFT: Argh! Lost Wallet!!
My boyfriend staggered home at 3am this morning after celebrating his new promotion, only to arrive by taxi at our building and discover he'd lost his wallet.
I awoke to his distraught phone call from the taxi, threw on a robe and trotted downstairs to pay the worried taxi driver.
The next 30 minutes were spent on the phone helping him cancel his credit cards and Octopus card (HK travel card - like the UK Oyster). Let's just say he wasn't very sober and needed help pressing the phone buttons...which explains how he lost his wallet!
What did I learn from this? Keep a list of your important finance details on hand for emergencies.
Something that has:
~ Account numbers
~ Emergency phone numbers (i.e. for lost cards)
~ Your ID numbers (i.e. passport, HK ID card)
Just the basics, nothing extensive.
And another tip - don't keep ALL of your credit cards in your wallet. If you don't use all of them all the time, keep one home for emergencies like this!
Hope you had a better week than this.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Protection and Prevention for redundancies
As an expat, there are simply so many things to spend money on. It's only too easy to live hand-to-mouth from month to month. As the wages come in, they quickly go out on holidays, outings, experiences, shopping.
But one thing you might have noticed during the GFC is how vulnerable the expat employee market is to an economic downturn. When things started getting nasty in the financial markets, companies needed to cut costs in order to stay afloat. And not just small belt tightening, I'm talking about limb-removing cuts here. Entire departments losing 20% of staff, all foreign travel suspended...no free fruit in the kitchen.
As expats, we can be a little more expensive than a local hire in many cases. We can demand housing allowances, children's education allowances, drivers, helpers (maid), blackberries, corporate credit card. The list of perks can go on...together with the incentive to sack expensive expats first during a crunch.
So what can we, as an expat, do to protect ourselves from this situation. Other than working hard, being innovative etc (which are covered off in a million other blogs), we should consider:
1. Emergency expense reserve
Set aside 3 - 6 months of expenses in cash or liquid assets (i.e. money market) for easy access should your source of income dry up. The cash reserve will allow you to pay your bills, while looking for a new job, and save you from having to liquidate your investments in order to eat.
2. Stand alone insurance policy
Your employer will, in many cases, provide you with some level of insurance cover. And in many cases, this insurance will cease when your last day at the company ticks over. This will leave you without insurance cover, and could be very stressful. Look into the costs of having a basic stand-alone insurance policy, so that you have emergency cover should you lose your job.
3. Stress test
Having a monthly budget is great while you have a job to keep track of expenses etc and exactly what you are spending. Now take this budget...and zero out your income. What impact does this have on your cashflow and long term financial goals? Use this opportunity to work out where you can make some savings in your budget to see you through. And use this to work out how long your savings will last in a worst-case scenario. Scared? Think you won't make it? Great - use that knowledge and fear to give you the kick you needed to start saving more!
But one thing you might have noticed during the GFC is how vulnerable the expat employee market is to an economic downturn. When things started getting nasty in the financial markets, companies needed to cut costs in order to stay afloat. And not just small belt tightening, I'm talking about limb-removing cuts here. Entire departments losing 20% of staff, all foreign travel suspended...no free fruit in the kitchen.
As expats, we can be a little more expensive than a local hire in many cases. We can demand housing allowances, children's education allowances, drivers, helpers (maid), blackberries, corporate credit card. The list of perks can go on...together with the incentive to sack expensive expats first during a crunch.
So what can we, as an expat, do to protect ourselves from this situation. Other than working hard, being innovative etc (which are covered off in a million other blogs), we should consider:
1. Emergency expense reserve
Set aside 3 - 6 months of expenses in cash or liquid assets (i.e. money market) for easy access should your source of income dry up. The cash reserve will allow you to pay your bills, while looking for a new job, and save you from having to liquidate your investments in order to eat.
2. Stand alone insurance policy
Your employer will, in many cases, provide you with some level of insurance cover. And in many cases, this insurance will cease when your last day at the company ticks over. This will leave you without insurance cover, and could be very stressful. Look into the costs of having a basic stand-alone insurance policy, so that you have emergency cover should you lose your job.
3. Stress test
Having a monthly budget is great while you have a job to keep track of expenses etc and exactly what you are spending. Now take this budget...and zero out your income. What impact does this have on your cashflow and long term financial goals? Use this opportunity to work out where you can make some savings in your budget to see you through. And use this to work out how long your savings will last in a worst-case scenario. Scared? Think you won't make it? Great - use that knowledge and fear to give you the kick you needed to start saving more!
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