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I’ve been obsessed now with the www – (weird whacky ways) consumer online movement for fourteen years. Prior to that, we had black and white television, fresh daily milk deliveries in glass bottles, one telephone per household, wash tub wringers, beta videos and 45 rpm records. We also paid for a newspaper (unless you stole it) and let’s not forget that when you dialled 013 (directories) you were charged for the experience. Today, these, enquiries are made online – free of charge.

CEO’s and business owners are currently struggling to understand the latest online strategies (and survive) and why, their respective businesses are looking pear-shaped. It is happening in television advertising, print media and radio commercials – online advertising has arrived and is taking a significant market share. In fact, it’s booming.

Tim Mooney Photography

www.timmooneyphotography.com

Just look at the profit reporting announcements this week where Fairfax Media posted a net full – year loss of $380 million announcing “unprecedented” declines in advertising revenues. The Seven Network posted a 91.2 per cent decline in full year profit where large losses were proportioned to their ownership of West Australian Newspapers (again citing declines in the overall advertising market). News Corp really brought home the bacon by posting a $US3.4 billion ($4.03 billion) loss citing a downturn in advertising markets and impairment charges. Newspaper advertising strategies require a complete overhaul and it is obvious that the present methodology is becoming irrelevant and too expensive, compared to the alternatives.

Just thirteen houses in Mosman were advertised in last Saturday’s edition of Domain. This prompted me to count just how many houses were advertised on Domain in total. Just 86 – the lowest number in memory. Not at all helpful, was the fact that we sold $17,385,000 worth of houses since last week’s edition of Virtual Realty News. No longer available – 23 Upper Avenue Road, 10 Middle Head Road, 15A Clanalpine Avenue, Sirius Cove, 5 Wonga Road (four sales by electronic advertising campaigns). A clue! $929,190,221 in subscriber sales in the Mosman – Cremorne and Neutral Bay market. As well as the best our online position (database) we have the best negotiators!

It should be noted that our property markets are no longer predictable with the upcoming Spring/Summer market appearing (at this point) to being very tightly held. Open house inspections over before lunch (who would have predicted that?) – changing times.

All arrows keep pointing to Google. It commands ninety per cent of online search enquiries in Australia and it is a no-brainer for any business not to be dominant on the major information highway. Competing search engine Bing (less than ten per cent of searches) has just announced its user-submitted homepage competition, although I remain unconvinced that this photo will significantly increase traffic – it is not the picture but the the content that attracts eyeballs!

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News Limited’s arrows apparently now point to paid online readership when the Los Angeles Times reported “Chief Digital officer Jonathan Miller has positioned News Corp, as a logical leader in the effort to start collecting fees from online readers.” As quick as a flash (and unprecedented – I believe) Fairfax boss Brian McCarthy announced that he was “happy to talk” to rival News Corp about its plan to charge readers who access online news content. Charge for online? I wonder if newspapers will then be free – what an about face. The Internet has simply matured and users have embraced this change in culture. It is now widely acknowledged that the online available resources in modern times are rolling out much smarter user experiences and applications.

Late in 2006 – Google (the monster) acquired YouTube for $US1.76 billion which just so happens to be the Internet’s top video channel. Now YouTube will start paying videographers for their content given they are now accepting page advertisers.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone also announced that he too would introduce some type of paid content for commercial customers. Richardson & Wrench Mosman & Neutral Bay (RWM) is the only Mosman agency (that I am aware of) using Twitter as Biz identified for his charging model “But we we’ve identified a selection of things that businesses say are helping to make them more profit.” Nothing wrong with a pay to stay model as long as you understand it – I still believe Google will somehow mash YouTube into its real estate model.

So let’s move to the following quote that I read online this week “Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On” (a great read – should you be moving. Please download and read) “Hence our theme for this year: Web Squared. 1990 -2004 was the match being struck; 2005-2009 was the fuse; and 2010 will be the explosion.” In summation the report tells us “If we are going to solve the world’s most pressing problems, we must put the power of the Web to work, its technologies, its business models, and perhaps most importantly, its philosophies of openness, collective intelligence, and transparency. And to do that, we must take the Web to another level. We can’t afford incremental evolution anymore.”

“It’s time for the Web to engage the real world. Web meets World – that’s Web-Squared.”

Every time you open a link, Google rewards that business with a vote that propels it in their rankings for that respective keyword search – the more votes, the higher your business ranking which explains why consumer communication (newsletters) keeps getting voted into powerful online positions on the Google Monster.

