Our Hudson Bond Experience

Written by Paul Kounnas | Wednesday, 04 April 2012

This week I would like to share with you an example of one of the numerous testimonials we receive from many of our clients:

"Back in 2004 my fiancé at the time and I, were looking for that perfect first home. At that time the market was red hot with first home buyers, developers and the influx of overseas investors. We spent months attending auctions to only suffer disappointment when our budget was blown out of the water with emotionally cashed up bidders or where houses we were shown just didn’t quite match our requirements.

Months of dealing with all the major real estate agents in ...

the area we found one common issue and that was they didn’t listen to what we were after and more importantly what our budgetary limits were. This lead us to frustration when we were taken from property to property where our budget limits were continually being challenged by agents or where the homes we were shown simply didn’t fit our criteria.

It was then when we stumbled across Steve Lazaridis from Hudson Bond real estate and there was an immediate and noticeable difference. Steve took the time and effort to sit down with us and listen to what we required. We were quite surprised when he started filling out a basic questionnaire that captured our budget limit and the type of home we were looking for before even attempting to show us any houses. We were shown only two houses before we made our purchase and were proud first home buyers.

Steve explained how he and Hudson Bond operated as a Jenman approved estate agents. The upfront black and white approach to their listings, the fact that all Hudson Bond agents work as the one team resonated to us a sense of confidence we never found with other agents in the area. The home Steve had sold us wasn’t even his listing but that made no difference to the sale.

As the years went by Steve maintained contact with us on a regular basis where our relationship you could say became that of our families “unofficial” real estate advisor. Whenever we were looking for investment properties or when general real estate advice was required he was only too happy to help us without any obligation.

When it came time to sell our family home in late 2011 as our family was growing, the decision to sell with Hudson Bond was an easy one. We wanted a result and we knew this could be delivered by Steve and the team at Hudson Bond. To our surprise our house was listed and sold within a week and not even time to erect a for sale sign!

Our Hudson Bond experience has been nothing short of pleasant. Our thanks go to the whole team and especially to Steve for not only being our listing agent but for being such a trusted advisor all these years."

Sincerely,
John Stavretis and family.

Local News Update

Written by Paul Kounnas | Thursday, 08 March 2012

Doncaster Rail

Do you know what is really stupid about the State Government’s independent study into a rail connection to Doncaster?

Manningham is the only municipality in Melbourne without either train or tram services, relying solely on buses as a means of public transport.

A $6.5 million study is underway to investigate the transport needs and explore the feasibility of extending rail services from the CBD through the Doncaster corridor.

The Doncaster rail study will be conducted over ...

a two year period with phase one, already underway, to be completed in 2012 and phase two to be completed in 2013.

The study will investigate various issues including route options, demand, as well as potential station locations. To make sure rail to Doncaster is economically viable the study will explore various options such as extending through to Ringwood or connecting across to the Heidelberg rail network.

Manningham needs an alternative means of public transport and I hope the feasibility study for rail confirms the need to provide this service to our area.

Eastern Golf Course

The Eastern Golf Course site of approximately 47 hectares was acquired by the development company Mirvac in May 2011 on the condition that the existing golf course owners could relocate their golf course to a new site at Yering.

The application by the Eastern Golf Course for the Yering site is expected to be considered by the Shire of Yarra Ranges during March 2012.

The 47 hectare site in Doncaster has environmental and heritage significance and to ensure these are maintained the council proposed an amendment to the Planning Scheme to guide future development on the site.

The proposed amendment, which was approved by the Minister for Planning on the 25 January 2012, encourages an area of no less than 20% of the site to be set aside for open public space.

It is unfortunate that the golf course could not remain in Doncaster but at least with the new Planning Scheme it will not all be cut up for high density development.

Yes, Numbers Can Lie

Written by Paul Kounnas | Thursday, 12 May 2011

You can influence the way people dance by the music you play. You can also, just as easily, make numbers dance to your tune.

How is it possible to make the wrong numbers look right?

Let us look at the weekly reported auction clearance rates as an example. The auction clearance rate earlier this month was reported as 61%, but it could just as accurately been reported as 43%. How can this be right?

If you were to count the number of properties sold at the fall of the hammer ...

on the day of auction and divided it by all the properties booked for auction for that same weekend, you will have a correct clearance rate of 43%.

The reported figure of 61% however is also accurate, if you agree with the following reasoning: If you add to the auction results the number of properties sold by private negotiation before the auction, as well as the number sold by private negotiation after the auction, and you ignore the number of auctions that were not reported or withdrawn, you’ll then get a 61% clearance rate. Which calculation is right? Both figures can be justified depending on which numbers you pick to support your argument.

Which figure do you think more accurately represents the true clearance rate?

As you can see, it’s not hard to make the wrong numbers look right. It simply comes down to which way you want the numbers to dance.

Next time someone says to you, “numbers don’t lie”, perhaps you will now be a little wiser with how you wish to respond. You’ll know that their maths may be correct but the problem is they may have deliberately selected the set of numbers that justifies their reasoning and proves their cause.

Auction results can be handy for interpreting market sentiment. They can give us a regular snapshot of the market. But don’t forget that auctions only represent a small sample of the market. Australia-wide, auction sales represent less than 20% of the market.

Melbourne is Again Voted the Best City in Australia

Written by Paul Kounnas | Thursday, 21 April 2011

In an annual global survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Melbourne has again scored higher than any other Australian city to be ranked as the most liveable.

On the world stage Melbourne came in second place behind Vancouver, topping the list of the world’s most liveable cities for the fifth time.

Melbourne’s popularity may well be a contributing factor and one of the driving forces behind its recent strong growth in property values.

The demand for property in Australia’s most liveable city provides another reason why property prices are not likely to crash but more likely to ...

rise in the future. The annual survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit ranks cities on a combination of 30 factors such as culture, environment, infrastructure, education, stability, healthcare, cost of living, crime rates and personal safety.