Real Estate - What I know now

Despite what was said above, Jeff has had a long career in the real estate industry.  He started out in 1980 working with his mother, Glenys and then in 1984 L J Hooker asked if they would join the Hooker family of realtors.  Jeff, the 'longest Hooker', and Glenys, the 'happy Hooker' did join the organisation and moved into property management and sales with L J Hooker.  Jeff took over the business in 1996 when Glenys was no longer able to deal with the demands of the job.

 

Jeff indicated that the industry has changed a lot over the time he has been a realtor.  When he first started there were no such things as fax machines, nor did you send emails.  Most of his business dealings were on a face-to-face basis; where you would get into your car and drive the person to view the property they were interested in.  He now can't recall the last time he had someone in the car driving to view a property.

 

The industry in the early days was driven by the newspapers because you had to wait until the newspaper came out before you could see what was on offer.  Now it is all on the internet.  There are organisations that can now (often with a fee) provide a report on any listing that is on offer.  Banks also use this data rather than going to view the properties they are financing.  Even the buyer/seller agents don't need to meet face to face to finalise a transaction any more.

 

Perth's real estate property prices tend not be going upwards at the moment, in fact it is possible that they may stay low for at least a few more months.  There is a very different trend in Sydney where the prices are escalating enormously.  Much of these sales in the east, are driven by investors, especially those with overseas money.  They particularly love Sydney. 

 

Some property reports can be misleading if you are not a local and understand the data well.  For example one property report indicated that sales in places like Piara Waters has doubled over the past 10 years.  Someone from outside of Perth may not be aware that Piara Waters did not even exist 10 years ago, so could be taken in by that.  It is very easy to misinterpret data if you don't know the local area and what has happened.  There are lots of horror stories of people being hurt by real estate investments that have gone awry.  The prices in the Pilbara are one example.  In 2011 a mid size house could have fetched over $1 million; with rental properties fetching as much as $2,000 per week to rent.  By 2013 it was a real issue with not enough places to meet the needs of the mining industry.  However by 2016, the boom is long gone and housing prices have dropped by as much as 75%.  One house in Hedland was purchased in the 1990's for just under $1 million.  In 2013 it was put on the market for $1.5 million; but did not sell.  It finally sold in 2016 for $340,00 - a loss of almost $600,000.  Many people lost money up there.

 

It is almost impossible to predict what will be happening in 5 year's time.  However Jeff did think that we are either at, or close to, the bottom of the market at the moment, with maybe some slight increases in the near future.  Sydney and Melbourne will also slow down; but the Gold Coast will possibly continue to grow until the Commonwealth Games are held in 2018.    Anything with land attached has better value than, for example, apartments.

 

Thanks Jeff for an very interesting overview of what the real estate industry is about.