Since the unexpected Global Financial Crisis arrived here in Australia our business model has exceeded our expectations (all things considered) based on the results we have delivered in our marketplace. In my opinion, RWM could not be better prepared for the predicted “explosion” next year. Web Squared said “But 2009 marks a pivot point in the history of the Web. It’s time to leverage the true power of the platform we’ve built. The Web is no longer an industry unto itself – the Web is now the world.”

Yes – times change – although not as fast as NSW Labor changes Premiers. Embarrassing, and highlights the gross incompetence at Fort Crumble. Woolworths wants a bigger tool box to nail consumers and speculation that our property market is set for another boom. June quarter GDP figures are released next week – negative or positive? I predict positive although a negative result would put an interesting spin on the micro/macro analogies of economic recovery.

Once www stood for weird whacky ways – now I suggest that www should stand for ‘what (a) wonderful world’. I should register that and remember where you read it first. See you next week and our online business shall forever remain free – another clue.

Cheers ^__^

For this week’s recorded Mosman real estate, Cremorne real estate, Neutral Bay real estate and Cammeray real estate sales www.rwm.com.au/news/

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28.08.09Robert Simeon11 Comments »

Google in Australia is the online monster, better known as Australia’s online library with approximately ten million visitors logging on each month. Last Saturday, in The Sydney Morning Herald, Julian Lee wrote a fascinating article about the “Google Monster” which I recommend you read (if you haven’t already). Nine out of every ten searches on the Internet are made through the Google Monster – which has catapulted this business to Australia’s number one media company. As Julian Lee wrote “Google’s revenue is estimated to be $700 million and fast heading towards $1 billion as more advertisers divert their budgets into a medium that delivers them measurability and sales leads.”

Last month the Google Monster entered the Australian property market when it released its real estate directory Google Maps. What this illustrated to me is just how little Mosman real estate agents know and understand about online given that Google measures all websites based on algorithms – whereby the greater the individual pages from a website, the higher the Google ranking on search enquiries. We try to add around 50 to 100 pages on Google each and every week and real estate agencies with an online plan, are doing very well in the current conditions.

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Tim Mooney Photography

www.timmooneyphotography.com

This week, we ventured into left field (no pun intended) as one expat subscriber was explaining to his son, the importance of Australia winning The Ashes at The Oval. As quick as a flash we sent Tim to capture a photograph of The Sydney Cricket Ground – where we all share so many childhood memories. So if you want a particular photo from Tim, send your request via our blog and if he does not have it, we will pay him to take it and this will appear in future editions –must be Eastern seaboard* (*everything has conditions).

Back to that Google Monster where I remain amazed that Richardson & Wrench Mosman & Neutral Bay (RWM) is the only Mosman agency that directs Google Maps enquiries back to its own website. This explains why our agency is positioned at number one for all search enquiries on Google (Mosman real estate) searches. We have a few thousand pages already on Google which is why we appear at the top of all searches relevant to our market demographic.

Someone is telling “porky pies”. The Weekend Australian ran a story last Saturday saying that Ruddy Fantastic is reportedly planning an absurd tax on family homes valued at over $2,000,000. Political ventriloquist, Wayne Swan, was quick to deny this. Whatever the case, a concerning leak, given that Federal government has to fast track its pay back of the stimulus packages – interest payments alone are estimated at $10 billion a year. In this comprehensive Australian tax review (currently under way by Treasury) it appears that the two worst taxes affecting our property markets – Stamp Duty and Land Tax (both State taxes) would be unlikely to change given that State governments are broke. The only alternate increase would be GST and such a decision would not be popular. With the benefit of hindsight, the stimulus packages were excessive and even though our economy has recovered, Federal and State governments are steeped in their own recessions.

Obviously, Kevin Rudd did not read the Sinclair Davidson (Professor at the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing and a senior fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.) “Rudd’s stimulus has nothing to do with the economy” which appeared on www.crikey.com.au

Sinclair Davidson wrote “Pessimistic bias is the tendency to over-estimate the economic severity of economic problems. The idea that the Global Financial Crisis is similar to the Great Depression is simply nonsense (I said this a month ago). Australian unemployment in the 1930’s peaked at over 25%. Unemployment is now seen at levels not seen since the early 2000s. The “collapse” in forecast revenue that so spooked the government, returned us to levels not seen since 2006.” Sinclair Davidson then wrote “The government argued that the stimulus package was intended to save jobs. That may well be an admirable goal. But why then stimulate the construction industry? Were the unemployed bankers and brokers and lawyers expected to get jobs building school halls?” Interesting points which no doubt will be debated on our blog (each comment generates another RWM page on Google.)

