Power of water
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Well I am finally back home and the damage done by the flooding here is quite something. It is the worst in 80 years and appears to have been exacerbated by the dams being released as they were over full. Nadi is simply a mess, it will be quite a job to get the shops open again and replace the stock. The food markets basically have none, (food that is), as all the root crops etc. were devastated.
I have long believed Fiji has a curse over it and this certainly appears to be increasingly true as they slide into trauma after drama over the last 20 years.
What never changes is their incredible spirit and love of life but to see so much damage knowing they can’t fix it quickly is harrowing to say the least. They were without water for over a week and power is still spasmodic. Imagine that happening in NZ, it would have been investigations, criminal behaviour etc. Here it is “life” 
Stay Inspired and BE THANKFUL today!! ~ Dean
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Don’t forget……
By · Commentswhat this weekend is really all about!
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
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Knowledge is Power
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I have been a long time fan of Rodney Dickens. He is the only economic forecaster who seems to get it right most of the time. His report today @ http://www.sra.co.nz/pdf/MangawhaiApr12.pdf is a fascinating read and shows the long term issues we are still in. As a kiwi I love coastal property and was always waiting for it to come back to earth.
It sounds like it still has a ways to go in lots of areas still. Which makes the whole property thing quite weird right now doesn’t it. We have many areas of Auckland doing sort of quite well, a couple of areas going off big time and other suburbs dead as a dodo. And nationally it is even weirder.
One of my agents told me this week he had investors fighting at auction over stock and another is ringing people out of the phone book to try and get them to list as he has buyers but no houses. And he is in what I would term a true scungy investor market. If you are risk tolerant there is even room for some trading right now, not withstanding the legal issues around it, however you would want to be quick on your feet and happy to hold if you couldn’t sell.
The banks relaxing more and more is an interesting upside allowing some investors back into the buy and hold space. I guess overall things are moving predictably, Auckland is the place to be investing, Christchurch if you are willing to put the work in to watch the demographic rebuild and keep the rest of the country on mild alert
Anyway back to Rodney, if you appreciate good quality information and accurate forecasting on the property market subscribe or at least sign up for his free reports!!
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
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Who, what, where and why!
By · CommentsApologies for being blogless lately but frankly I am so sick of being sick and the after effects of morphine have just made writing very hard. I am trying to get back to “normal” but now have another round of unpleasant procedures to endure. Who would have thought ones gall bladder could cause so much trouble even after it’s gone! So I will try and keep you informed of my life and times and make some intelligent comment regarding property but please bear with me as they try to figure out how to get the stones out 
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
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How to Research any USA Property Webinar
By · CommentsExplaining the Phoenix Strategy and How to research any US property from your own computer in any country:
Enjoy:
http://iadvise.s3.amazonaws.com/HowtoresearchanyUSAcity.FLV
Previous Webinar explaining more about the fundamentals of the US market:
http://iadvise.s3.amazonaws.com/USACashFlowInvestmentUpdatemarch2012.FLV
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Uncle John?
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Interesting to see John Key predicting a boom today HERE and Bill English disagreeing with him. I have become immune to this commentary and prefer the “let’s wait and see what happens next” method as everybody is guessing. One of the interesting things about this though is whether the Prime Minister making that statement could actually influence the market. He has more credibility than anybody else including the Reserve Bank governor so maybe this could actually shift sentiment in the sector and become self fulfilling prophecy.
I guess it is quite likely that Auckland and Christchurch will have a bubble through rebuilding and internal migration but all the coal face evidence remains pretty “normal to depressed” in most parts. We recently saw 2 homes sell in our own street quite quickly but at what sort of prices? In both cases there was pressure to sell so they might become statistics of a market doing OK and increasing sales but I am simply not convinced that this means a recovery is occurring.
The old school strategy of buying expensive homes in nice areas will certainly see a resurgence in this market and the “I told you so’s” will be thick and fast however most investors will never be able to buy those sorts of properties. So for 99% of people who want to buy pure “investment” stock there is a long wait still before we see our markets genuinely recover I believe.
I see the same thing in the USA right now. The bottom end of the market location wise is staying there. In fact some areas are getting worse and fast. The only difference in the USA is one can buy nice homes in great areas for only a teeny bit more than a really bad area so there the bettter home strategy is sound. (Speaking of which join me this Thursday for our next USA webinar HERE)
But in good old NZ I think we are going to be sitting tight for a long time yet, even with Uncle John talking things up
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean
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Self Help
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When I was in hospital I had several occasions when I had to tell late night nurses what to do or to stop them doing something wrong. Because I was on a fixed routine I knew when my IV had drugs in it and whether it needed flushing etc. and when I should be taking certain pills.
Now even though I was very sick most of my nurse interaction was pain relief and IV liquid food so the consequences of a minor problem were negligible. But it made me wonder how many times similar mistakes might occur with real serious issues.
Given how hard nurses work and the unbelievably difficult people they have to deal with I am not saying they are the problem.
I guess what I am thinking is this:
Is it realistic to expect a service or system to be “flawless” when it is being operated by imperfect people??
Obviously if someone was given the wrong drugs and they died that would be tragic and I know this does sometimes happen. But just because the consequences are more significant does not change human nature. We all make mistakes and will do as long as we are alive.
So when the recent stats on hospital misadventure was front page news I was reminded that we are trying to run a perfect system with imperfect people perfectly, which will never happen.
We need people who do their best, who are well trained and who are well rested when it comes to nurses.
I don’t know how to make all that happen in a society where nurses are poorly paid and many are raising families as well as working shift work.
One of those unsolvable puzzles I guess………
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean.
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