“And the bid is with the gentlemen to my left….at $550,000,421.25, this delightful 40sq metre cottage overlooking the coal docks, with glorious views of the freighter ships coming into port and easy access via the toll motorway at the end of the front yard…luddies and gendlemen, this is the last and final offer ..… I am in your hands ….. your in my heart, your in my soul, you’ll be my precious when I grow old……….” And so the gavel falls and someone is told how lucky they are to snatch up one of the last vestiges of Australiana, complete with water views (more accurately, docks!). The grinning victor is herded and jostled into some back room to sign on the line to seal his triumph. The crowd scuffles away, taking their dumfounded silence with them. The agent swirls around the little lamb that has just won, and with pen in hand, still pirouetting and step-and-gliding his way around our chump, er…champ, he finishes off the slaughter by handing the pen over ….. $$$ signs rolling in the eyes like a pokie machine. You can almost hear the ‘ca-ching’.
It’s easy to be left feeling as if the whole real estate market is turning into some garish, real-life side show. Maybe auctioneers should be encouraged to finish off the fall of the gavel with a howdy-do-dee “COME ON DOWNNNNN…” salutation at the end, and have someone with a signboard, that tells the crowd you’re now allowed to clap and holler?! I am living in the bizarre universe known as the Sydney residential property market and the game that goes on each Saturday is more deserving of a standing ovation as each week passes. I am even thinking of starting up my own auctioneering set-up. I’m what you would call a plucky, I’ll give it a go sort….so here’s my business plan (any comments are well received):
I will start off by expanding the garage sale concept. I will head off to my nearest Bunnings and buy a garden shed. With a few cosmetic improvements aka Doidge, and a feature wall paint treatment and perhaps even an extension, such as a loft conversion (can you get them in sheds?), I will be ready. So here’s my repartee for my first big day:
“Ho, ho, ho (well, we are nearly there!)….luddies and jellyspoons, roll-up, roll-up and feast your eyes on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (enter the shed). Here we have 4sq m of desirable residence, complete with picture-window views to the nearby waterscape (Enter the faint trickle from a nearby downpipe). Ah-ha, yes, yes, yes ….. this pleasing to the eye and easy on the pocket des-res is surely the eight wonder of the Sydney property world. We are here folks to sell, make no doubt, have no fear, slip-slap-slop, buckle up and hold on tight….yes who will start the bidding at…..” and so the game will go, with random numbers being yelled from all quarters…a bit like a revved up bingo session!
I may be a minority (usually am) but I often leave wondering if someone has changed the rules and people are now bringing along their monopoly money and are counting on getting a chance card in the game to get them a valuable ‘get out of jail’ card, or in this context, ‘get into huge debt’ card …… did everyone take an extremely long vacation during the share bubble a few years ago? If it looks like a bubble, smells like a bubble and wobbles like a bubble…….
Actually, I am not trying to make the call on that. Everyone’s an expert and we all have reasons why we fall on one side of the fence or the other. I have been shown figures that mean one thing to Joe Blow and the complete opposite to Fred Fencesitter, so you takes your pick I guess.
To my point…..
What is one person’s risk can be another’s reward. I recoil in horror when I see someone buy an over-priced, under-sized matchbox and lose all ability to comprehend their actions. Yet that reaction is merely me looking at a situation through the lens of my current position. It’s a stupid thing to do to ask someone at the bottom of a mountain what the view from the top is like…duh!!! You have to be there to have any credibility to answer that question. This was made clear to me by a ‘friend’ arguing as to why my property investments were a ‘risky’ choice and why my trading style in the sharemarket was also dangerous. I’ve learnt not to listen to the description of the view from the mountain-top by those that haven’t even started out climbing…..a complete waste of time. They perceive everything I do as risky, dangerous, mad, greedy etc. How hard it is to try and explain with the passion that you have, that the view only gets better and better the further up you go. Those in the valley that refuse the climb will always miss this opportunity.
Here’s the real learning point for me though. With calculator in pocket, hundreds of quotes stored in my head from all the books read and from my experience so far, I too have learnt that those that have climbed further than me have the potential to have an even broader view and horizon than I. Maybe when you get to that altitude, buying a dog-box unit in Tamarama may work .... at my altitude it looks like madness but I have to watch my step and not make the same mistake as my detractors down in the valley. I have only arrived where I have and I am sure that as I go further up, I will allow myself to change and be prepared to accept that the view will change. What works for me today, works for me today. I like to keep it simple. If tomorrow something new comes along, doesn’t necessarily mean that yesterday’s effort was wrong or misguided.
My mentors have been those that actually DO something. It is one thing to talk about mountain-climbing, to know all about the equipment, to work through rescue techniques and have certificates in theory and all that goes with being 'knowledgeable'. Yet one thing that can never be experienced just by knowing, is the feeling you get from doing. It is fine to use this forum to learn, to prepare and to put all the pieces together...and we all have to do that. It's the saddest thing to meet someone though, who knows far more than you, yet they have experienced so much less than you. Our investing character is far more influenced by what we DO than what we KNOW.
