Property Owner

Harcourts ended 2011 on a high note as our Australian offices posted a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in sales in November 2011 while our New Zealand offices posted an increase of 34 per cent.

In November, Harcourts posted sales totalling over $1.7 billion across its Australian and New Zealand operations, slightly above the group’s December total of just over $1.4 billion.

These results are simply fantastic and I believe the figures are proof that there are buyers out there and that a strong level of investor confidence is returning to the market.

Within Australia, our New South Wales operations reported a staggering 99 per cent lift in sales from December 2010 to December 2011, while Harcourts Western Australia posted a lift of 89 per cent and Harcourts Tasmania’s sales increased by 44 per cent over the same period.

Furthermore, Harcourts Queensland reported a lift of 14 per cent from December 2010 to December 2011, despite the devastation brought by the state’s natural disasters producing challenging market conditions.

The state-based figures are incredibly encouraging, particularly given the uncertainty experienced within the property market during 2011.

The Queensland results are also exceptional given the devastation caused by the floods. It’s

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Back during the Dot Com boom – before it busted – you couldn’t turn on the news without seeing another upbeat story about some housewife or laid-off factory worker who’d made their fortune as self-taught online day traders. Unfortunately for most, that fortune was ethereal and vanished along with millions of dollar in other electronic assets.

Don’t fancy yourself as a day trader, but would still like to dabble in the stock market a bit? There are a number of online brokerages that let you do just that, at a fraction of the fees and commissions a flesh-and-blood broker would charge.

There are a number of discount online brokerages to choose from, each with tutorials on how they work, details on how to sign up, and backgrounders on how to follow the markets. Applying

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The REINZ Property Press Auckland Superstars Breakfast was held at the Ellerslie Event Centre on Tuesday morning, featuring Rohan Thompson from Ray White Royal Oak.  Rohan is currently number 2 for Ray White.  Other speakers included Craig Smith from LJ Hooker Titirangi, Blair Haddow from Bayleys Real Estate, Matty Ma from Harcourts Albany and Sherran Vause of Crockers Property Management.

After the opening address, the questions turned to the use of technology within the business of a high performing agent. Rohan Thompson commented that technology is an increasingly important piece to the success of marketing and communicating in real estate, but there still needs to be a high face-to-face rate linked with telephone communication. W

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John O’Brien is a Register of Deeds based in Salem, Massachusetts. Instead of burning witches, OBrien believes we should investigate the people who created the notes and documents that have now destabilized the entire property records system. He also believes those who are guilty of criminal conduct should go to jail and not merely face fines.

The Massachusetts official is turning over nearly 32,000 documents to state prosecutors on the grounds that they may be improper. A

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