Before Ruddy Fantastic starts increasing taxes he should read this report compiled by the Australian Housing and Research Institute (AHURI) – Does Higher Housing Wealth Increase Consumer Spending? The key point from its findings was that – A $100,000 increase in housing wealth is associated with an increase in consumption expenditure of approximately $1,000 to $1,500 per annum in Australia. The Federal government can ill afford to infect the property markets with badly thought out tax. Instead, it should look at the tax debacle created by Fort Crumble (NSW government) when it introduced (then embarrassingly dismissed) Vendor Exit Tax!

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But then again I keep revisiting Peter Costello’s musings which appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on April 29,2009 ” Buy now and pay much more later” . A compelling argument where the stimulus payback may well be worse for Australia than our very quick time in recession.

So let me turn your attention back to the Google Monster – which was not even a concept back in the recession of the early nineties. The Internet has played an enormous part as an accelerated driving force to economic recovery.A majority of decision makers simply don’t understand it and we now find ourselves indebted to their lack of understanding and knowledge for that matter.

In their defence – businesses and governments are now just starting to understand the powers of this monster, and it is not just Google that is reaping the benefits.

Cheers ^_-^

For this week’s recorded Mosman real estate, Cremorne real estate, Neutral Bay real estate and Cammeray real estate sales www.rwm.com.au/news/

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21.08.09Robert Simeon10 Comments »

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The global financial crisis (GFC) in Australia was short and quick and now Australia has to manage its inherited financial flu, courtesy of inexperienced politicians shooting from the hip (your hip pocket).

With the benefit of hindsight, the global financial crisis (GFC) was not equal (or even close) to the Great Depression (Rudd/Swan analogies via Fort Fumble (Federal government), where, rash/panic policy decisions have sent our national recovery back decades. I stand convinced that businesses have led the road to recovery – not cash splashes. Just one negative quarter of economic growth (March quarter) does not (and should not) equate to over $300 billion of debt.

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Tim Mooney Photography – Palm Beach & Palm Beach Lighthouse

www.timmooneyphotography.com

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) took a totally different read on our economy and massaged the cash rate down, opting for measured reductions over panic policy. RBA – “In contrast to most other developed economies, indicators of household activity in Australia have been fairly resilient over the past year. Retail sales and the housing market have been quite buoyant since late 2008 and there has been a significant rebound in consumer sentiment, particularly over the last few months.” With the recession now abating, the next move with interest rates will be up not down.

Given that the vast majority of businesses received absolutely no financial benefit from Fort Fumble’s financial based recovery plan, the question now is, when will an Australian Federal government next return a budget surplus? In all probability 2020. That means eleven years of lost opportunities to build a better and stronger economy.

A recession (March quarter) is no excuse for the embarrassing rhetoric from elected politicians when in front of a camera. If the majority of those running businesses had listened to Fort Fumble’s predictions of doom and gloom (Great Depression 2) unemployment would have been closer to ten per cent. Fort Fumble panicked but fortunately, business managers relied on their own aptitude, intelligence and readings of their respective business markets. Then again, they are not playing with and wasting other people’s money.

Just as interesting are journalists who don’t ask elected politicians if they still stand by their previous predictions regarding the GFC, which prompted unprecedented national debt levels. Just as interesting again, is that the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index rose 4.0 per cent in August to 113.4 points which lifts the index to its highest level since October 2007, when it recorded 115.3 points.

Much like the innuendo that half of Mosman’s houses (Mosman has 4,900 houses approximately) were secretly on the market when anecdotal sales evidence could only identify 275 (November 2008) that were actually for sale. Today, when I look at www.domain.com.au Mosman has just 75 houses for sale which leads us to predict that house prices will jump by a ten per cent minimum in the run through to Christmas. Of the 75 houses currently available, 24 have been on the market for less than one month, 10 have been on the market for less than two months and 41 have been on the market for over three months.

The real estate industry is quickly moving into overdrive with the leading online agencies (those who invested in the future with their own money) becoming the preferred option for vendors).

PricewaterhouseCoopers recently released its Entertainment & Media Outlook 2009-2013 report which predicts growth at just 1.7 per cent as against the previous average annual spend of 5.5 per cent. It will be very difficult for traditional media to bounce back when vendors are opting for online campaigns over more expensive print campaigns. Everything points to the internet. This is exactly how agents are increasing their online presence with database client communications. I will make a prediction that over the next 24 months, a quarter of Australian real estate agencies will close down simply because they have fallen by the wayside with technology. This is the stark reality of changing times where nine years on our online media platform convictions/predictions are now a reality.

Electronic listings for ‘homes open for inspection’ are now being fast tracked. Then again, Richardson & Wrench Mosman (RWM) has been doing this for nine years and we were the first real estate agency to release this industry media platform.

