In this episode of The Drive Home to Hawkesbury Rachael covers off on what happens on settlement day when buying or selling a house and how to avoid the common traps on that all important day.

If you have any questions on the settlement of your property or otherwise please do not hesitate to contact me, I’m always happy to help.

I Live, Love, Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode.

I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and welcome to the Drive Home to Hawkesbury, where I believe every home has a story and I love sharing those stories on real estate in the Hawkesbury with you. Here we share the best ways to add value to your property, how to avoid the common mistakes people make when buying and selling property, and how to get the maximum return on your investment with a focus on supporting local business. I live, love Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode with you. So let’s get started.
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on what time you’re listening to this video. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and welcome to the Drive Home to Hawkesbury and today I wanted to talk to you about a topic of settlements. Anybody that is buying a house or selling a house, they’ve always got to have that final day where it all comes together and money’s transferred, and either you’re buying the house or you’ve finalised the sale of the house. That settlement is usually on one particular day that’s been booked in by the conveyancers or your solicitor, they have settlement clerks in town that generally attend on your behalf. So as a buyer you don’t need to attend to the actual settlement but you do need to speak to your real estate agent that you’re purchasing the house through, to ensure that you go and have a look at that house prior to. You want to make sure that everything is exactly the way that you saw it, the day that you looked at purchasing and the day that you put the deposit down on the house.
So for example we had one the other day where the owners had moved out but they’d had revivalists come in and look at removing the furniture out of the house for these owners. Now the owners, for all intents and purposes did the right thing and had the removalists do this, but unfortunately the removalist wasn’t that careful in what they were doing, and they removed the washing machine without turning the taps off, which created a little bit of a flood, which luckily enough it was in the back area of the laundry which was all concreted. So there was just water coming out onto the actual cupboard. What we needed to do is just check that there wasn’t any damage to the property. So by having that final inspection on the day of the settlement, it’s much better for the buyer and also for the owner because you want to make sure that everything is right for both parties before you complete that settlement. So, that situation was averted. I was able to turn the taps off, that hadn’t been turned off by the removalists, which is fairly simple.
We isolated the problem, let the owners know, let the buyers know once they were onsite, and everything was a good result for all parties. So in that circumstance, if it hadn’t of been a positive result, and say for example there was damage or water damage or something that had happened, you’d contact your solicitor or conveyance as a purchaser or as a seller, and say “This is the situation, what do you recommend?” Generally speaking they keep some sort of funds in the trust account as a potential hold or a bond, just in case there’s some sort of problem that needs to be fixed. That there’s an agreed price on what that may be, or a reduction it the price. So it really, as I say, depends on each individual circumstance, but it can be sorted out, as long as the communication works well with everybody. I’ve always found it’s been a positive experience for people, as long as you’re all on the same page. So I just wanted to touch base in regards to that.
In regards to the settlement as I say, the buyer and the seller, you don’t need to attend the actual settlement day. The settlement is held generally in town, and that’s booked in by your conveyancer or solicitor. So the only things that you need to do is collect the keys, the fun stuff. Collect the keys from the real estate agent, when the settlement has gone through. Also, as the buyer, you’ll be contacted by your real estate agent and also from your conveyancer or solicitor in that regard. They will help you with that process. Equally, the owner will be contacted by the agent and their conveyancer. Sometimes the conveyancer will call the purchaser first, and we usually get what they call an “order on the agent”, from the conveyancer or solicitor in that matter, so that that confirms that we are able to hand over the keys to the new owner, and it’s all been settled, before we can do that.
So it’s a positive experience for everybody. I always love settlement day. It’s an exciting day for both the seller and also for the buyer because the buyer moves into the dream house that they’ve been wanting, the seller’s actually sold their house, closed the chapter on the book on that one, but going into probably another property. The other thing that can happen on settlement days too is a simultaneous settlement. So often what you’ll find is you have three, four, five settlements that are all reliant on one another. So the buyer may be buying a house, the money that’s put down on the house that they’re buying, that seller is buying another house. The whole process starts again with the other ones.
So it’s really interesting to see how it all comes together, but if you get the right advice, if you need any help in regards to which conveyancer or which solicitor to use, we’ve got any number of people that we can tap into in the Hawkesbury that are most helpful, and even abroad, if there’s other areas that you’re looking at going into, and you’re not too sure. Always happy to help. In regards to settlement, if you’ve got any questions, you know I’m here for you and we’ve done it may times over the years for different people with the settlements, so we’re happy to help you as well. Anyway that’s it from me today. Thank you very much for listening. I really look forward to hearing all your questions, so I can add some more to the next video that we put together for you, but great to catch up with you, and we’ll talk to you again on the next episode. See you later.
Thank you so much for taking time out and listening to today’s episode. If you have any questions on the process of buying, selling, leasing, or strata management, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and I’d really appreciate it if you could spread the word by liking and sharing this episode with your family and friends. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and I look forward to catching up with you on the next episode of the Drive Home to Hawkesbury.

