1. REMOVE THE BLINKERS

You are often not the best person to pass a critical eye over your property before embarking on any changes or improvements.

In most cases, it helps to have a friend or someone independent to go through the property with a notebook and jot down everything they don’t like or think needs improvement, as well as noting the wow factors and the good points.

Think like a buyer and take a walk through your own home. Make a list of all the things that would raise major issues.

Start your inspection from the end of the street on the other side of the road.

Walk from across the street towards and right through your property as if you’ve never been there before. By doing this, you will notice all the small faults your eyes have got used to.

It is only after this critical assessment that you can see things through new eyes.

You might have got used to a barren front yard, overlooking neighbours and a dodgy back door, but when it comes to adding value, fixing these small things can often provide the biggest boost.

2. FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Make sure your front garden, fence and path makes a good first impression. Tidy or landscape the front yard, paint the fence and gate, and ensure the house is clearly numbered.

Make sure the facade of the house is in good condition. This can include cleaning the windows, front porch, gutters or even hiring a water blaster to give the exterior walls, front path, fence and woodwork a professional clean.

3. PAINT TOUCH-UP

Wash or paint the front door, put welcoming pot plants either side of the entrance, provide a coat hook, table or stool to place shopping on while you fumble for the door keys.

Install a motion sensor front light as a safety measure and to welcome your visitors when they arrive at night.

4. QUICK REPLACEMENTS

Other easy updates include replacing old door handles on interior doors and updating light fittings in all rooms.

These small items help give a clean, contemporary and well-cared-for impression, as well as being very practical and easier to live in the home.

5. CURTAIN CALL

Remove heavy drapes, blinds and curtains and replace them with light-filtering fabrics.

You still get the privacy but more light is able to stream through the home.

Alternatively, make sure all curtains and blinds do not cover any window space when they are opened fully.

Fit skylights to bathrooms or any other areas that do not have enough natural light.

6. INTERNAL SPACE

The impression you want people to have when they visit your property is that they would like to live there themselves.

This means ensuring that the home is well furnished, is welcoming and comfortable.

Rearrange furniture to make rooms bigger and create spaces that allow easy access.

7. CHANGE OF PLAN

Don’t be too afraid to rearrange the floor plan.

If you have a two-bedroom home, the quickest way to increase the value is rearrange internal space to create a third bedroom or have a design concept prepared to show how they can add a bedroom.

The same goes for a study nook or home office. There is usually some “dead” space in a home that can be converted to an office area, such as a built-in wardrobe, cupboard or an area underneath the stairs.

8. FLOORS AND DOORS

Polishing an existing timber floor or installing a floating timber floor can also dramatically change the appearance of large areas such as living rooms, kitchens and hallway entrances, to create a wow factor at a comparatively low cost.

Adding a wall of glass folding doors will also open up a small house to the outside – even if it is just to a lightwell or side walkway. This can enlarge your living space to include the outside area when the doors are open.

9. BETTER BATHROOMS

A shower head over a bath may not be ideal, but it is still better than a bath only with no shower. If you can’t have two bathrooms in a home, at least make one a separate toilet.

10. OUTSIDE AREAS

Provide plenty of functional outside areas such as off-street car parking, a shed, storage areas, play area and, of course, entertaining and gardening.

Properties with vehicle space, especially in inner-city areas, are highly sought after and add considerable value.

Creating extra parking or a front drive-on area will add tens of thousands of dollars while in most situations it requires little more than removing part of the front fence and the cost of a cross-over permit from the local government authorities.

If there is definitely no space for a car to park, then create an area large enough for a motorbike or bicycles. This will also be an added feature

The ANZAC tradition began on the 25th of April 1915 on the shores of Gallipoli in Turkey. The ANZACs, a name given to the united Australian and New Zealand Army Corps by their generals were about to participate in war for the first time. 13 years after Australia’s Federation their efforts in this, the Great War, would unite our country more than any event had done before then.

They had not been conscripted to join the campaign, they were all fair dinkum volunteers eager to show how brave and strong they were in battle. They had come to help their mother country England in their war against Germany. They wanted to be involved in all the ‘excitement’, to travel and be with their mates. Little did they realise the hardships and suffering that lay ahead, for they had been landed at the wrong place and the Turkish army were prepared for them.

2,000 ANZACs would die that first day on the beaches of Gallipoli, more than 6,500 would be killed or wounded by the end of the week in the trenches, gullies and ridges up to one kilometre inland. Eight long months of bitter fighting against the Turks would follow. 10,000 ANZACs would not return home to their loved ones.

Although their Gallipoli campaign would not result in victory over the Turks, the remarkable bravery and courage shown by the ANZACs during that time would long be remembered. Stories such as their fierce attack at Lone Pine where they fought their way through the logs and mud into the Turkish trenches and battled the Turks with their bare hands, and reports of the terrible attack at the Nek where wave upon wave of ANZACs charged the Turkish lines to their certain death, would be told for generations to come.

The courage of a stretcher bearer named Simpson who, with his donkey, risked bombs and bullets week after week to carry the wounded to safety only to finally lose his own life on the beach of ANZAC Cove, will never be forgotten.

