Do people really want to sell their OWN house?

Today I met a passionate lady who is launching a private sale company that, she believes, is going to take the market by storm.  And because it’s a private sale this will require the clients to sell their own house.  I’m not convinced that it will work.

In my experience many Sellers do not have the skills to successfully sell their own property.  Firstly they are not able to assess the true market value of their home and seem to always advertise it at a premium to fair value.  Secondly, they don’t have the marketing skills to present it professionally.  And thirdly, they cannot negotiate successfully to a conclusion which means they end up losing by either giving it away too cheaply or not finalising the deal.

And on the other side of the equation we have the Buyers.  It is also my opinion that buyers would prefer not to deal with private sellers because of all the reasons listed above.  And, they are also worried that they may not have the skills to negotiate strongly and could therefore be beaten by a stronger player.  For this reason they avoid negotiating directly.

But what do you think?

An apple seed can grow an orchard

When it comes to teaching people about the power of money, therer’s a danger that the vision of loads of money can take over, greed can kick and, and suddenly we find ourselves holding on tighter to our money.  The truth about money is that the tighter you hold on to it, the less you end up with.  Doesn’t make sense, does it?

Money is a funny thing, somehow the more you share the more you have.  Is this really true?  I believe so.

When you share money as a priority in your life you learn the age old principle of sowing and reaping.  What you send out as a seed, generally returns as a harvest.  The easiest way to explain this is to use the example of the apple seed.

When you eat an apple you get to the middle and find the core, and the core is full of apple seeds.  If you plant this seed and nuture it, what grows?  Is it an apple?  No, of course not, it’s an apple tree.  And when that apple tree grows, does it just return one apple?  No way!  The apple tree will provide loads of apples, and keep doing that every year.  And if you had taken each of the seeds in that first apple and planted all of them, you would have an orchard of apple trees all providing you with fresh fruit.  This is the miracle of sowing and reaping.

When you apply this principle to your finances you can learn the power of sowing and reaping in financial terms.  The life changing book The One Minute Millionaire (www.oneminutemillionaire.com) talks about what can be achieved by applying this giving attitude with money.  These guys advocate that Abundance can only happen when you demonstrate that you are prepared to share what you have, they say, for when you share from what you have you make room for more.

You’ll find some inspiring articles on giving, and loads of other financial topics, at www.wisemoney.co.nz, written by a guy I know.

What is one thing you could do this week to begin to share?  Who knows, you may end up with an orchard!

The sum of your failures equals your success

It’s not often the done thing to talk about failures, in fact, often we try and hide our failures so that people don’t think we’re idiots.  But consider the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and even Sylvester Stallone and then understand how many times they did not succeed on their path to triumph.  It would be fair to say that the sum of their failures equals their success.

I’m in the process this week of closing down a business.  It’s something I’ve put my heart and soul into for three years, I’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the project, sold the vision to others who have invested their commitment and passion, blood, sweat and tears… and yet the business is closed and I am in tidy up mode.

I’m trying to remind myself that this is a small step in the grand scheme of life, that it’s a hiccup that will pass and I will succeed again in the future.  But the feeling of failure is one that weighs heavy on my shoulders and its taking all my energy and faith to keep it from consuming me.  Thank heavens I have friends around me that encourage me, a wife that loves me unconditionally, and kids that bring the sparkle back into my day.

Life is full of hurdles, there’s no denying it.  Here’s an excerpt from an email I received last week, I think Nicole sums it up quite well.

Sometimes when we set goals we don’t have a plan if a hurdle happens to come along…and often these hurdles/obstacles are predictable, so when setting goals myself I now also ask myself what is likely to be an obstacle to me achieving this goal and what are my contingencies if this happens. That way I have a plan and don’t get blind sided.  I know its not completly motivational to talk about the hurdles or obstacles but in life reality bites and it is better to be planned and ready so you can spot a hurdle before it wacks you in the forehead!

