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• Minimise mortgage stress
• Choosing the right sales method
• First time investors, is now the right time?
• Give your property the winning edge
• Our changing housing landscape
• A winning winter sale
• Build your nest & invest
• 5 tips for securing your rental property
• Property styling - Put your home on centre stage
• Buy before opportunities go by
• Your mortgage - Who's in control
• Ensure you're properly insured
• Landlord's insurance - A must in todays economy
• Vendors, are you in the know?
• Know the market and your agent
• Top tips for choosing an investment property
• Selling? Questions to ask your agent
• What to look for in an agent
• A word on pricing
• Get thousands more for your home - Without spending thousands
• Expect the best from your property manager
• Whose sale is it? Its's yours!
• Is moving stressful? It needn't be
• Selling up or cleaning up? 10 tips for a top garage sale
• Investors, is your property manager working for you?

Is moving stressful? It needn't be.

SEPTEMBER 2009
The key to taking the stress out of moving is clever planning and organisation. A good sense of humour doesn’t go astray either! Here are a few tips.

• Firstly, decide you’re going to handle it calmly. Expect problems. That way, if they arise, you’re prepared. If they don’t, it’s a bonus.
• Prepare a list of all those who need to be notified of your move before you move. Prepare all possible paperwork and have emails ready to go. Notifying every person and organisation we’ve ever had contact with is made all the more difficult while tripping over unpacked boxes and being unable to find a pen.
• Enlist the help of family and friends pre-move. Create a fun ‘working bee’ atmo­sphere for maximum attendance, and fully understand the power of the word, del­egation. Use bribery if need be.
• Inform the removalist beforehand if there are flights of stairs to be negotiated, or if you happen to own a grand piano. Con­testing a bigger-than-expected bill with a big, burly removalist might unravel your calm demeanour.
• Draw up a furniture layout plan of your new home. Why lug heavy items around yourself when those same burly remov­alists can put them in the right spot in the first place? The same goes for boxes. Labelling them according to which room they go in doesn’t work. Direct the re­movalists; they’re too busy to read.
• Did you use a tape measure? Will the lounge suite get around that tight corner – or will it be relegated to the nature strip while you sit on a box and ponder your loss?
• Think ahead to the first night in your new home. The two most important things are ready beds to flop into and food. Do not, repeat, do not attempt to cook. A local restaurant will do an equally good, if not better, job!
• Make full use of labels and textas. Easily identifiable boxes will help you quickly find, amidst the myriad of cartons grac­ing your new home, your child’s precious stuffed toy, which, of course, they can’t sleep without.

View the experience as opening the door to an exciting new chapter in your life. Laugh a little or, better still, a lot. While others might think you’ve totally lost the plot, we know that laugh­ter reduces stress, releases all those happy feel-good endorphins, and helps you stay sane.