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On this episode of The Drive Home to Hawkesbury Rachael talks about Local Community Projects such as Bells Line of Road development which follows on from the community meeting on Wednesday with BLORCAG, attended by the community, Local and Federal Members and other Government Departments such as NSW Transport.

We will also catch up with mother of five, Hypnotherapist and Naturopath, Kathryn Hams with some further insight on the questions raised this week from last week’s podcast.

Lots to cover and something for everyone in this Community Noticeboard episode. I Live, Love, Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode.

Rachael: Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on what time you’re tuning into The Drive Home to Hawkesbury. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy, local real estate agent for those that haven’t met me or I haven’t met you, and I’m looking forward to that opportunity. But I’m also joined today by Kathryn Hans. How are you, Kathryn?
Kathryn: I’m good. Thank you, Rachael. It’s a lovely day out there today. The temperature is getting too … you wouldn’t think it’s winter, would you?
Rachael: I know. I was only thinking that over the weekend actually. The temperatures we’ve been enjoying are almost like spring time versus autumn which we’re meant to be into, aren’t we?
Kathryn: That’s right. I mean, this time you’re usually getting your timber together so you can start making those fires for those who have those stove combustion fires inside. And-
Rachael: It’s interesting-
Kathryn: With the way we’ve been having that temperature, too warm.
Rachael: I know. Exactly. Everybody’s been talking about the fires like you said. And interesting you say that too because on the weekend I had a question from a buyer and also from a tenant. The question was around fireplaces and those sorts of things and some times with leases properties have fire places or combustions, and they’re not too sure whether to use them or not. So it’s really important that as part of the lease that it’s included on the lease that the fireplace is okay to use. Because some of the older fireplaces, like those heritage houses that we have in and around the Hawkesbury, they do have fireplaces that have been blocked off because they’ve got such a narrow flue, or they might have been blocked off for other reasons that it might be so wide at the top of the flue that there’s a big draught coming through.
So depending on what the situation is there you need to check before … and this time of year I think … like you, you’ve got an open fireplace or a combustion fireplace. You would know that it’s good to check whether those things are working before you stoke it with copious … and you add some fodder and create a bit of a situation with smoke and also sorts of other things.
Kathryn: Yeah. And most definitely because I do know that with some of those older houses like you’re saying that if they haven’t been used for a while that you really do need to sweep them because you can catch fire inside. And I don’t know if this is correct or not, but some of those really old places, well, they’re not only coal based on something? So they have different sort of fire mediums I think it is that you can use.
Rachael: Yes, it’s an interesting topic, isn’t it? And you’ve quite rightly said the inside of the fireplaces can often have, say for example, a bird’s nest that’s been created over spring time, and if you don’t realise this and you don’t get a chimney sweep in to clean the flue, do what you need to do, sweep it out as you said, you can create a lot of heat in the flue and that may create a fire. So it’s really important for that maintenance on a regular basis. So it’s like anything, isn’t it, whether it’s houses or whether it’s people or whether it’s life in general? If you keep up with that regular maintenance and you stay on top of things life flows a little bit better.
Kathryn: I think also people that have put insulation into their roof … now, I had this happen with my own place where I’ve got a open and a slow combustion. And I had insulation put in the roof making sure that I try to do the good thing for the environment and everything like that. Well, the fellow that installed the insulation batts put it all nicely around the flue that went through, but you don’t do that. And then the first fire we put in there it actually burnt them which then put a fire down into ceiling and then melted the paint back and created the most interesting of smells in the place that took quite a few weeks to get rid of.
So even with people that have newly had things insulated and things, it wouldn’t hurt just to pop up in the roof and just have a look around and make sure everything is okay, because it’s not an experience you’d want to have.
Rachael: No, that sounds dreadful. And I guess too, like you said, making sure you’ve got the right people on the job because if they’re not qualified or if they’re not familiar with that style of house or that style of insulation in and around particular products or materials it’s really important to get it right. So once again engaging the right professional to do the right thing. So we do have contacts with chimney sweeps and those sorts of people and people that insulate the roofs. So if anybody needs any referrals for that, happy to put you in touch with the guys and girls that do that for us. So with all this cooler weather but then beautiful weather at the same time I believe you’ve taken a trip to visit your beautiful grandchildren.
Kathryn: I have. I went up to the Hunter Valley about a week ago and my oldest daughter has got her child up there, my lovely granddaughter Sidney, Sidney Rose. She is teething. So of course as soon as I walked it was, “Hello mom. Here’s the baby,” which is wonderful. So it was great because for everyone out there that’s had children and is going either into grandparenthood like I am it’s when you’re handed the baby you don’t go, “Oh, what do I do?” It just comes back so quickly, so quickly. So I thank God our mind is great and it stores what we need to store. Sometimes it stores not very good stuff. But that was great.
But I think that young moms go through such a lot of new things and things that they haven’t experienced, and to see your child crying and uncomfortable and not being able to help, and of course at that age they can’t speak, apart from being really hard for the child that’s cutting those teeth for the mother or the father it’s also a really hard thing as well. And the grandparent. Don’t forget the grandparent.