So with this wisdom in front of me, and the experience of closing a business still consuming me, I thought today I would encourage everyone to plan for hurdles, accept failure, keep the faith, and focus in the big picture.

What is the big picture?  Well I believe that the big picture is made up of WHAT we are doing and, more importantly, WHY.  When I focus on these key points it allows me to keep my eyes on the prize, which keeps my head from dropping and my heart from growing heavy.

I have been encouraged each day by the reminders from those around me that I am bigger than my circumstances and that character is formed during the challenges we face.

Failure is a step towards success, if only we choose to think that way.

If you can’t handle the heat…

Sometimes we need the heat turned up to make us better.  Man I hate that concept but it’s one that I’m getting used to, well, because I don’t have a choice!

Have you ever considered the process that Gold goes through to become one of the most desired metals on earth?  Gold melts at 1062 degrees centigrade, or 1943 in Fahrenheit, and it must be heated to this temperature to go through the refinement process required to extract the pure stuff from the not-so-valuable.  That is a whopping hot temperature and I’m not sure it would be very comfortable to be close to it.  But it’s the kind of heat required based on the rules of nature.

As human beings we’re a bit the same.  We’re made up of all sorts of stuff starting from before we’re born right through to the current day.  We have characteristics, traits, personalities and genetics that make us who we are.  But that doesn’t mean to say that we’re the best we could be.  I’ve found that the heat gets turned up, real HOT, when I need to be refined a bit more, when I need to become better.  It’s almost like someone is watching and knows what areas I need to improve for the next stage of my journey, and so they turn up the heat!

Is it comfortable?  Heck no.  Is good for me?  Absolutely.  Do I like it?  Not at the time, but I have learned that refinement requires heat and it’s something I endure and work through as quickly as I can to get to the other side of the process!  I can’t get through any faster that it should take, but on the other hand I can fight the process and make it take longer than it should!  So I work within the “furnace” to let myself be refined by the heat.

Can you remember a time when the heat got turned up?  Can you remember getting out the other side and feeling better?  If you’re in the middle of the heat right now - take courage.  It’s for a purpose.

Understand the power that comes from Giving

“Why the f*&^ would you be telling me to give my hard earned money away?!” 

I could tell this guy was pretty upset and it was all I could do to restrain myself from responding to match his inappropriate way of expressing himself.

So here I am running a seminar, the room is filled with people hungry to learn more about money, and this guy is standing at the back providing some unplanned entertainment.  Luckily for me and everyone else in the room things calmed down pretty quickly and we all moved on, but that situation really made me think about how I teach the principle of giving.

It’s true, I teach the importance of giving as a vital part of the process of controlling your money.  In fact, I teach that you must give first, as a priority, to prove that your money does not own you.  I teach that there are four reason to give first:  spiritual, success, business, and generosity.  In all of these principles the concept of multiplication appplies.  When you give, you allow your money to multiply.  Let me explain with a simple analogy I use when I teach the giving principle to kids.

Take an apple and cut it in half.  In the centre of the apple is the core, and here you find the apple seeds.  If you took an apple seed and planted it in the ground, watered it and looked after it, what would you grow?  An apple?  No, you would grow an apple tree.  And what would the apple tree produce for you?  One apple?  No, the apple tree produces a life time of apples.  All this from one tiny seed.

And so the principle of giving is portrayed.  When you give a little bit of money away you plant a seed somewhere.  That seed can be looked after, watered and nutured, and will produce a harvest somewhere in the world.  The old saying “you reap what you sow” is true, for if you don’t plant the apple seed in the ground you don’t get an apple tree.

So I encourage you to introduce the concept of giving into your finances.  Don’t think that giving money away will limit your lifestyle, rather the oppposite.  Because what I have learned is that when I give some money away I make room for more to enter my life.  If I don’t make room, it doesn’t appear!

Try it and see.

For more info from Phil on how to get more from your money, visit his library of articles on www.wisemoney.co.nz

Your kids need money!

Today some brief musings on kids and money… and yes I do not want you to deny it - your kids need money!  Here’s a thought, if you’re a kid reading this why don’t you put this post in from of your Mum or Dad?!!

Mum and Dad pay attention.  If you ignore your kids education about money they will leave home useless, by that I mean they will be unable to make financial decisions and probably end up in the “pooh” very quickly.  Is that what you want for your kids?

Now, I do not mean that you shoud hand out hard, cold cash to your kids and call it financial education!  This is not teaching them anything.  I do not mean that you should buy them what they need so that you feel good.  Do not use money as a parenting substitute for it will come back to bite you on the bum in the future.  Be proactive, be positive, and most of all construct opportunities to feed them knowledge about money.  Sometimes that means letting them learn from your mistakes.  but hey, wouldn’t you rather they didn’t end up making the same mistakes you did?

Here are a few ideas on what I think you can do:

1.  Involve your kids in discussions about family goals.  If they know you’re working hard to achieve goals this will teach them how they can be proactive in achieving things in the future.  Role model to them the positive decisions you make around opportunity cost.  That means show them that you sometimes make sacrifices in the short term in order to achieve better things in the long term… you do do this don’t you?

2.  Give the kids some areas of responsibility with money.  You make a judgement call on just how much responsibility they can handle, or how much “risk” there is.  But why not put them in charge of the groceries every now and then?  Stop laughing and consider the wide range of skills you could help them to learn by giving them this level of responsibliity.

3.  Encourage them to contribute.  I’ve just helped a lady who is working hard to achieve some goals for her family.  She has accepted my challenge to involve her daughters, and will be asking them to contribute to the amount required.  Set a target for them to raise and help them ot come up with creative (and legal) ways to raise funds.

I hope this gives you some ideas.  If you have any constructive ideas that could help others, post a response.

Can I push your HOT button?

For you to achieve any goal your motivation needs to be high – you have to really, really want it.  One way to make you really, really want it is to find someone to push your HOT button.  Maybe I can do that for you today.  (This is about goals people, not sex!)

 

Think of an Olympic athlete training for an event, say a single scull rower.  The athletes training for this event will develop a training plan that requires them to get out of bed when it is dark and cold, launch onto the lake or river no matter what the water temperature is, and row in a disciplined manner for two hours or more.  If it’s raining, they still go training.  If they have to improve their times they will make sacrifices to train harder.  Why is this?

 

They have a clear picture in their mind of what it will look like to achieve the goal of a gold medal – for why else do they train?  They are competing to win the prize, and they will do as much as they possibly can to win the prize they seek.

 

Now, I don’t know about you, but I am not an Olympic athlete.  But to achieve my goals I must learn the discipline of a successful athlete so that I can work hard towards my goals.  And you must be the same.

 

I make this point before we get into the really interesting stuff because I know that most people fail not because of their physical abilities, but because of their ability to manage their mind.  In essence, many people give up because of the mental strain, the toll it takes on them, and the pressure that they have not yet learned how to handle.  I can think of many instances where someone has given up just short of the finish line.
Why - because their mind gave up.

 

Now I’ve had my share of failures and I know what it feels like to miss out on a goal after working as hard as I could.  So I know that it’s not always easy.  But I can tell you that only definition of failure in my view is “not to try”.  Because if you try and are not successful the first time, you can always try again.

 

So the first important step in achieving any goal is gaining clarity on why the goal is important.  To help you with this I’m going to ask five powerful questions for you to ponder.  Think hard and long about your responses, for I have found that the deeper my thinking goes in answering questions the more truth and power I find in the answers.

 

Question No. 1:

What does this goal mean to you in terms of PERSONAL FULFILLMENT?

Question No. 2:

Why is this important to you?  Think of three reasons and identify the strongest.

Question No. 3:

What does this goal mean to you in terms of LIFESTYLE?

