A Photo or a Drawing of Your House?

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When we were down in Adelaide visiting Tamara’s family I had a look through the real estate section of their newspaper and I thought that it was very interesting how they advertised some of the houses. Instead of having actual photos of the house they instead used an artists rendition of the house (like the one bellow).

House Facade Drawing

I found this curious because it really tells you almost nothing about the house, other then how the artist thinks it should look. In my previous two posts I wrote a bit about how you can word a house advertisement to give a different perspective on it, but this is a way to back that up with an image as well.

Most of these ads that I looked at on-line tonight include no actual photos of the houses, only artists renditions of the facade and then usually a drawing of the house plans and maybe the house lot.

What the Real Estate Ads Really Mean

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We’ve all read the ads that say “Needs a little TLC” and “A Great Fixer Upper”. If we’ve been looking at houses for a while we know that really means “Floors, walls and all wet areas need renovating” and “May need significant structural work to avoid being condemned”. That may be a slight exageration, but we all know that it’s not far from the truth.

When we were looking around for our first house we got sucked into a lot of those sort of homes. Thankfully wisdom prevailed and we didn’t actually purchase one of those homes. We ended up moving into a suburb about a 15-minute walk away from my work into a house that needed a bit of cosmetic work, but nothing too major.

Below is actually a pretty good article about what real estate agents do to sell their own homes, as opposed to someone elses home. It also talks a bit about what words to use in writing ads for selling your home, and what words to avoid…

Daytime Watering Should be Banned

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sprinklerAt the moment here in Townsville our the Ross River dam (our main dam) is at only about 22% capacity. We have been under minor water restrictions for as long as I have lived here, only able to water three days a week, which isn’t really much of a restriction. With Townsville’s current water usage, and the usual increase that comes in October and November, we will reach “level 4” water restrictions soon, which means we can only water at night.

I don’t understand why is daytime watering not already banned?

I find it quite surprising how many people water their lawns during the middle of the day under the hot North Queensland sun! We have some neighbours behind us that seem to water their lawn almost every day, despite the water restrictions, and in the middle of the day so most of the water evaporates and isn’t even absorbed by the lawn.

Every web-site that I have read tonight points out that the best watering time are after dusk or before the sun is up, with most preferring the early morning water. Apparently about 40% of the average household water usage is outside usage, and a lot of water can be saved by following even simple water conservation ideas in the garden.

Here are a few links to some sites that can help you with your own water conservation plan for your garden, and can help you to grow a stronger and healthier lawn: