Random Rants

[Bob]

^ Keep fighting the good fight. It can be a marathon vs a sprint. I had my family in a tiny hotel room for six weeks here before we found a place to rent. It was that "one more phone call" that proved the winner.

[Graeme]

Thanks @Bob.

The property market in Australia is messed up by a combination of factors:

• Negative Gearing allows landlords to run a loss on a property, and deduct it against their overall income tax. Then there's a 50% discount on capital gains. The net result is that property investment becomes a speculative business that drives up real estate costs.

• There's a lot of (dodgy) money coming in from overseas, looking for a safe parking place. So the centre of Melbourne is full of dog box apartments built for this market. There was an outcry the other day when the government suggested putting minimal standards in place. (Such as one bedroom units being more than 50 m2 / 500 square feet, and having access to natural light.)

• That foreign money helps drive up prices too…

• On top of which valuations are north of where they were in the Dublin property bubble…

• And low interest rates encourage speculation, which feeds into property investment. Nearly half of all mortgages in Sydney are for rental properties!

The net result is that you've got the older generation who've benefited from a tripling of prices since the late nineties, and they're out-competing their children in buying up what would be starter homes.

Plus the tax system doesn't provide incentives for updating properties, so you see places with kitchens that look like they've been untouched since the seventies or eighties! :o

Overall, I'm not having fun!

[Snowy]

Mate it's giving me the shits too. I don't want to be the sucker buying at the top of the bubble, so get stuck playing pass-the-parcel in the rent game paying off some other chump's loan, whilst he's negative gearing it on the way through… Can't win in the current market.

Prices near my parents have DOUBLED in less than 10 years. DOUBLED. AND CPI is less than 3%! WHACKY!

[Graeme]

@Snowy I'm in Melbourne, which is about 70% as mad as Sydney. Whilst I like it up there, the rents terrify me.

I don't know what the right answer is. Only whatever I chose is the wrong one, and I'm an official Doom and Gloomer! :o

[Graeme]

I want to complain about the IH Autumn / Winter 2015 collection. @Giles is going to bankrupt far too many people who have better more important other stuff to spend their life savings on!

[Finkster]

so true!  ::) 

[louisbosco]

asics sneaker quality is way far off new balance…

[Omega Man]

Even the "Made in USA" New Balance?

[Hereforthebeer]

I don't understand people that will not ship stuff "Internationally". If the buyer is willing to pay the full amount for shipping, what's the drama? It's a big world out there with countries/continents that exist just like yours…

[Anesthetist]

@Hereforthebeer:

I don't understand people that will not ship stuff "Internationally". If the buyer is willing to pay the full amount for shipping, what's the drama? It's a big world out there with countries/continents that exist just like yours…

For me it's the increased risk of a lost package and the increased difficulty of finding it.

[spitfiredealer]

Inducing birth takes a long time!! About to head into hospital for second day.

[Miiks]

@Hereforthebeer:

I don't understand people that will not ship stuff "Internationally". If the buyer is willing to pay the full amount for shipping, what's the drama? It's a big world out there with countries/continents that exist just like yours…

I too have been wondering this.

[louisbosco]

@Omega:

Even the "Made in USA" New Balance?

well what i mean that nb's quality was way better than asics. i actually meant far off as the other way. even the made in china new balance is better. just got the medic pack from asics x highs and lows and spent some moment with it. found the way it was put together and the feel of the quality wasnt there.

[spitfiredealer]

@Hereforthebeer:

I don't understand people that will not ship stuff "Internationally". If the buyer is willing to pay the full amount for shipping, what's the drama? It's a big world out there with countries/continents that exist just like yours…

Yep I don't get it either. Have to use a proxy which just adds time and cost.

[Black Orchid]

Wishing you @spitfiredealer and Mrs Spitfiredealer all the very best, hope baby arrives soon [emoji4]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[spitfiredealer]

Thank you. [emoji4]

[Hereforthebeer]

^All the best mate! Very exciting for you both. Might be hard at times, but it's worth it in the end 

[Cutlasshound]

@spitfiredealer:

Thank you. [emoji4]

All the best dude! Good luck to you both!!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DougNg]

@Hereforthebeer:

I don't understand people that will not ship stuff "Internationally". If the buyer is willing to pay the full amount for shipping, what's the drama? It's a big world out there with countries/continents that exist just like yours…

I've had bad experiences shipping knives overseas when I've sold them. Even though I make it clear that buyer assumes all responsibility if it gets lost/customs charges, I've had to deal with the online drama of the package being lost and it being my fault (it was not). I've also been hit with hundreds of dollars in customs charges because the buyer stiffed me on them. Now, I unilaterally do no ship knives overseas unless you're someone I know well.

[gwillig]

Trickhell, couldn't agree more, but I'm sure you know the general population there is like 16-24 year olds that worship N&F. That being said, it is a complete hivemind where even an objective or appropriate criticism is met with immediate negative response. It's just arbitrary internet politeness… although I do post there sometimes...