Look, my daughter tried cold things, an amber necklace that apparently … my other daughter has a baby. She does that do. The heat of the body is supposed to let off this acid that has got relieving properties for pain and things. By the way that my granddaughter was screaming I don’t think it was working to its maximum that day. But the other thing they’ve got a lot of other natural things they can do with camomile and things like that. But at the end of the day it’s just what happens.
Rachael: Yeah, yeah. I think it’s really important to I guess acknowledge too that when you’re a young mum or dad there’s lots of resources out there but you don’t sort of read a book and go, “Okay. I’ve got this. I know exactly what I’m doing.” Because it’s like anything in life. We’re always learning, aren’t we?
Kathryn: We are. And hands-on experience. I mean, no one can tell you what to experience before you have a child, what it’s going to be like, and every child is unique and different. So in some ways the book is a great guide and with the internet, I mean, a lot of young moms and dads will be just googling away on their phones, and that’s really great, but the one thing I just want to is put out there for everyone is to make sure the information you’re getting is really good quality information. You don’t want to be going to a blog or something, going, “Oh, well, I’ll try that little bit of hocus-pocus,” because it’s your child. So any information. Dr Google is great but really always make sure your source is good.
Rachael: Yeah. No, absolutely. That’s great advice. And what else has been going on for you, Kathryn? Anything exciting?
Kathryn: Well, I’ve been doing my cooking as I always do and been sort of working on the broth situation of doing those. I’m going to put a few videos up. And I want to cook as well, doing the broths with people and teaching them, and just teaching them actually. I did a lot with my daughter when I was up there, the nutritional value in them, but also it’s cost effective. So coming into winter, wonderful time to do it.
Rachael: I love your broths. I think they’re brilliant. You gave me a few pointers on putting things together and what to put in there and it’s so simple. You put them in the slow cookers and away you go. So I’m looking forward to seeing those videos on the broths, and I might be able to help out a few people. And also when you’re marketing a home, I mean, they talk about the bakery and the coffee, but broths go a long way too because there’s some great aromas coming through the house from that. So yeah, really important to get that right.
Kathryn: Gives that homely feel, doesn’t it?
Rachael: It does. I think it’s really important to have that homely feel. It’s like with the feng shui of the house. It’s a harmonious feel as you’re walking through the house. You either walk into a house and go, “Oh, gee, this feels really good. I feel great. I feel energetic. And I could see myself living here,” whereas if you walk into it and you think, “Oh, gee. Look at that colour. Oh, gee, that furniture is out of place,” or things just aren’t right to that person. And I think it’s really important for the art of placement and I guess the positioning of different things throughout the house that makes a difference, the aromas throughout the house. It’s back to the senses, the basic things in life, the decluttering, all of that.
And I’m happy to help out anybody in regards to the feng shui of the home or in regards too just general tips on how to maximise a return on your investment and how to get the most out of your investment. Because a lot of people it’s hard out there trying to look after a family, look out after the young ones, and go to work and is so expensive. So the amount of money that you have left in the pay pack to spend on the house is minimal I suppose in comparison to some other things. So there’re low cost strategies that I employ to make sure you get that maximum bang on the house and just to make sure that it looks great and it feels great, because you want to come home to a nice environment. You want to come home to a peaceful environment and you want to enjoy the space that you’re in whilst you’re living in that house, don’t you?
Kathryn: Well, you do. And I suppose what you’ve got with the home is you’ve got your memories and everything that you go to create. And we have such a big thing about the family home and everyone wanting to buy one that it’s important to have that, as you say. I mean, even when selling, I mean, people are wanting to get the ultimate because they’re move on to either another scale house because their family has grown or something like that.
Rachael: That’s right.
Kathryn: I know when I first walked into the home I have that there was a smell in it that as soon as I walked in I went, “Oh, this is my home.” And I don’t know what it is but it was just something that did that. And it’s all our senses that we have, it’s what we feel with the feng shui and all that. It’s very important to have that declutter. And I know you’ve helped us out. And decluttering I think also declutters your mind as well.
Rachael: Yeah. But I think too a lot of people … and you’ve lived there with your partner for a quite a number of years, what, 16 years I think, 17 year. I think that over time we don’t realise what we accumulate. We all do it. But I’ve been to some client’s homes where they just don’t know where to begin, and I think that that’s the hardest thing. But when you have somebody objectively come into your home … I guess that’s the hardest call to make for somebody to put their hand out and say what’s going on and how can I help.
But equally it’s just the basics, going back to the basics, and once people start making the inroads with that it’s very easy to create the space that you want. And you’ve been really inspired lately in doing some great things around your place. You’ve been painting and you’ve been creating, and it just looks terrific. And I think everybody wants to do different things over the time with their homes, and it’s all positive as you’re moving towards the common goal.
Kathryn: I think what happens, Rachael, I know that with my lot of five kids I’ve got that … and as you wrote I’ve been with my current partner for 17 years. But I’ve been here for about 32 years and, I mean, 32 years of gathering children’s belongings is an interesting thing. And I’m sure there’s a lot of parents out there that have either sheds or garages or rooms that have still got piles and piles of [inaudible 00:12:23] things. And as a parent you don’t want to throw them out but the children also don’t want to take them. But then they come back a few years and they go, “Have you got this? Have got that?” It’s a hard thing. It’s like cutting those open ties that we have as parents with the children and getting to that point.
