I do not know Alistair Helm from realestate.co.nz but his company research and his comments have always been high quality and intelligent, unlike many commentators.

So I had to laugh at a comment he is quoted as making after publishing his latest report which is being published all over the web and print media.

“We are now more in favour of sellers than buyers in the vast majority of regions, but the market doesn’t appear to have realised it,” Helm said.

So the stats are reality abut the market is ignoring the research??

Surely the reality is that the market iss till bad because our economy is bad and inflation is starting to kill us, especially with food.  So the reduction in listings actually means little if anything because we are not in a “normal” market.

I strongly suspect that the market will stay in reality mode and ignore the latest stats because you can’t eat and drink stats.  People are keeping their money in their pockets and prioritising how to survive, not rushing out to buy the new house.

Having said that I do have to express some surprise at the 2.3% increase in vehicle sales which could arguably be a leading indicator of increased confidence.  OR maybe everybody who wanted to buy a house settled for a second hand car instead

Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus

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Now let me say right off I don’t know enough about the current US debacle to take sides or have a firm position. In fact based on the likely outcome of a default I am very conflicted because the default would keep real estate depressed for longer and that is great for investors. America recovering wil be good for everybody who is already buying there but will quickly reduce yields for new purchases.

However I just wanted to make one comment after doing a bit of research to show just how unreasonable the Republicans are being and it certainly would appear to be a “power play” that is unnecessary and inherently unfair based on their own party leadership.

This graph shows the number of debt ceiling rises by President.

So the Republicans have done this more than the democrats for decades and now want to cripple their own country??

Strange behaviour and based on these simple facts should bring an anti Republican backlash in due coures.

For us it means one thing, if you are looking at investing in the USA, do it, do it, do it.  Prices aren’t going to be this depressed for ever and as I discussed here we already have the proof of getting it right

Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus

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I found the uproar over Alasdair Thompsons fundamentally true statements costing him his job sad and unfair.  So today to read the comments regarding the real estate agents fighting, article here, totally unbelievable.

Whoever the REAA spokesman is should be drawn and quartered based on the previous case.  How can it be ok to say:

A spokesman for the Real Estate Agents Authority said he was not particularly surprised to hear of the agents’ fight last year.

“I think it tends to be the females more than the males going for each other,” he said, adding he had seen a number of complaints involving physical assaults.

Yes we see women beating each other up all over the place in our industry, not the genteel metrosexual men though, not they hug and love each other fine.

What absolute nonsense .

Have a great day and look out for those violent female agents if you are house hunting…..

Get Going and Stay Inspired ~ Dean Letfus

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Technically

I will go into some more detail in my newsletter tomorrow but just a quick heads up to keep your eyes on currency’s and interest rates this week.   There is a lot of volatility in the world right now and especially with interest rates it would be prudent to be checking anything you have floating or fixed coming off soon and get talking to Kris.

Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus

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One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.  Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.  That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.  On Monday she gave each student his or her list.

Before long, the entire class was smiling.  ”Really?” she heard whispered.  ”I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!” and, “I didn’t know others liked me so much,”  were most of the comments.  No one ever mentioned those papers in class again.  She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn’t matter.  The exercise had accomplished its purpose.  The students were happy with themselves and one another.

That group of students moved on.  Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student.  She had never seen a service man in a military coffin before.  He looked so handsome, so mature.  The church was packed with his friends.  One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin.  The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pall bearer came up to her.
“Were you Mark’s math teacher?”  he asked.
She nodded: “yes.”
Then he said: “Mark talked about you a lot.”

After the funeral, most of Mark’s former classmates went together to a luncheon.  Mark’s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

“We want to show you something,” his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket.
“They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.”

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times.  The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him.

“Thank you so much for doing that,” Mark’s mother said.
“As you can see, Mark treasured it.”

All of Mark’s former classmates started to gather around.  Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said,
“I still have my list. It’s in the top drawer of my desk at home.”

Chuck’s wife said, “Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.”

“I have mine too,” Marilyn said. “It’s in my diary.”

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group.
“I carry this with me at all times,” Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued:
“I think we all saved our lists.”

That’s when the teacher finally sat down and cried.  She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.  The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day.  And we don’t know when that one day will be.  So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important.  Tell them, before it is too late.  And one way to accomplish this is:

Write down the names of ten people in your life:

Write down the top 3 things you love about them:

Send this story to them with your thoughts about them attached as explanation and see what impact in has in your relationship.

Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.

GRA NZ's leading accounting and asset protection coneheads

It is rare that I ever simply copy an article but my friend, advisor (and official conehead) Matt Gilligans recent “rant” on CGT is too important not to share with you here.

“Labour intend to ring fence property losses to future property income. This will send thousands of investors broke fast. Take investors tax refunds away, property values crash. This is well documented overseas. Sweden property values dropped 35% when they ring fenced losses and the following govt reversed the policy, with values immediately there after recovering.

Accountants would get a mountain of pre change planning work and we would have years of work to do.  While lots of New Zealanders will go broke with ring fenced losses and insolvency revenue will grow to. I’m not going to sit by and have to charge my clients for work that is going to make them go broke.  Labour are you thinking this through?

I would not want to be a banker though with losses ring fenced…will make an already difficult environment treacherous and property investors would want to be selling sooner than later.

This really is playing with fire by labour with little short term upside, given the global backdrop of deleveraging, and capital growth prospects in NZ with higher interest rates on their way, – next year or sooner, and potential for major problems globally as Asia and Aussie come off the boil and Europe and the USA choke on their indebtedness. This must put pressure on interbank lending rates within 2 years, especially if we see sovereign default in the PIIGS or USA.

The massive bureaucracy they built and squandered our money on, the buy back of kiwi rail,  now CGT, to name but a few blunders.”

And so say all of us!

Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus

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The media is full of good news this week regarding housing recovery.  Which is nice and warm and fuzzy for realtors but doesn’t match up with reality much.  I know this is my pet “hate” but it is so prevalent I think we need to keep battling it.

You see the people making these comments are looking at data, not talking to buyers, sellers and agents.  And the problem with data, especially in a depressed market, is it can and does lie.  I covered this in some detail HERE and yet we still get swayed when we see this stuff in the paper.