My thanks to Steve and Richard for writing the last three editions while I took my mid-year break. Unfortunately, I failed in my efforts to secure that Aussie Bar table mat, because they have now sold out – so I am back at Christmas to secure this valued commodity.

Plenty of clues in the Mosman housing market at this point in time. RWM currently has 25 per cent of the Mosman housing market on our online sales platform which coincides with the fact that RWM has sold the greatest number of homes during the GFC – then again how many weekly market updates are in your inbox?

Cheers ^__^

For this week’s recorded Mosman real estate, Cremorne real estate, Neutral Bay real estate and Cammeray real estate sales www.rwm.com.au/news/

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14.08.09Robert Simeon23 Comments »

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With Robert returning today, it’s Steve and Richard’s last chance to throw a few more thoughts your way. So next week, watch out for more contentious and newsworthy journalism. Good luck out there to our vendors and purchasers alike. We wish you happy property hunting as we move into Spring.

Tim Mooney Photography

www.timmooneyphotography.com

RICHARD’S FIVE REAL ESTATE TIPS

•Investment tip of the month – without doubt, Holsworthy is now flush with bargains. Nice semi-rural setting although there may be a few local security issues.

•Interest rates on hold for the last time? – It’s probably a fair call. Although this is a negative thought for most, it is a positive sign for boosting the real estate market. We are at the bottom and the only way is up, so there is no reason for buyers to delay purchasing. Our banks are over it and they want to make money, so watch-out!

•Potential vendors, if you plan to sell in the next 12 months, I think the time is now! Buyers are screaming for more choice and they will to commit to a purchase. With less property on the market, buyers are forced to compete; simple forces of supply and demand apply, so sale prices will be higher this quarter. Interest rates are still very low and ‘the media’ hasn’t started its next wave of negative real estate commentary, which is sure to happen when the inevitable inflationary spike eventuates.

•Don’t let your agent under-quote your property in this market, claiming this is the best way to drive the price up, or blaming the tough market. The reality is, that although prices are firming, the market is still soft and more than ever, every buyer wants real value for money. No buyer today wants to believe that they paid the asking price in this market. Every agent will have excellent comparable sales to determine and justify a strong value for the property they represent, which every good buyer needs to appreciate.

•To determine the best agent to sell your property, the most important question is: “Tell me the strategies you will use to achieve the highest possible price and what do you do differently from other agents?” Today, more than ever, the difference between a good and poor result will cost you up to 20%. So, by choosing the wrong agent and agency, you could be risking hundreds of thousands of dollars. Any agent can quote a potential high sale price, but if they cannot convince you how and why they will achieve that price, then it won’t happen in the market.

HOT REAL ESTATE TIPS FROM STEPHEN PATRICK

•Timing – It is vitally important to get the selling period right when putting your property on the market. In suburbs like Mosman, many families have weekend properties or holiday homes that they head off to for the school holidays. Hence, on the Lower North Shore, our open inspection numbers can drop by over 50% during school holidays. So if we have an extensive marketing programme booked, we make sure that it falls between school holiday periods.

•Presentation – This can make a huge difference. For example, if the furniture in the house has been bashed to bits by your kids over the last 20 years, it may make the house look old and tired. It is often hugely successful to rent new furniture for a 4-week marketing period to maximise your price. Obviously the flooring and paint on the walls also have to be in good order to set off the furniture. This presentation can make a huge difference to the end price.

•Concept Plans – For properties that are under-developed, where there is extensive potential to extend and upgrade, we often have an architect draw up concept plans to give buyers ideas of what can be done to fully maximise the property’s potential. Fabulous computer images cam be produced to help buyers visualise the property on completion.

•Facts & Features – Many quality homes have numerous features of interest to buyers – too many to list on a standard sales brochure. With so many available choices of tiles, stones, c-bus systems etc. it is important to transfer all the information to the buyer when they are considering the property. All the extra quality features in the property substantiate the high price expectations. A house that cost $1m to build can seem an exact replica of a $2m home of higher quality with extra technology, but much of the extra cost is hidden unless we specifically let buyers know.

•Landscaping and Gardening – It is also important to have your gardens in order. The front entrance is particularly important to create that very important ‘first impression’.

•A Makeover – Can work wonders and this could include the cleaning of tiled/sandstone paths, a house wash and new colourful plants added to the garden. There are several companies who will do this at a very competitive price.

Kindest regards and good luck!

Stephen Patrick (Principal) & Richard Simeon (Director)

For this week’s recorded Mosman real estate, Cremorne real estate, Neutral Bay real estate and Cammeray real estate sales www.rwm.com.au/news/

7.08.09Stephen Patrick4 Comments »