I know for me that it was overwhelming, totally overwhelming. And because I had Hashimoto’s I didn’t need that extra pressure on me. But to walk around and to look at the house and all the things that were there and you just look and you think, “How did I do this? How did I accumulate it?” It’s like turning around and one day bang, you’ve got clutter. And the best thing for me has been clearing, sorting. And I think if people have some rules and not necessarily rules I say now but work out what works for you. That’s what it’s going to be. One of my children said recently when they were doing a wedding and they said, “If we haven’t spoken to them for two years they’re not coming to the wedding.” Well, look if you haven’t looked at it for so many years or you haven’t used it or you forget about it-
Rachael: That’s right.
Kathryn: Do you need it?
Rachael: Get rid of it. Yeah. Exactly.
Kathryn: That’s it.
Rachael: Out it goes.
Kathryn: You’ve got to have some sort of boundaries and if you can keep that template in your mind and a mindset of how you can create that peace within by decluttering then good luck with it and go for it. And you know what? Garage sales are great. You get a bit of money too. So there you are.
Rachael: No, that’s so true. But, I mean, how many people and ourselves over the years … you have guilt trips everywhere around the house, whether it’s that shirt that you bought 10 years ago that you probably haven’t worn or that dress that’s sort been hanging in the cupboard that somebody gave you and seeing, “Oh, I really love that and I want to wear that but would I? Probably not.” But you don’t want to throw it out because somebody has taken that love and care to give that to you or it’s cost a lot of money or whatever it might be. Or the piece of furniture that your parents or your grandparents or your family members, it’s such a difficult thing to analyse as to which is important to keep or which is not important to keep.
And I think it’s nice to have those things in and around your house that remind you of your family and your friends and the great things that you all did together. But also you’ve got to be practical about what you keep because you can’t keep everything. And as you said 32 years of … which is generally speaking anywhere between 15 and 30 years people have been staying in their houses in and around The Hawkesbury and I find that that’s a pretty common timeline. So there’s a lot of stuff that we all collect over that time.
Kathryn: And I think that when people like giving away … have to get things passed on, like I know I have a piano of my mothers, huge item. What do you do with it? Well, I can’t let it go because it’s my mother, and for that, I mean, that’s where you need some sort of grief sort to part with that thing and look at it with the emotions out of it and say, “Well, okay. I’ve had the piano for so long. Maybe it could go to someone else who could get enjoyment from it.”
Rachael: That’s right. Yeah. So I think decluttering, all that, it’s a really good thing, certainly homes that have a lot of memories. And talking about a lot of memories with homes. You went to that talk during the week on Wednesday night about what they’re doing up at [inaudible 00:16:00], didn’t you? And you got a lot of-
Kathryn: Yes.
Rachael: Interesting things from that?
Kathryn: Yeah. Look, it was a community meeting held by the Bells Line op Road Action Group and I’ll put a link up here as we speak so that everybody’s got that there. But yeah, it was an interesting talk. There was a lot of people there. There was a lot of emotion in and around what was said, and you can understand why because there’re homes that have been lived for a long period of time, there’s families that have got businesses that have been there and they’re reliant on the income from the produce from those farms. And also it’s getting close to being gazetted. So local council was having a meeting tomorrow again, and I believe if you wanted to attend you can. And if you wanted to say anything you can speak. Yeah. You can contact council and let them know before 3:00 PM tomorrow that you wanted to have something to say or put forward your ideas. From 6:30 the meeting starts.
But I’m getting to try and get a couple of interviews, one with the BLOR group and also one with some local councillors just to get some different ideas as where things are headed with this and what’s actually going to happen as a result of it being gazetted if that does actually happen. But there’s a lot of … It was emotionally charged and I think it was a difficult night for a lot of people. But I thinking the discussions need to be had so that we can all get to the bottom of it and work out what the best way forward is. And I think out of the 192 kilometres of corridor that the New South Wales Transport were putting forward, they suggested that that would change because there’re such a large amount as to what was going to change. There was questions around that and also how the properties were going to be taken over.
So if they gazette it and they put that down for that particular area or that particular option then those homes are earmarked. And with the flow-on effect of sale value for people what information was available, how that was going to be calculated, what sort of timeframe it would take for these sorts of things to come into play. So yeah, interesting to follow it. But once again I’ll put up the website. If you go to their website you can join it if you’re a local person, and it is on Facebook. That’s their group there, and a bit of information in and around. And whether you’re for or against it doesn’t matter. It’s just good to be aware of what’s happening in your area and good to have the discussions so that it reduces fear and equitable for all parties moving forward.
Rachael: And the trouble is with this sort of thing, and it’s happening a lot through Sidney and other areas as well, is that when people I should say get their homes affected or their business or where we’ve just been talking about, the family home and 32 years of memory and things like that, that you can understand when going [inaudible 00:19:17] like that there’s a lot of emotionally charged people that are working off the fact they’ve paid their taxes, they’ve paid their council rates, they’ve done everything they thought, and even when purchasing their property it was never what had been written of where it was going to go, they trusted all that, but their feelings it’s ripped out from under their feet.
The problem is though that when you get a whole group of people together and even though it’s great to be united in your stats that emotional charging tends to get knee-jerk reactions. And those reactions aren’t actually positive, unfortunately, and sometimes it’s good to get a solid sort of group of information and really sit down and try and nut it out with council and to go along to [inaudible 00:20:08] and really try to work positive for a really good outcome for everyone.
Kathryn: Yeah. No, it’s a really good point. I completely agree. It is an emotional time for people but if you don’t go to the meetings or of you don’t talk to councillors, if you don’t speak to New South Wales Transport, if you don’t get involved your vote doesn’t basically. So ultimately fit in, get involved, find out what’s going in your local area, and make a contribution if you wanted to do that. And speak to the local councillors. They’re very approachable. Speak to New South Wales Transport, speak the Bells Line of Road Action Group because everybody is open to discussion and I think that that’s a good thing.
However, I guess it’s come to a point where there’s for and against and it’s just trying to nut all of that out. And as you said it’s good to try and get to a common ground that yes, you may not all of the points from one side to the other, but at least there’s some sort of compromise on both parties, and hopefully we’re able to get to that point where the majority are able to secure the best future for themselves and for the community. Yeah.
Rachael: And I think that when you say about the councillors that they’re approachable and even your local members and things like that-
Kathryn: Absolutely.
Rachael: I think people have to remember that we’re all people. We’re just people with jobs. That’s it. And they have to carry out the job they have to carry out to bring home the income to their families. So in the end they’re people and their families and we’re all living in The Hawkesbury. Absolutely. So working together really is a great thing to do.
Yeah. I completely agree. And as you say they’ve all got families, they’ve got children as well and they’re people. So whilst the anger may be directed at them perhaps it should be redirected to working out the best way forward rather than personal attacks on people, because it’s hard enough as it is I would imagine for them being in the public eye, but to be able to have a conversation with them, approach them, and speak to them because they are human beings. They’re just like all of us. And they want the best way forward for their community too. And whether we’re on the same side or not on the same side it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day if you don’t have the discussions you’ll never know, and I think it’s good to have those discussions and catch up with people as much as you possibly can and get involved.
Kathryn: Yeah. And as you said, working together, working hard at things is good. And from what I have heard from a little birdy and a puppy dog that you got there that you’ve been nominated was it was for the Women’s Altitude Businesses Excellence Awards.
Rachael: Oh, thank you Kathryn. Yes, the team and myself had been nominated for the Business Excellence Awards and we really appreciate the nomination from everybody. I guess it’s a lot of hard work of years, slugging away at different things. But we want to feel as though we make a difference and to be recognised we’re very humbled for that. And there’s a lot of great business out in the Hawkesbury and Nepean and abroad and in the mountains and I applaud everybody for the nominations, and also the ones that weren’t nominated. It doesn’t matter. We’re all in there together. And essentially that’s one of the reasons why I set up the Drive Home to Hawkesbury too is to reach out to other local businesses, because sometimes it can be a lonely place when you’re working in that business. And to have those other local businesses working together on the same page and to share ideas and thoughts.
I know that that wasn’t available to me when I first started business years ago, about 20 years ago. So I thought it was a really important part of that, and it’s just really nice to be nominated. There’s some great sponsors for that event for Women with Altitudes, Commonwealth Bank and Goodford Home Loans and there’s some other great people that are involved with that. But also great local business too. And I’m very proud and humbled to be part of that process and thank you for saying something [inaudible 00:24:32].
Kathryn: So when does it actually happen, Rachael?
Rachael: I think we’ve got a cocktail party on this week to announce the nominations. So that should be a fun night, getting to catch up with everybody, networking as they say, and just running out what going on for other business and how they’re doing things better out there in the community.
Kathryn: And where are they holding that?
Rachael: That’s at the Commonwealth Bank I believe at Penrith. So that should be good, “Hi, Barry. How you going?” Yeah. That should be really good, and we’re looking forward to catching up with everybody on the night. Yeah.
Kathryn: That’s good. And so you have the cocktail party. And what comes after that?
Rachael: I think it’s a gala ball that will be held coming up, get the party dress on and-
Kathryn: Yeah. That’s what I’m thinking here. Cocktail dresses, party dresses.
Rachael: All of that and more. Yeah. No, it sounds like a great night out. And I think Women With Altitude is a terrific organisation. They’ve been doing this for quite a few years now and supporting the local business. And I think the more people realise that the more you do things together with people the more we all achieve. And in essence that’s what I think is our businesses. We can’t do what we do without working cohesively with our community, with our staff, and we really appreciate the opportunity to do that.
I started as a solo practitioner. I had my two puppy dogs and one cat. We lived and worked from home. And that was my office. And then we’ve grown the business from that to essentially six staff or five staff and sign written vehicles and commercial premises and signs everywhere. And business is great, rent roll and those sorts of things. Strata, we look after the sales, we look after … but more importantly the community I think because it’s a big part of my life and big part of being involved with that. And I think Women With Altitude do that very well. So thank you very much to the team over there, Andrea, Stephanie, Erica, Christine and everybody else that’s involved with that. They’ve also got a men’s component to that. So there’s also a men’s awards night. So they don’t miss out as well. Some great guys in business too and it’s nice to applaud everybody within the community.
Kathryn: Yeah. And I think that like you say with the sign writing on cars I notice when I drive around that I see so many businesses and people getting out there and having a go, and I’d have to say that it really pumps me, it makes me feels good that we’ve got that attitude that get out and have a go. And there’re young people too some of them that got these aspirations of X, Y, Z. And people like yourself, Rachael, that work your way up and put the hard hours in and you to what you’re doing then you get recognition. It’s what you give in a mentoring talk to everyone else out there or young women that think, “Oh, I can’t do this.” You stand there as a person saying, “Well, you can.” And I think that’s really important.
And these awards are important to recognise the excellence in that sort of format. But as you said too there’s other people that may not get mentioned but they’re down there and they’re still working and they’re still doing it. And I just think it’s great to have that attitude in life of having a go and being able to stand up and say, “Well, look, it’s possible.”
Rachael: Yeah. And I thank you, Kathryn. It’s a great experience and it’s lots of fun to be involved with. I’m in the trenches with everybody else. I’m at the cold phase of the business. I certainly don’t ask anybody to do anything that I wouldn’t be happy to do myself. So I’m putting up signs, I’m putting up flyers. I’ve done lots of different things over the tears, and it’s all part and parcel of it. But I think having these online platforms as well to be able to say hello to everybody and meet so many great people, tenants and landlords, and owners and buyers, they’re all people like ourselves.
And we’ve all got unique situations, and it’s just a matter of finding out what it is that they need help with and how we can best help them achieve what they want to with their goals and aspirations in regards to their homes. Because some people they’re renting a home and they’re so house proud that they love catching up with you and I love catching up with them, and the same thing with owners and people that have Strata. It’s all part and parcel of it. And it’s nice that you get to met their family, you get to meet their partners, you get to meet the important people in their lives, and you become part of the fabric of their life.
And I love that about my job. I love being involved with everybody in the community, and your clients actually become your friends and that’s a nice thing. And you get a lot of referrals from generations of families. So I’m getting grandchildren now from people that I’ve sold, from their children and their grandchildren, giving my age away a little bit here. But certainly it’s terrific to be involved in that process and certainly making me really exciting.
Kathryn: And I’ve got a question here for you because you say you get the grandchildren coming through now too. And you would have seen a lot of movement in house pricing over the years that you’ve been doing that, and I know because I have children that are trying into the market and it’s so hard. I mean, when we look at the prices of housing and what they have to put down as deposits and things like that do you think that somehow with how it used to be that [inaudible 00:30:39] the houses percentages the same or do you think it is really, and do you come across that a lot? That would have to pull on you to know that there’s young people out there trying to break in and yet the prices are what they are.
Rachael: Look, it’s a really good question, Kathryn, and I think that the stats that we’re looking at at the moment is 50% of the population currently are millennials. The median house price at the moment is just over a million dollars in Sidney, which seems really unaffordable. However, the projections for the next 20, 30 years is that the median house is going to move to 3.5 to 4 million and the millennials obviously will grow and then we’ll have a new group of people through. But it is all relative. You look at the wage amount now versus 20 years ago, the first house that I sold in The Hawkesbury was about 100000. Now, you just sort of think, “Well, why weren’t people buying the streets out? That’s so cheap.” But the wages weren’t very much at all in comparison to that.
So what the Asian countries have gone to they’ve gone to a generational loan scenario so that whilst the house and land, all those sorts of things, generally not land because there’s not much of it over there now available, but they’ve moved to generation loans because nobody can afford to buy a home themselves. So mom and dad might buy the house, they’ll start the loan, and then as the years go by they’ll pay down the loan to certain amount but then the kids will take over. The parents will still live with the children. However, the loan is then taken over by the children. And then so it goes down to the grandchildren, and you might find three generations are living within that home, which is such a nice thing to do. They really care for their family and their parents. It’s important part of Australian life and culture as well. But I think that they do that really well and their generational loan then becomes more affordable or more achievable because it is sort of worn down over the time.
But certainly it’s difficult. You’re quite right with median house price in and around a million dollars. Where do people get that from? But I guess the best advice I could give in that regard is to start saving early. Put away that 10% that you can, but also get in touch with a financial advisor that can give you the right advice around the best strategies to save the right amount of money or what sort of deposits you need for that house. Because sometimes you can buy houses with smaller deposits instead of paying the 10% deposit down to a 5% deposit. And that can often be very prior to the negotiations. So that’s possible. But also you can buy property with very little money down, so depending on whether it’s an option or whether it’s something else that you’re looking at. There’s all strategies that can be tackled to help you secure that house.
Kathryn: I know with my children that I could help them out as a person owning a home with some sort of guarantor help them to the bridge in. and I suppose that I don’t have a lot of … probably people know about this, but I think different lending agencies have different requirements and things. But I suppose I thought of that because of what you said about the family home and … We really are talking about starting today’s interview with the chimney right down to your excellence awards in what you’ve been doing which has just been producing this wonderful atmosphere for people to be able to buy or rent places in, to the point of actually people being able to do it and the young ones coming through and getting their down.
Rachael: Yes. I think it’s hard. I do agree that it’s all relevant to wages. It’s probably because … and I’m older than you and I’m looking at it and saying, “Well, you’re right.” I mean, the place I purchased was $75000 and why didn’t I buy up heaps either because $75000 was a lot money back then.
Kathryn: It was. My parents have told a few stories about $14000 as one of the first purchases that they made. And back then that was really difficult to find that $14000, and you’d look at houses every weekend. You’d do the same thing. But instead of scouring the internet you’d be scouring the newspaper, instead of ringing on a mobile you’d be ringing on a landline, or you’d be sending a letter to somebody, very official, that they wanted to have a look at the house on the weekend. So those sorts of things. Lots of things, the changes.
But I think that it’s important to look at the alternatives because even though you may be a millennial and you may be struggling with, “How I’m I going to get this deposit? There’s no way I’m going to afford a million dollars. There’s just no way I’m ever getting into the property market. That’s it. I’m going to live with mom and she’s going to take care of everything for me. Mom and dad they’re just going to look after me.”
Rachael: Well, you know you do it a lot for your family and you do help to a certain extent. But there comes a time where we’ve all got to stand on our two feet and we’ve got to go to the right people that can give you the advice. I’m happy to help out, work out a strategy with people in regards to what their strategy is for a home. Equally, I can put you with the right financial people that can help you with that plan. It’s not only just a home loan that you’re looking at from a financial plan but also people … big shout out to Sue Wingate. She’s brilliant at Windsor. She looks after lots of people, financial advisor. There’re accountants that know exactly what they need to know to be able to get people heading in the right direction and how to maximise the return for your properties and how to do it the best way.
So there’s lots of alternatives, and that’s what I say to people. Don’t worry. If you feel as though it’s too overwhelming or you can’t do it there is a way around different things or a strategy that we can work out to head towards that. It might not be yesterday when you wanted to be in the house. It might not be today. But it might be in a couple of months that we worked towards, 6 months or 12 months, depending on what it is. Because even some things like whether you’re a casual at your employment or whether you’re part time or whether you’re full-time will all adjust the amount of money that you can borrow. So whilst I’m not a financial advisor and I’m not giving any financial advice I think it’s important to understand the distinctions between there and to be able to refer onto the right people.
That’s the same thing with what you do, Kathryn, with your hypnotherapy and naturopathy. It’s important to have the right person to go to and trust and have that information on hand so that you’re able to get out to the community. So if somebody did want to get in touch with you how would the do that, Kathryn?
Kathryn: Well, they could call me on my mobile phone, 0408 411 865 or they can email me or there’s a link probably somewhere that we could put on for them if them to my Facebook page. No, I think that’s really good [inaudible 00:37:58] about working towards a home and while they work towards it with you, Rachael, I’ll help them create their dreams.
Rachael: Terrific. Happy to help out. And for those that I haven’t met or Kathryn hasn’t met we’re looking forward to catching up with you. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and I can be contacted at the rachaelgoldsworthy.com.au website or you can email me at rachael@rachaelgoldsworthy.com.au or contact.

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The Drive Home to Hawkesbury had some exciting news to share at 12 noon today. Thanks to those that tuned in live to find out first! Don’t forget to send me your real estate questions, happy to answer your questions.

I Live, Love, Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode.

I’m Rachael Goldsworthy, and welcome to The Drive Home to Hawkesbury, where I believe every home has a story and I love sharing those stories on real estate in the Hawkesbury with you. Here we share the best ways to add value to your property, how to avoid the common mistakes people make when buying and selling property, and how to get the maximum return on your investment with a focus on supporting local business. I live love Hawkesbury, and can’t wait to get into today’s episode with you, so let’s get started.
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on what time you’re watching this video. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy, and welcome to The Drive Home to Hawkesbury. Today I wanted to send you a live video just to say hello and wish you a good day, but also with a bit of an update for a couple of things that have been happening lately. For those that have been watching me regularly, you know my puppy dogs sit with me whilst I’m doing these videos, so Topsy wants to say hello. She featured on the last video … Yes, she’s saying hello to everybody today. Okay, I might introduce her to you again later on.