Against all odds, the ANZACs had shown they were a force to be reckoned with. Their Aussie sense of humour while facing death daily and their bonds of mateship would later inspire not only Australians but people from all over the world.

All these stories, together with the reports of the terrible losses were being printed in the newspapers back home in Australia. After reading such horrors, why then did 36,000 men volunteer to join the war effort? The spirit of the ANZACs had touched the hearts and minds of all Australians. Win or lose, they wanted to be with their mates. They couldn’t stay home and do nothing after their mates had given so much. Their country needed them and they wanted to stand up and be counted. The true spirit of the ANZACs – a willingness to sacrifice their lives for their country, their pride and their mates.

This spirit would carry them through the Great War – their battles at Gallipoli, along the Western Front, at places such as Ypres, Fromelles, the Somme and Pozieres and in the Middle East and Beersheeba. The ANZACs would remember their mates in Gallipoli. They would not let them down, they would fight on until the war was won. Between 1915 and 1919 the ANZACs would be awarded 66 Victoria Crosses, the highest award for war-time bravery.

The calibre of the first ANZACs set the standard for all Australian servicemen in their subsequent war efforts, in World War II, Korea and in Vietnam, and the ANZAC spirit has carried on through the decades.

Traditionally, the 25th of April is set aside as a public holiday for Australians to remember the bravery of the men and women who fought in war. On this day, ANZAC Day, all over the country, in the cities and towns, no matter how small, Australians gather together at ANZAC memorials to honour those who gave their lives for our country. Returned servicemen reunite on this day to march together as they did so long ago, to perhaps share a beer and talk of their memories, and to remember the mates they left behind.

On this special day, family and friends gather together to pay tribute to the ANZACs for their courage and sacrifice during time of war. Many go to a dawn or ANZAC service. Many watch the war veterans march down the streets with medals polished. They sing with pride our national anthem and songs of remembrance, listen to the symbolic trumpet playing the Last Post and bow their heads for one minute’s silence wherever they may be. They may watch the parade on television or one of the many movies or documentaries dedicated to their brave ANZACs. From dawn until dusk one day every year is given to the memory of the ANZACs, to think of them with gratitude and pride.

The spirit of the ANZAC continues today in times of hardship such as cyclones, floods and bush fires. At those times Australians come together to rescue one another, to ease suffering, to provide food and shelter, to look after one another, and to let the victims of these disasters know they are not alone.

“I’d rather be killed than leave them there to die”, said one ANZAC after he had risked his life to rescue a wounded mate from the battlefield and lowered him back into the Australians’ trench at Gallipoli. That spirit lives on in many Australians today.

LEST WE FORGET

We have expanded our P.M (Property Management) department  & are looking for suitable candidates to work amongst the best in the biz. How? Call 1300 4 NOVAK or email your cv to info@thenovakagency.com

We love entertaining you. We love informing you. Let’s face it…life’s too short to be serious allllllll the time! So c’mon guys….as you’re wishing for a red light at the Pittwater Rd/Pacific Pde intersection, just so you can get a sneak peak at our window signage, – honk your horn if your happy & you like our window.  We’re counting!

Just improving the energy efficiency of five key appliances can save a household $359 a year and $4009 over the appliances’ lifetime.

Check out the list below which could save you thousands of dollars a year!!!

1. Use cold water 2 wash & use a front loader machine, it uses less water.

2. Use less washing powder. U don’t need as much as u think.

3. Don’t do takeaway. Cook large batches @ home using supermarket brands.

4. Use clothes dryers occasionally. They aren’t meant to be used every day. Invest in a clothes horse!

5. Re-use the rinse water from your washing machine.  For about $20, people can run a hose from the machine to the garden and re-use rinse water on the lawn and flowers, saving money on their water bills.

6. Check out your fridge & dishwasher. Are they more than 15 years old? If so, they’d be using a lower minimum energy performance standard & generally use more energy to cool or clean.

7. Don’t stand there looking inside your fridge with the door open for too long! This uses a lot of energy

8. Adjust control thermostats to maintain fridge temperature between 2 & 5 degrees & the freezer between -11 & -23 degrees.

9. Make sure that any loose or broken seals are replaced. Check seals by placing a piece of paper between the door & the seal & then pulling on the paper. If it moves too easily, you need a new seal!

10. Minimise the amount of hot water you use.

11. Your shower head in the shower is critical. The less water that comes out, the less you have to heat. There are water & energy savings here. Latest technology shower heads use as little as 7.5 litres of water a minute, opposed to up to 15 litres with older styles. That equates to a saving of 20,000 litres of water & the energy to heat that water per person per year

12. Installing the latest water-saving toilets can save a family of 4 up to $100 a year.

13. Don’t leave the water running when you brush your teeth.

14. 85% of Australian homes could save hundreds of dollars on water heating costs with a solar hot water system. Some homes could save up to $850 a year.

15. Last but not least. Thinking of selling & can’t afford the marketing of your property! Sell with us & you won’t have to spend a cent on your marketing….We’ll pay for the lot…your ads, signboards, photography, brochures & internet sites. Sounds too good to be true? Try us.

Happy saving folks!!!!!