3 Great iPhone Apps for Real Estate

The real estate industry is moving forward technologically at such a fast pace that it is sometimes difficult for agents, buyers and sellers to keep up. In this blog, I listed 3 iphone applications that we at Sarah Lorden Real Estate use often and find quite helpful.

Domain.com.au iphone App
If you are looking to purchase a home or even looking to research what your home would be worth, then this application is essential. It is basically a condensed version of the Domain.com.au website and holds thousands of current listings Australia wide including photos and descriptions of properties. You are able to view the properties on your GPS map as well as bookmark open times to remind you when the next inspections begin. The domain.com.au application is probably the most familiar and comprehensive application for those who are in the market right now. And it's Free!

Tapmortgage iphone app
This application has only just been released but it is one of the best of it's kind, simply because it's so easy to use. Tapmortgage is a finance application that allows you to calculate the interest on your mortgage or stamp duty. There are a couple of things that make this app great. The first is how easy it is - just put in your mortgage details and up come the calculations. The second is that it will actually provide you with suggestions to how you can better save and cut down your mortgage repayments. For example, if you are paying you mortgage on a monthly basis, the app will let you know how much interest you will pay by week, forntight and month. It is great for first home buyers or people looking to refinance as it spells it out, in dollar amounts, what you will save if you pay weekly or fortnightly compared to monthly. Thirdly, this app is great because it FREE!!


Commbank Property Guide & ANZ Property Tracker
These two apps are basically the same in content, they're just sponsored by the separate banks, although realestate.com.au & rpdata do endorse the Commbank app and I've found that the Commbank app does work better than the ANZ app, however both can be buggy at times. The amazing thing about this app is the concept that they provide. If you are an agent, picture this: You are at a listing appointment with your iphone and you are talking to your vendor about what the houses in the street sold for and you say "let's go outside and I'll show you." With this app you point the iphone's camera at any house in the street and up will pop the price range and date in which that house sold for. You can just walk down the street with you vendor and you iphone will inform you of all recent sales in the street. We have done it with a few of our clients and they have been impressed. This app is also FREE so I suggest that you download it and try it for yourself!

There are many more real estate applications that work well such as Evernote, MyDesktop and Homebuyer but if you are looking for the best apps on the iphone, we believe that domain.com.au, Tapmortgage and Commbank are essential for all agents, buyers and sellers, not only because of their content and information but also because they are all absolutely free.

For the past two weekends Santa has been in Loyalty Square taking photos with all the good girls and boys in Balmain. We would like to thank everyone who came and got a photo with Santa as well as making coin and food donations to the Salvation Army. We managed to raise nearly over $400 in total. Your generosity will go a long way to helping others in need this Christmas.

As can be expected in animal friendly Balmain, it wasn't only children who wanted their photo with Santa! It seemed half of the puppy dogs in Balmain were not too camera shy to be snapped with the jolly man in the red suit! They made for great photos and they were all well behaved on the day.

It has just become official that our blog is the number one most read Property Blog in Balmain. We'd like to thank everyone for being such avid readers. We try and keep the posts interesting, yet focused on the community and the market.

Dr. William Balmain - The man behind the suburb

It's been brought to my attention that I have not yet written about Dr. William Balmain, the man the suburb of "Balmain" was named after.

Born over nearly 250 years ago in 1762, William Balmain was a Scottish surgeon. At the age of 18, he was appointed the assistant surgeon of the First Fleet. He sailed on the First Fleet ship "Alexander". There, served as Civil Magistrate of Norfolk Island where he met his wife, a convict, Margaret Dawson. Balmain then returned to Sydney where he was appointed the Chief Surgeon of the Colony of New South Wales.
Dr. Balmain was intrically involved in a number of Sydney's early conflicts including the Irish rebellion in Castle Hill and the Rum Rebellion of which, Balmain blasted John Macarthur, the rebllion's leader, as "a base rascal and an atrocious liar and villan."

On 26th April 1800, the NSW Governor John Hunter granted Dr. Balmain 223 hectares of land, what is now know as "Balmain". Back then, the wild bush area was known as "Ross's Farm". Dr. Balmain only held the land for fifteen months before his failing health forced him to return to England. Before his departure in 1801, he quietly sold the land to John Gilchrist, a scolar residing in Calcutta, India, for just 5 shillings. Such a nominal sum is ludicous when we consider today's Balmain property prices! Gilchrist wished the area to be known as "Gilchrist Place" but the legalities of the sale had been so quiet that it had not become public knowledge until 20 years later. By that time, the suburb name of "Balmain" had rooted itself on the area.

In 1801, Dr. Balmain's health had failed and he returned to England where he died a year later due to kidney failure. His kin returned to Sydney where they fought to reclaim the land, refuting the transaction that had taken place between Dr. Balmain & Gilchrist. They're attempts were ultimately futile and Gilchrist sold the first plots of land at auction in 1836.

Santa visits Balmain

Last Saturday, Santa came to Loyalty Square in Balmain much to the excitement of many children.

With the busy Christmas period ahead, we would like to thank all of those people who generously donated a gold coin to the Salvation Army and had a photo taken with Santa Clause. The weather threatened to dampen our stall but thankfully held off and we were able to raise over $100 for charity.
Santa will be back at Loyalty Square next Saturday 11th December between 10am - 2pm. Come and join in the celebration!

Santa is coming to Balmain!!

Merry Christmas from Santa and everyone at SLRE!!

'Tis the season to be jolly, and here at Sarah Lorden Real Estate, we are celebrating the festive season with a visit from Santa this Saturday 4th December and Saturday 11th December at Loyalty Square (just outside Woolworths).
Santa will be there from 2 - 4pm and will be taking photos with all the good kids in Balmain (and a few bads ones as well!)

Come celebrate Christmas with Santa and his SLRE helpers!!

Photos with Santa:
When: Saturday 4th December between 2-4PM
Saturday 11th December between 2-4PM
Where: Loyalty Square (out the front of Woolworths)

Balmain Fire Station

Question: What building is situated on the highest point of the Balmain pennisula?
Answer: The Balmain Fire Station. In 1894, the current fire station was built in this strategic position because the elevation has "...the great advantage of down-hill runs for [horse powered] fire appliances when called into service, and of commanding a distant view."

The original Balmain fire station was a couple of sheds in Booth Street in 1875. It was run by a volunteer force who maintained the horses and fire equipment. In 1901, the volunteer force was disbanded, replaced with a full time force. These fire fighters were better supplied with Balmain's first steam powered fire engine and specialised fire helmets used for effectively fighting ship fires in Balmain's many docks.

Located across the road from the Balmain Town Hall, the Balmain Fire Station is still in use today, keeping a devoted watch over the locals. While only a small station, it is well equipped and supported by another in Rozelle.

Balmain has always had an affiliation with the sea and the working class. It’s perfect ports were once described as “…a good landing for boats in every situation where the water touches” (Sydney Gazette 29 July ,1837). It comes as no surprise then that the peninsular was utilized as a major hub for shipping in Sydney. Mort’s Dock is probably to most famous dock in Balmain. It was built by Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, an entrepreneur in not only land development but land sale.
By 1850, Thomas Mort was known as Sydney’s leading auctioneer of land and wool. His expertise in area planning recognized the need for a dry dock in Balmain and he attracted workers by offering them incentives to stay in Balmain, promising on completion, blocks of land in the area. As a result, people flocked to the suburb with businesses to support the hundreds of dock workers. By 1855, when Mort’s Dock opened, land value in the area had risen from 5 shillings to 6 pounds per foot!
By 1887, 80% of the population around the dry dock was owned and settled by the working class. Thomas Mort himself became very wealthy from subdividing the land and selling it off in parts to new settlers. His vision in the dry dock did much to personify Balmain’s “working class” persona that the local residents still hold today.
Thomas Mort was not a resident of Balmain, despite the dock and a street being named in his honour. He lived between his homes in Bodalla in Syndey’s South and his Gothic mansion “Greenoaks” in Darling Point. On his death, a statue was dedicated to him by his workers and erected in Sydney’s Macquarie Place where it still stands.
Mort’s legacy of a working class suburb lived on long after the dock closed, when the land was broken up by the Government in 1986 and now houses 211 Housing Commision units and parks.