The Armidale International Film Festival will be held on the first weekend in August at the Belgrave Twin Cinema.

 

Audiences will be captivated by highly acclaimed films from Western and Eastern Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Festival passes go on sale from this Friday and you need to go into the Belgrave Cinema to choose your seat.

 

Opening night and tickets for individual films will go on sale on July 22 or earlier, if festival passes sell out. Comedies, psychological thrillers, emotional dramas, martial arts mysteries to documentaries, this year’s films have it all.

 

Festival passes are available now at the Belgrave, phone 6772 2856. The price is $140 for all 13 films.

Valuing your property encompasses a number of key areas that are taken into consideration by your real estate agent, including main ones such as land size, the property’s age structure and functionality, market opinion and of course presentation.

 

Even before you’ve listed your property for sale, you should take care to present your home in the best possible way you can. Whilst it’s not necessarily your personal items that will detract from the property’s value, it could be things like the state of the yard, internal and external walls, floor and window coverings, working state of fixtures (such as doors, windows, taps, dishwasher, air conditioner, fans, oven etc) and other items that will be included as part of the sale of your property.

 

So, before you have your property valued, make sure you’ve done everything you can to present your property so that you’re getting the most out of it. You can even go as far as to have rates notices and information about improvements you have made to your property whilst you’ve owned it (including before and after photos and overall cost of the improvements).

 

If you’ve done everything in your power to make surethe property is presented well and in good repair, you should have no problems having your property valued at an accurate price, helping you get the most for your property that you possibly can.

We all know the sound they make. Some of us may have even had some choice words to say about them as they swoop past us in parks and other open spaces. Masked Lapwings (otherwise known as ‘Plovers’) can be spotted miles away by their bright yellow mask and unlike other birds – don’t breed in trees – leaving that particular family ritual to the open spaces often in parks and sometimes even backyards. This vulnerability makes them quite fierce and protective, and they can appear quite aggressive to passer-bys.

 

Armidale often becomes host to the Plover breeding season around this time every year – and unfortunately their behaviour is often misinterpreted by residents who have borne the brunt of these screaming swooping birds, however if common sense is exercised – we can make Armidale a happier place for birds and humans alike!

 

Try varying your walking route to try and avoid Lapwing nests, just to give them a chance to lay their eggs and to look after their young. If you must pass by their breeding ground – hop off your bike, wear a hat and avoid direct eye contact. Travel together as they are less likely to attack groups than they are solo travellers. 

 

Most importantly – Plovers very rarely injure anyone. They are all noise and little action. Don’t be too alarmed by this behaviour. Give them a wide berth over the next month or so, and we will then be able co-exist peacefully.

Over the winter months heating seems to be at the forefront of buyers minds when viewing properties, with temperatures in Armidale often reaching the minus level in the early mornings I can understand why.

 

So when selling your home you really need to highlight the heating attributes of the property this can be done by ensuring all window coverings with a northern aspect being open for inspections and all heating on… especially when inspections take place, it is always advisable to let your agent no if you do not have time to insure these things happen as the agent can head over before the inspection and make sure the home is showcased to its full potential.

 

Another common asked question by potential vendors is if they should leave heaters as part of the sale, my advice is yes you should if possible as sometimes a simple Gas heater can mean the difference between a sale and not, many buyers will deliberately look to buy over the winter months as they do not want to end up buying a cold house.

 

On another note the market is what you make of it, personally I believe there is a buyer for every home and I can’t comment on how others are finding the market however I know that hear at professionals we have enjoyed record months this year and this is evident by the awards we have won recently, I’ll be the first to admit that the number of sales is down compared to previous years however prices certainly have not dropped by huge levels if at all, it is still good especially compared to other regional area’s my advice to potential vendors is to list with an agent that is confident in the market not one that is negative.

 

Thinking Real Estate,

Think professionals

Hello from everyone at the team at Professionals Armidale

 

Well if you like everyone else in the public you have probably heard the doom and gloom regarding the economy and more important the news that property prices may plummet.

 

However you need to take a long term look at property prices over the course of time they have continually gone up, there is periods where prices have slowed however generally all this means is that they may not sell for the same amount they did 3months ago, what is failed to be mentioned is that the property still sold for more than the owner paid for it …hence they still made a profit!

 

Sometimes owners do sell for a loss however there could be a variety of reasons for this like combining personal debt to their home loans or buying and selling a property within a 12month period.

 

Many people in the market place do believe that they “will buy when prices come down” however with population increasing and rents going through the roof wouldn’t you think now is a great time to buy???? Believe me smart investors do! Just look at what happened to the share market last week with a record loss of $53Billion …weigh that up with a increases in rents and smaller vacancy rates…… Property is the smart option, be ahead of the game, so many people buy in a boom however do not buy when the market is steady, I remember seeing a quote from Kerry Packer saying “the best time to buy property is when the first story on the news is saying to not buy property”

 

Thinking Real Estate think Professionals

Being kind to the environment and trying to cut down on our carbon footprints is something that a lot of us have in the back of our minds.

 

So what can we do to try and help the environment?

 

The obvious answer would be, reduce, reuse, recycle and use solar energy. But why stop there? There are plenty of other ways you can be kind to the environment.

 

Have you eve thought about growing your own food? Not only are you getting fresh organic produce straight from your garden but it works out cheaper too!

 

If you are interested putting together a vegetable garden of your very own I found some tips to get you started if you head to www.greengold.com.au/greengold/CARENOTES/CARENOTES/vegetabl.htm.

 

Otherwise go and visit your local Bunnings or hardware store this weekend, I’m sure they’ll be able to give you some great advice too.