it's 2 am and this is my rant of the property market and i can't think of a better title

Just in case someone actually reads this and the 78 views a month this blog now gets isn't bots and an actual human is reading it I'm writing this more for my own benefit these days buts it's still likely to give someone a chuckle, it's 1:44am I'm sitting in bed with two laptops the other one I'm running sudo apt-get update && upgrade on and can't sleep like usual and I just read an article on some fucking wanker in Sydney that's just breathed life into the dumbass idea of airbnb`ing their bloody swimming pool which i bet came from a semi lucid night of drinking at some dodgy bar and a bet with a friend , what exactly is happening here?

The Australian property market is a sick and twisted joke where the goal has become to extract as much out of it as possible before everything goes tits up. then I read that the recent census 2021 revealed that across Australia there are over 1 million 'homes' empty or at least there were on the census night ...  go back a few words ok more than a few to the word 'homes' see what I did there..??? I'll show you something and it'll take just as much observation power as that ..

**Btw a 'home' is where you live breathe eat and shit , a house is a building and not a lot more than that most people will miss the meaning here

This is the official release from the ABS:

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/housing/housing-census/latest-release#data-download

at no point .. or at least not one that i can find using ctrl + F do they actually use the word 'home'

thats because there is a difference .. now do a google search on the topic.. here you go just click here -->>>  here

here's where the observation power comes in because all of a sudden it's turned into '1 million empty homes'  ..  what the fuck is going on here ( i ask while the update is no where near finished and Bebe Rexha is playing in my ears at a volume likely to cause some kind of long term damage at some point in the future anyway whatever)   

Just about every single article written on this calls them 'homes' .. but why? the truth is it feeds into people's common problem and in a lot of of cases the greatest stressor in modern life the roof over ones head, and ultimately leads to more clicks no-one cares about a empty building but the word 'home' has a certain heart string tugging effect  and thats about it

According to https://chp.org.au/about-homelessness/data-and-demographics/ there is roughly 110,000 people homeless every night, and if the Victorian figures are anything go go off for the rest of the country 1 out of every 5 are children under 18 .... children ...  fucking children ... in Australia

Meanwhile our government solution to this is the address the supply issue .... and this is where shit gets just downright strange our beloved government comes up with this absolute gem of a shit show  --- >>:  https://www.chde.qld.gov.au/about/strategy/housing/housing-and-homelessness-action-plan-2021-2025

So the solution to investor driven underutilization is to pump more money into the market by constructing more dwellings (covers both houses and apartments) and relies on mostly private investment because lets face it the 1 billion they have dedicated to it sounds like a lot but it's essentially $10k per homeless person.. these people will do anything to avoid fixing the problem with a simple solution,  bring in 'use it or loose it' laws for investment properties. the concept is simple if you own an investment property and it isn't being utilized in some way whether it is rented out or Airbnb you should run the risk of it being taken off you or the taxes to own it should elevated to help pay for the adverse effects your investment causes, there is nothing wrong with this idea and it certainly wouldn't cost a billion tax payer dollars

Incase you are wondering ( points for getting this far ) why are people investing the houses and leaving them empty ..... it makes no sense .... ya 

When you buy a house as an investment you have two choices one is to buy it with renting it out in mind for the long term in which case you are playing the "long game" and are considering the rental income in the plan a mere 13k at $250pw or you are playing the short game 

some of the reasons for a house to be empty include:

- in some cases the 13k income will bring the investor into a higher tax bracket

- part of the investment plan is to shift the property quickly and this can be difficult to do if the property is rented and the new owner wants it empty,

- empty houses usually attract a higher sales price which can be substantial in this market , we're talking differences of 50k - 70k

- there is a higher than reasonable risk of foreclosure this is because the investor is so over committed on the loans

- they just don't want the hassle of being a land lord and can afford not to be

- a bank or fund actually owns the house and it's simply not part of the business plan 

What a shit show ......... I can't wait for this to go tits up and it will at some point

Ebay - Is there a point for Australian sellers anymore?

 So bloody long time since I've written anything here, in fact so long I'm surprised BlogSpot still exists...

I have recently decided eBay is not longer for me as a seller.

The joke comes in the form of the postage, to compete with everyone else on there who sells the same thing as you you have to be competitive on postage in my case it was laser cutting signs and tags most of which fits inside a letter which costs about $1.70 to send anywhere within Australia eBay allows this as a postage method, as an added extra bit of theoretical protection I even put in the ad the I accept no responsibility for lost packages for those who choose to use the untracked letter based shipping

This is a choice the buyer makes they take the risk and go with the untracked postage when there is an option to use parcel post and shift the liability onto Australia post by virtue of a tracking number.

SO the customer orders the pet and you cut the details into it and send it off, simple enough you would think but no, in my experience and I'm not entirely convinced its totally Australia post there is higher than one would expect rate of letters that go missing in the post, and inevitably at some point the buyer hits that refund button, which starts a process of eBay asked for a tracking number, despite of course that the postage option chosen by the BUYER isn't included which quickly results in the seller assuming the cost of a refund of not only the item but the postage. there is no winning with eBay and never will be for small items china can have that by the looks of it