News & Updates

A tool to navigate the market – RPA Compass

247 B.C. is when the first compass was made. No one currently living was around to verify this event, so we need to rely on the drawings and notes handed down over time. Fast forward to 2018 A.D. This year saw the creation of the next generation of compass. One designed to direct its user…

Property Advice for Real People

Recently I had the privilege of talking to a new client who found us via our website and was looking for some property advice. (I guess he found the right website then!) Let’s call him Mark and his wife Jane. Mark gave me an outline of his current financial and property status and their goals…

Watch the Worlds Tallest

123 acres of space, straight up, rising from the dust. Visible from 95kms away and tall enough to see the same sunset twice. Burj Khalifa officially opened on January the 4th 2010. It was a major feat of engineering and about a decade later, now about to be superseded by another building 20% taller. Pop…

Swiss Army Knife of Property

Christmas morning 1990. A younger me was unwrapping gifts in my mind, while shaking and prodding them under the tree. One of the addressed boxes was too small to be lego (hopefully) and too big to be money. It was quite heavy and solid. Were my parents playing a joke, was it a rock or…

Embrace the Bubble

You sit down. The overhead brace slides across and presses on your chest. Locked in place and nowhere to go, the countdown begins. The carriage you are sitting in smells a bit musty and is making funny noises but its ok, this is all normal you are told. Looking around, every other seat is taken;…

How long does it take to save for a house deposit

How many work hours does it take you to save for a house deposit? Have you ever worked it out? It is both interesting and depressing at the same time. Understandably, there is an almost infinite number of variables for this calculation, most of them around wages and household expenses. Let us give it a…

2021 Outlook, According to the Property Cycle Clock

Not the end of the cycle, not the beginning of a new one, just the middle… It is fair to say most people would agree, that since 2019 we have been in a down or sideways market. What we have just experienced, is in fact, a Mid Cycle Slowdown (MCS), not an End of Cycle…

They want to pay 12 months rent upfront

“We wish to advise; we have taken an application for your property. The proposed tenants are willing to pay 12 months up front, with a 13.3% rental price increase from last tenant.” The rental market has gone bonkers! Earlier this week one of our properties had a rental application delivered to our rental manager. The…

Second Place is First Loser – Auction day in a Covid Market

It was down to him and me. Bid for bid and number for number anytime one of us moved, so did the other. On this beautiful Saturday morning on the Sunshine Coast, my opponent was chasing the same prize as I was; to pay the most money for a property that needed to be knocked…

Top tips I have learnt as a Buyers Agent

Since 2004 I have been buying property for other people as a job. This job is called a buyer’s agent. Over this time, I have seen some key things that many buyers do to put themselves at a disadvantage when buying a property. A good buyer’s agent will alleviate these problems, but as a buyer…