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DIY or use a professional for your conveyancing?

Many people want to save money and do it themselves when it comes to conveyancing, but is it as easy as it seems?

Put simply, conveyancing is the transfer of legal ownership of a property from one person to another, but while this seems simple, there are a lot of complex issues involved.

Ozpropertylaw® believes that if you are buying or selling real estate, the services of an expert, qualified conveyancer are essential.

For most people, choosing between a conveyancing professional and doing it yourself often comes down to money and the anticipated complexity of the conveyancing process.

Nothing could be worse than to have the important details of the legal transfer of ownership overlooked or mishandled. And yet no one wants to spend more money than absolutely necessary on conveyancing or waste time in meetings and chasing paperwork.

Ozpropertylaw.com®, one of Australia’s top conveyancing firms, understands the issues the buyer/purchaser and seller/vendor face in executing the legal transfer of property, and has revolutionised the conveyancing process, virtually eliminating the hassles and driving down the cost. You can rely upon Ozpropertylaw.com® to check all the important documents, carry out the essential searches, alert you to any potential issues and ensure a timely settlement.

By doing it yourself, you risk taking on the personal responsibility for carrying out all the processes correctly and if you make a mistake, this could be very costly.

News from the Housing Industry Association

Total building approvals fell in April 2011, reflecting another poor result for the core detached housing segment, the Housing Industry Association, the voice of Australia’s residential building industry announced on Wednesday.

HIA senior economist Andrew Harvey said that total residential building approvals fell by 1.3 per cent in April 2011 to be down by 5.9 per cent over the April “quarter”. Total approvals in the three months to April 2011 are 15.4 per cent lower than in the corresponding period one year earlier.

“Today’s approvals numbers are driven by a 3.5 per cent fall in detached housing approvals and unfortunately constitute yet another soft update on the state of Australia’s residential building industry,” Mr Harvey said.

“April’s detached housing approvals represent the weakest monthly result since March 2009 and provide more evidence that house-building levels are heading back towards the GFC-affected lows of financial year 2008/09.

“What we’ve got with Australia’s residential building industry is an industry in severe pain, buckling under the pressure of tight credit conditions, higher interest rates, an inequitable tax burden and a range of supply-side obstacles. It also it doesn’t help that we have seen nothing of substance recently in terms of the housing supply reform process.”

On a more positive note, approvals in the highly volatile private sector other dwellings segment rose by 2.2 per cent in April 2011, with a rise in private sector approvals more than offsetting a fall in the public sector.

“In terms of the jurisdictions we’ve seen a bit of a recovery in Queensland in April where approvals are up by 29.2 per cent after the weather-affected weak outcomes in February and March,” Mr Harvey said.

In addition to the 29.2 per cent increase in Queensland approvals (seasonally adjusted), increases were experienced in Victoria (up by 0.3 per cent) and South Australia (up by 9.9 per cent). The jurisdictions that experienced a decrease in approvals in April 2011 were NSW (down by 12.9 per cent), Western Australia (down by 9.6 per cent) and Tasmania (down by 8.7 per cent). In trend terms approvals in the ACT were up by 2.5 per cent while Northern Territory approvals were up by 0.9 per cent.

From the Real Estate Institute

REINSW says planned changes to national occupational licensing will seriously diminish professional standards in the real estate sector and ultimately harm both consumers and agents.

The proposed changes follow agreement by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to develop a national licensing system across a range of professions in order to remove inconsistencies between states and territories and enhance consumer protection.

REINSW says the National Occupational Licensing System, to come into effect in July 2012, will dumb down professional standards and undermine consumer confidence.

“Put bluntly, both real estate agents and consumers are being set up to fail by these new national licensing changes,” REINSW President Wayne Stewart said this week.

“REINSW understands that not only will the new licensing system enshrine inadequate two-day courses but it will also abolish any ongoing professional development.

“It is ludicrous that in NSW a person can achieve the regulated education requirement in 48 hours – yet this practice, which the REINSW has strenuously opposed, may be introduced Australia wide.

“Does anyone seriously believe that two days is sufficient to equip a person with the skills, knowledge and education on the intricacies of a property transaction?

“Yet despite the inherent inadequacy of training, we are asking these same people to advise consumers on complex property transactions and matters involving assets of significant value.” REINSW President Wayne Stewart said this week.

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