How’s the market?
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As we head into Spring, which tends to be seen as the start of the six month “selling season” which, on the coast, corresponds with the warm six months of the calendar, I thought it would be good to provide a market update. This will be handy for those who are getting ready to sell…
Moving forward
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Gazing into the crystal ball and forecasting what the future will bring is alway fraught with danger. However having been through 5 property cycles over the past 30 years I thought I would be brave, stand up on my soapbox and throw out a few predictions for the rest of this year in regards to…
Day tight compartments
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Worrying about the future and dwelling on regrets of past actions is a common human trait that nearly all of us would admit to periodically. It becomes a major problem when it overwhelms our thoughts to the point of affecting our wellbeing. It can come in many forms and is often episodic depending on what…
Great Ocean Report – April 2019
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As usual in this report we try and demystify what is happening in the property markets and hopefully provide some clarity about where we are heading. To establish some context for this article we need to establish that property markets are cyclical in nature and that there is not just one property market, there are…
Kryptonite
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If you have read this column for a while then you may have come to the realisation that I have a strong curiosity around what makes human beings act the way they do. What really intrigues me is the range of human emotions and how they vary from person to person, and even how people…
Great Ocean Report – February
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We have been enjoying one of the best Summers, weather wise, on record and the love for our beautiful coastline is at an all time high. Many of the Surfcoast traders are reporting their best Summer ever due to the consistently high numbers of visitors drawn by the beautiful weather. The coastal real estate markets…
On purpose
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I have recently returned from a leadership development course at Harvard in Boston where I was joined by 164 other participants from 30 other countries. This course is only run twice a year and it was a personally very rewarding week providing not only for new experiences but also providing clarity around my previously held…
Great Ocean Report – December 2018
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There is an incredible amount of property market commentary in the media at present and as usual, we will try and separate the facts from the smoke and mirrors. To set the scene we need to discuss some principles of property markets. Firstly, they are cyclical but they are not uniform. Secondly, they are self-perpetuating.…
Shape of you
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At Great Ocean Properties we have developed a strong culture of professional and personal development. As part of this ongoing journey, I am attending a course at Harvard in Boston next month that I am really looking forward to. In preparation for this I have been reading the course material that has been sent to…
Sentiment
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When you are trying to make a decision in life, particularly a financial decision, one of the key aspects you need to seperate is the reality from the sentiment. It’s also often where the best opportunities lay. What I mean by this is that sentiment is a fickle thing that doesn’t always match reality. The…
Great Ocean Report – September 2018
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At present there is a lot of conjecture about the state of the Australian property market and as usual, in our Great Ocean Report we will do our best to break down what is really happening. As we have mentioned previously in our Great Ocean Report, there are hundreds of small property markets in Australia…
Communication
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We are now living in a world of high communication, where the amount of information we generate and receive each day is at unprecedented levels. It is estimated that this is 5 times greater now than it was pre-Internet. Given this phenomenon has occurred in such a short period, for many of us who remember…
Great Ocean Report July 2018
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The 2017/18 financial year saw a very active coastal market once again and it is interesting to see the contrast in price and volume of house sales in each town in our service area from the previous financial year. So let’s look at the performance of each of the towns during this period. As a…
Intuition
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Although from the outside it looks like working in real estate is a property business, it’s actually not, it’s a people business. It’s a business servicing people who are in the process of buying or selling property. Each transaction can vary in the number of people involved. It can be quite a significant number when…
Focus
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We have a company culture of continuous learning and this week we were very fortunate to have Emma Murray, the Richmond Football Club Mindfulness Coach, come and talk to our whole team. It was an amazing session and there is no wonder why that club is enjoying so much recent success. Emma is regarded as…
Disruption
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Disruption is a word that we see commonly in business these days and is usually used when an industry gets disrupted by a new technology. Think of Uber for the taxi industry and AirBNB for the motel industry. But we see it in low levels all around us. All you have to do is go…
Learned optimism
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Working in such a people intensive business like real estate sales, you must be a life long student of the human condition to enjoy consistent success in thisindustry. I have just finished a fascinating book called “Learned Optimism” by American psychology professor Martin Seligman. It was first published in1991 and continues to be reprinted and…
Face Value
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We live in a world of constant distraction with our senses being bombarded with information most of our waking hours. As our smart phones have grown in capability so has the level of access by others to our available attention. So not only do we have to contend with our physical interactions with others on…
Contact Agent
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The first thing I say to anyone who comes to work with Great Ocean Properties is that when you are dealing with our clients, prospective clients or buyers that we interact with, is I don’t want any “smoke and mirrors”. Just see if you can assist them with your skills to help them achieve their…
Great Ocean Report – March 2018
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Welcome to our March Great Ocean Report. The main objective of our Great Ocean Reports is to explain, in language that most can understand, what is happening in the Australian property markets. Every day there are media reports on the state of the property markets and they vary in quality mainly because they are written…