All this is written purely to encourage those that, like me, don’t always have a fistful of numerical talent, legalese or a banking/accounting background. What we do have though, is the chance to know ourselves, challenge ourselves, set a goal before us and work each day to reach it and to learn to be encouraged by those saying “Come on up – the views great” and to throw rocks at those below saying ……”COME ON DOWN!!!”
p.s. - if I should be in trubble again for posting in the wrong room
, then many apologies ...... move me at will!
It’s easy to be left feeling as if the whole real estate market is turning into some garish, real-life side show. Maybe auctioneers should be encouraged to finish off the fall of the gavel with a howdy-do-dee “COME ON DOWNNNNN…” salutation at the end, and have someone with a signboard, that tells the crowd you’re now allowed to clap and holler?! I am living in the bizarre universe known as the Sydney residential property market and the game that goes on each Saturday is more deserving of a standing ovation as each week passes. I am even thinking of starting up my own auctioneering set-up. I’m what you would call a plucky, I’ll give it a go sort….so here’s my business plan (any comments are well received):
I will start off by expanding the garage sale concept. I will head off to my nearest Bunnings and buy a garden shed. With a few cosmetic improvements aka Doidge, and a feature wall paint treatment and perhaps even an extension, such as a loft conversion (can you get them in sheds?), I will be ready. So here’s my repartee for my first big day:
“Ho, ho, ho (well, we are nearly there!)….luddies and jellyspoons, roll-up, roll-up and feast your eyes on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (enter the shed). Here we have 4sq m of desirable residence, complete with picture-window views to the nearby waterscape (Enter the faint trickle from a nearby downpipe). Ah-ha, yes, yes, yes ….. this pleasing to the eye and easy on the pocket des-res is surely the eight wonder of the Sydney property world. We are here folks to sell, make no doubt, have no fear, slip-slap-slop, buckle up and hold on tight….yes who will start the bidding at…..” and so the game will go, with random numbers being yelled from all quarters…a bit like a revved up bingo session!
I may be a minority (usually am) but I often leave wondering if someone has changed the rules and people are now bringing along their monopoly money and are counting on getting a chance card in the game to get them a valuable ‘get out of jail’ card, or in this context, ‘get into huge debt’ card …… did everyone take an extremely long vacation during the share bubble a few years ago? If it looks like a bubble, smells like a bubble and wobbles like a bubble…….
Actually, I am not trying to make the call on that. Everyone’s an expert and we all have reasons why we fall on one side of the fence or the other. I have been shown figures that mean one thing to Joe Blow and the complete opposite to Fred Fencesitter, so you takes your pick I guess.
To my point…..
What is one person’s risk can be another’s reward. I recoil in horror when I see someone buy an over-priced, under-sized matchbox and lose all ability to comprehend their actions. Yet that reaction is merely me looking at a situation through the lens of my current position. It’s a stupid thing to do to ask someone at the bottom of a mountain what the view from the top is like…duh!!! You have to be there to have any credibility to answer that question. This was made clear to me by a ‘friend’ arguing as to why my property investments were a ‘risky’ choice and why my trading style in the sharemarket was also dangerous. I’ve learnt not to listen to the description of the view from the mountain-top by those that haven’t even started out climbing…..a complete waste of time. They perceive everything I do as risky, dangerous, mad, greedy etc. How hard it is to try and explain with the passion that you have, that the view only gets better and better the further up you go. Those in the valley that refuse the climb will always miss this opportunity.
Here’s the real learning point for me though. With calculator in pocket, hundreds of quotes stored in my head from all the books read and from my experience so far, I too have learnt that those that have climbed further than me have the potential to have an even broader view and horizon than I. Maybe when you get to that altitude, buying a dog-box unit in Tamarama may work .... at my altitude it looks like madness but I have to watch my step and not make the same mistake as my detractors down in the valley. I have only arrived where I have and I am sure that as I go further up, I will allow myself to change and be prepared to accept that the view will change. What works for me today, works for me today. I like to keep it simple. If tomorrow something new comes along, doesn’t necessarily mean that yesterday’s effort was wrong or misguided.
My mentors have been those that actually DO something. It is one thing to talk about mountain-climbing, to know all about the equipment, to work through rescue techniques and have certificates in theory and all that goes with being 'knowledgeable'. Yet one thing that can never be experienced just by knowing, is the feeling you get from doing. It is fine to use this forum to learn, to prepare and to put all the pieces together...and we all have to do that. It's the saddest thing to meet someone though, who knows far more than you, yet they have experienced so much less than you. Our investing character is far more influenced by what we DO than what we KNOW.
All this is written purely to encourage those that, like me, don’t always have a fistful of numerical talent, legalese or a banking/accounting background. What we do have though, is the chance to know ourselves, challenge ourselves, set a goal before us and work each day to reach it and to learn to be encouraged by those saying “Come on up – the views great” and to throw rocks at those below saying ……”COME ON DOWN!!!”
p.s. - if I should be in trubble again for posting in the wrong room
, then many apologies ...... move me at will!
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