Question No. 4:

Why is this important to you?  Think of three reasons and identify the strongest.

Question No. 5:

What is the key motivator for you to achieve your goal?  Consider the answers you gave to questions 2 and 4 and identify the one that pushes your buttons the most - this is the key for you.

Now, hopefully, I have helped you to find you HOT button.  It’s actually up to you to do something with it now.

All the best for achieving your goals.

This post is an adaptation for an upcoming book titled ‘Smash Your Mortgage’, watch out for it soon on www.philstrong.com, launching soon.

 

Distract yourself from the horror of petrol price rises

If you followed the NZ Government’s 2008 Budget you may have been as disappointed as I was.  What an anti-climax!  Everyone I’ve spoken to has forgotten any benefits there were already as they have been side-swiped by the horror of petrol prices finally smashing the $2.00 per litre barrier.  How can you distract yourself from this shock?

To save yourself from financial hardship you can vote with your feet, (literally) as you boycott petrol companies by walking everywhere.  Think of the time and finger-nails saved by not having to scrape ice of your windscreen in the morning, and the vitality you’ll feel with the fresh, crisp air filling your lungs as you stride to work.  Think of the joy you’ll have taking the children to school, singing together as you skip through the fog.

We are all aware of the lack of provision the recent Budget has promised us, so you can take heart by considering the savings you can make in other areas by boycotting the petrol companies.

By walking you’ll avoid the depressing news items you hear on the car radio which will no longer distract you from your work.  Instead of sitting at your desk for 8 hours a day totally immersed in your solutions to the world’s problems, you’ll be able to focus 100% on the tasks you’re paid to complete.  The freedom you’ll experience by not carrying the burdens of the world each day will allow you to enjoy your job and your life.

There will be no more queues waiting to pay for your petrol, as you don’t need any.  You will save hundreds of dollars by not buying the coffee, chocolate bars and cheap jandals that often tempt you in the petrol store.  You will no longer lie awake at night perplexed by the transformation your petrol station has undertaken to morph into your corner grocery store.  Finally sleep will come as you are released from these taxing sessions of mental gymnastics in the middle of the night.

You can also distract yourself by focussing fully on saving more money at the supermarket.  You will be limited in your shopping capacity by the size of the basket on your bike, or the size of your shopping trundler.  The small amount of space you now have for groceries pales in comparison to the size of your car bootspace, and you no longer feel like you need to fill that huge cavity.  Thank heavens you’ll have no room for cheese, think of the savings! 

And finally, you can turn your garage into an extra bedroom as you’ve been able to give your car away.  Who would pay to buy a gas guzzler anyway?  That extra bedroom space you have can now be rented out to the neighbour’s kids as a practice room for their heavy metal band.  Oh how you’ll enjoy the sweet sound of music ringing in your ears morning, noon, and night.

Ok, so maybe you don’t want to give away the car and walk everywhere.  But here’s my key point:  Let’s not get distracted by the things we can’t control and focus on the things we can.  Here are five ideas:

Make some different choices to make your dollars go further
I was amazed the other day at how many budget brands had appeared in our shopping trolley.  Kathy had a real focus on saving money on the groceries and had made some different choices.  None of the family have really noticed and it meant that the shopping budget went further.  So what different choices can you make in the areas of groceries, banking, clothing, schooling, and lifestyle choices?

Make a commitment to spend a limited amount on petrol every week
Petrol is the real killer at the moment and you have no control over the price at the pump, but you do have control over how often you have to return to the pump.  So try setting yourself a limit on how far you go during the week, after all, this is how a budget is supposed to work!  I’m sure you’ll come up with creative ways to get places… or imagine how much more you can achieve around the home by deciding not to go out?!!

