Hi Keith, Hi Ed,
I think Ed is right about consumers having arrived at a point of saturation.
It does appear also that it was synchronized with apprehension and
fear about the world situation, and what I see as investment at large in
things
of no intrinsic value. If I were to consider any investments at this time,
they would pertain to the basic necessities of life, which entrepreneurs are
swallowing up whole, but even more frightening, the giants like Monsanto--
who can buy up much more. I personally wouldn't trust many large corpora-
tions' accounting practices, but food, water, energy--especially alternative
source companies, may well be the only good steady growth investments
in a reactionary market like this one.
As to trying to sell a heritage property at top dollar, one has to, of
course,
do the best that your pocketbook will allow. Real Estate wants easy
listings,
and can often mislead a seller into costly outlays both in terms of cash and
inconvenience. Fast sales are the result of three things, or three things:
"Location, location, location"
or
1) most competitive price if you take into account location,
amenities, and updates.
2) property is priced substantially below market value.
3) seller lucks out and finds the right buyer who is more
emotionally
attracted to the property.
Almost all buyers regard a home from an emotional perspective, yet all will
be fairly cautious with respect to market value. Most borrow from the bank,
and then get into second mortgages after that. Century property finances
are fortunately, due to the clientele, not as difficult to come up with.
I sold real estate for six years in London, Ontario, and specialized in core
century properties. I managed to sell or successfully market to sale almost
every one, and for top dollar--much to the vexation of the old pro's. First,
I had an emotional attachment to older homes, and could sell from the
seller's P.O.V.. Next, I had a duty to the buyer to attain reasonable value
in a purchase price. If the seller was unbending and unreasonable, which
was usually determined after a few offers at table, they were advised
accordingly. I also had fewer listings than the established reps, and could
devote more time to an individual listing.
If quick sale was important, and the house needed updating, yet the
seller had few resources or inclination to renovate, the old "paint the
door red" trick came in handy. (Once just that improvement alone helped
me to sell someone else's old listing in a day) Where you have kitchen and
bathroom outdated improvements in an antique home, you are best to either
re-do with the "look" of antique, or simply paint fresh light colours and
remove any old carpeting or badly stained appointments. Sanitizing
the look is crucial. What is interesting is that people who can afford to
buy homes invariably redecorate or renovate in completely opposite
colour schemes or styles, and so what the seller must provide is mostly
the sanitized potential for someone else's ideas to transpire--not
necessarily
the improvements that were cost prohibitive while you were living in the
home.
Make sure you have a sign, and are listed with Multiple Property Sales,
or else you reduce your one shot by about 99%.
Hope this is helpful.
Natalia
----- Original Message -----
From: Keith Hudson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Ed Weick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2003 11:57 PM
Subject: My marble bathroom? (wasRe: [Futurework] What's the next thing?
> Ed,
>
> I was being rhetorical in asking Krugman to supply "the next big thing"
> that would stimulate the economy and get consumers buying again.
>
> You're right, of course. American consumers are frightened. Even if they
> were awash with money (like a substantial proportion of Japanese consumers
> who have plenty of cash in the bank but are still not spending), it is
> possible that Americans still wouldn't be spending at the present time.
> They can smell that something is badly amiss in the woodwork. (It's the
> same in England. We have what appears to be a consumer strike going on,
> even though we have nowhere near the unemployment of France, Germany or
> Italy. It's probably the same in Canada, I guess.)
>
> But then there's an even more difficult problem looming. This is that the
> prosperous middle-class sector of the population (the one that always sets
> consumer trends) might not have enough time or energy in their daily lives
> to consume any more products that are substantial enough to be
economically
> significant. A prescient Fred Hirsch made a similar point in his book,
> "Social Limits to Growth", 50 years ago. It was then considered a slightly
> airy-fairy observation from an academic but it is surely correct and
> perhaps it's already happening in a significant way -- but so far not
taken
> into account by economists and public intellectuals.
>
> I think there are many signs of this already. Fifteen years ago when my
> penultimate business was going through a prosperous phase, I bought a
> Georgian house. It's a 'listed' building so it can't be changed
> architecturally, but many of its internal facilities had been renovated
> according to the fashion of the time -- such as wall-to-wall carpeting in
> the bathrooms (and up the sides of the baths, so help me), a natural
> lime-wood kitchen with all the modern gadgets (some of which we don't
use).
> I am now intending to sell my house in order to move to a less hilly
> location, and I am told by house agents that in order to sell my house at
> its maximum price, I should now renovate my bathrooms with marble floors
> and have a brand new kitchen layout according to modern canons as shown in
> the colour supplements of the posh newspapers. I suddenly realised that
> this extremely expensive form of spending is what has become significant
in
> recent years. Most middle-class people simply don't want any consumer
items
> that are additional to the ones they already have because they haven't
> enough time or energy to enjoy them. Thus, many possible new consumer
items
> that are sufficiently expensive to have status value are no longer in
> demand. Instead, consumers are turning towards other forms of
> status-flaunting such as expensive embellishments of existing commodities
> such as SUVs instead of cars, and marble-floored bathrooms.
>
> Keith Hudson
>
>
> At 11:15 21/06/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> >Keith, rather than not finding "the next big thing", the problem may be
> >lifting the pervasive mood of fear and uncertainty based on too many code
> >oranges, continuous reminders of vulnerability to terror, and the real
> >threat of job and income loss without adequate social security. It's
> >difficult to see how Americans can have much faith in either their
economy
> >or their personal situation right now. The best strategy would appear to
be
> >to stay liquid, or, if stocks move up, ride them for a little while but
> >don't stay in them. Last time round, many investors didn't know they
were
> >part of a bubble. This time they probably do.
> >
> >Ed Weick
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Keith Hudson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2003 3:44 AM
> >Subject: [Futurework] What's the next thing?
> >
> >
> > > I think that Paul Krugman is quite right in yesterday's Op-Ed. The
recent
> > > flurry in the stock market will not last. There are too many other
adverse
> > > economic circumstances for any sensible person to have any sort of
> > > optimism. Krugman's problem is, however, that he doesn't have any
clear
> > > idea of what the solution might be. What I want to know from him --
or,
> > > indeed, any other prominent economist -- is what is going to be the
> > > consumer product attractive enough for consumers to start spending
their
> > > money again (that is, if they have any to spare for a year or two
while
> > > they pay off their credit card debts)?
>
> -------etc.
>
> >
>
> Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England
>
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