Junk Mail is a load of rubbish!

As the environment continues to be one of the most important topics in the world at the moment I am ever fascinated by the increase of junk mail in both home mail boxes and private post office boxes.

The focus of the world has been on increasing the awareness for the need to conserve our precious resources and yet both individuals and businesses in our local areas continue to proliferate tonnes of unsolicited as their main source of marketing. This is especially true for real estate agents and Marquette Turner Estate Agents has taken a stand against this ever increasing pile of junk by banning "Do you want to sell?" letters and focussing on environmentally friendly communication - namely the internet and email.

Only last Saturday (October 27, 2007) I was in Barry Street, Neutral Bay conducting an auction of a unit for fellow Marquette Turner Director, Christine Watson. I was horrified to see just how many real estate agents had stuffed junk mail in the letterboxes of the apartment block. The free local newspaper is called The Mosman Daily and there was a pile of them scattered near the mail boxes - all of which had been soaked by the rain in Sydney on Thursday and Friday. Most real estate agents in the area feel compelled to waste their vendor's money on advertising in this newspaper even though the latest statistics from the USA have indicated that less than 5% of real estate buyers are finding their properties in the newspaper. The cost of this madness is massive to both vendors and the environment and Marquette Turner has taken the stand that sound, statistically proven sales strategies that actually sell homes rather than promote real estate agents is what we are going to do.

Our 100% sales record for 2007 remains intact even though we have not advertised in papers like the Mosman Daily or Wentworth Courier. I fully support the Lord Mayor of Mosman in her environmental focus and congratulate her on taking a stand to end the endless pile of junk mail in Mosman mail boxes. At Marquette Turner we strongly advise a "No Junk Mail" sticker on your mail box and we hope that other councils take a similar stance on stopping real estate agents and other proliferators of junk mail in their tracks. Michael Marquette

Crunch Time - Will Interest Rates Rise on 7 Nov?

November 7 is the day when the Reserve Bank of Australia [RBA] announces the outcome of its decision as to whether there is a new official cash rate. Most analysts think the RBA will have to raise rates by at least 25 basis points. Marquette Turner Managing Director, Michael Marquette is inclined to agree that a rate rise prior to the 2007 is a high possibility but also points out that the sheer size of the debt burden of Australians should be a bigger cause of concern than by any single headline interest rate number.

Steve Keen, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Western Sydney recently stated:

''At 160 per cent of GDP we are now faced with the highest level of private debt in the nation's history - twice what applied during the Great Depression, and one and a half times the previous record, which was set during the Melbourne land boom and bust of the 1880s-90s,'' he says.

''This is the biggest [credit] bubble we have ever had. Interest payments alone are now consuming 15.5 cents in every dollar of household disposable income.''

Michael Marquette