Discover new hobbies that don’t cost money
Apparently if you try hard enough you can find hobbies you enjoy that don’t cost a cent!  I say “apparently” because I haven’t discovered any for me yet - I am looking though.  Suggestions include; learning a musical instrument, (get lessons from a friend instead of paying for them), try finding the enjoyment in exercise, (if you walk with friends you can learn to communicate by talking instead of texting!), or you could try an online hobby (maybe you’re the next online poker champion?)

Start a crash diet… on spending
Go through your bank statements and credit card statements and find a weakness that you need to eliminate from your spending.  We all have weaknesses, mine is great coffee.  If you can identify something that is literally stealing money from you and you are prepared to go on a crash diet then this is the time to break that habit.  Do it “cold turkey” and cut out all spending on that area.  Be tough on yourself!

Use the power of goals to find your success
For me, I refuse to accept that less money in my life means I have to achieve less.  Why should you be any different?  This is the time that we all need to dig in deep and find the real person inside every one of us; we need to be motivated to do whatever it takes to find our personal success.  And the way for you to do that is harness the power of financial goals.  As I always say, “Financial goals are how you can get ahead no matter what your 1ncome level.”  And today I’ll add, “And no matter how much petrol costs!”

So to all of us, including me, I say:

Come on everybody, isn’t life great?  Let’s not get distracted by the things we can’t control and focus on the things we can.

Check out more articles here www.wisemoney.co.nz

 

How much will your house be worth tomorrow?

Today I’m not planning to gaze into a crystal ball and predict wildly wealthy times in property.  But I can show you how the current market is giving me a strong indication of where it is heading.  This should help you to answer the question; “how much will my house be worth in the future?”

 

Being active in the real estate market at the moment is similar to riding a bull in a rodeo.  While this is something I have never personally done, watching it several times leaves me with the impression it’s a rough ride and particularly tough on the backside!  It’s the same with property at the moment – it’s a rough ride and very tough to endure.

 

You may be struggling to make the link between real estate and a hyper-active 1000 pound bull.  The comparison between the bull and the real estate market is that the feedback is instant.  If you were trying to ride a bucking bull in a rodeo you would make very quick decisions on what action to take based on what was happening at that moment.  Property is the same; your action should be based on what is currently happening.  And with both the bull and the property market, the current circumstances will show you what is about to happen.  Therefore, feedback leads to future direction.

 

So what’s happening in the Hamilton property market at the moment?  Believe it or not, buyers are buying and sellers are selling!  I have been tracking the local results and comparing them to the past 15 years of results and the trends of the past can certainly add to our view of the future.

 

In January 1992 the reported median sale price in Hamilton was $104,000.  For the next 6 years the median sale price rose steadily, reaching $165,000 in December 1997.  For the next 5 years the median sale price in Hamilton levelled, and did not increase at all.  And then the frenzy started, prices rose from $165,250 to $337,500 between January 2003 and December 2007.  This five year period saw a massive 100% gain in values.  And since January 2008 we have seen the median sale price in Hamilton level again, remaining around $340,000.

 

So the question is:  will this trend remain for the next 5 years?  The answer is: probably!

 

Don’t be tricked into thinking that this means the market is dead.  Let’s have a look at sales volumes during the same time.  During the first period of growth, between 1992 and 1997, the average annual sales volume was 3329.  Then, during the static period in growth between 1998 and 2002 the average annual sales volume decreased to 2677.  Obviously the frenzied growth we saw between 2003 and 2007 was a result of frenzied buying activity; the average annual sales were 4036 during this time.  And the next five years?  Well, my guess is that we’ll see sales volumes return to between 2500 and 3000 per annum.  That’s still a lot of buyers and sellers reaching agreement.

 

So how much will your house be worth tomorrow?  You can now make some strong assumptions based on the facts above.  Or maybe you’d prefer to go and find a hyper-active bull to ride!

 

If you would rather see these statistics in picture form, please phone me at the office and I’ll email you the graphs.

Hello world!

Gidday everybody, this is my first entry on my blog.  I won’t make this one long.  But watch out for others….