Just wanted to touch base and let you know that today, or yesterday it was, I went out to the Real Estate Institute New South Wales Roadshow. I caught up with Tim McKibbin, he’s the CEO, and also Leanne Pilkington, she’s actually the President of REINSW. Great people and doing some great things out there for the industry, especially for the real estate agents that are in the industry because things are always changing in what we’re doing and one of them in particular is the laws or the legislation around the registration of licences. So the next renewal for all of the agents that are out there, we all have different changes that are made. So people that have a Certificate of Registration will no longer be able to be an agent, they’ll have to become an assistant agent until they obtain their licence. So that’s a really big distinction for the agents. Hi to everybody that’s online and joining me, I really appreciate it, thank you.
I think it’s really important that they lift the bar for real estate agents, because I think they put a spreadsheet up on the screen that basically said that there was more training involved in being a barista than there was being a real estate agent. Now that’s …. I mean, I know it’s a serious thing making coffee and those sorts of things, because we all like our daily coffee, however being a real estate agent I take it very seriously and I’ve studied long and hard for many, many years and I continue to study even after 20 years of being in real estate. I think that a lot of real estate agents do take it seriously, but I think some do want to get into it I suppose, just because they see that you can make money very quickly and it looks easy, so let’s just bang up the sign and see how we go. There’s so much more behind the scenes that goes on with a real estate agent and the process of marketing a home for sale, or for rent, or for being involved with strata. It is challenging out there for a lot of consumers trying to navigate through that, but to have an agent that is actually qualified and knows all the ins and outs is really important.
So I think it’s great that the changes are coming, but I’ll do some more videos as we get closer to it. But the renewals are looking like towards the end of the year; once October hits that’s kind of the cut off date for those sorts of things. So real estate agents that only have a CoR they need to be looking seriously about what sort of traineeships that they’re going to be taking on as an agent, and progressing their knowledge to a licenced agent’s position. Equally the licencee in charge, different things are happening for them as well. So that will change for the consumer, hopefully change the experience for a consumer to make it a little bit easier for them to navigate through the different agencies and on what the services are that they have available.
A couple of other things that I’ve been organising too; I’ve got some exciting news in regards to a book launch. I was going to enlist your help if I can. I’m going to put a couple of ideas up. We’ve had a lot of feedback from the different things that we’ve put up over the years, and one of the favourite posts that people have is the quotes, the daily quotes. What I’m doing is I’m putting together a book and going to launch that this year, just in regards to different series of quotes that we have. So if you’ve got any suggestions in regards to that, or what there is available, more than happy for you to do that. I’ll put a couple of nominations up there and see which ones you think are the best book covers, and hopefully between all of us we’ll be able to decide it and put those books out this year.
I did actually go to the Bells Line of Road meeting as well on Wednesday night, so I’m going to have a further update for you. But what I also did … That’s in regards to the changes that are happening at Bells Line of Road, the movement with New South Wales Transport. There was a big meeting with a lot of people there, local council, and we’re organising interviews this week for next week. So I’ll have some people, hopefully a representative from Bells Line of Road the action group, and also some local councillors that were interested to come on and have a bit of a chat and share some ideas and thoughts around what is actually happening up there and the notice that’s been given and also the process that’s involved with that.
Third but not last, I just wanted to say a big thank you. A big thank you to everybody that has nominated myself and my team. We’ve become the finalists in the business awards for excellence, so Business Excellence in the Women for Altitude Awards, and I’m really proud of that for the team and myself. But they work really hard and I certainly couldn’t do it without them. I’ve got Joanne who looks after all of the trust accounting and has been … We worked out the other day, it was 25 years she’s worked alongside me. Melissa and Sandra and Warren and also all my puppy dogs have been fantastic supports over the years, and I just wanted to say a big thank you to my clients as well. Because I couldn’t do what I do without everybody else doing what they do and also the support from the local community. So thank you very much. I will post some details of that online, but equally these sessions that I’m going to be doing online as well will be in and around real estate.
We do have questions from time to time, generally every week we’re always getting questions. So I will post as many of those as I possibly can for you. I’ll post up the book launch details as well, so that you can help me out if you possibly can in regards to that, and also the interviews for next week I’ll let you know as I’m going to be scheduling those. So thanks very much. I want you to all have a wonderful weekend, it looks like the sunshine’s come out for us again this week, and it’s going to be a great weekend for everybody. I’ll catch up with you again on the next episode. Take care, and have a great weekend.
Thank you so much for taking the time out and listening to today’s episode. If you have any questions on the process of buying, selling, leasing, or strata management, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes, and I’d really appreciate it if you could spread the word by liking and sharing this episode with your family and friends. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy, and I look forward to catching up with you on the next episode of The Drive Home to Hawkesbury.

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On this episode of The Drive Home to Hawkesbury Rachael talks about Local Community Projects such as Bells Line of Road Community Meeting set for Wednesday 2nd May, tackling Homelessness in the Hawkesbury which follows on from a meeting with The Mayor Mary Lyons-Buckett, Susan Templeman MP – Federal Member For Macquarie, Salvation Army, Wentworth Housing, Platform Youth Services, Hawkesbury Community Kitchen and other local organisations – believing together we can achieve more.

Also would you like to make some Extra Cash for your local school, sporting group, organisation or yourself with the NSW Government initiative Return and Earn Project, Rachael will share some ideas and where the drop off points are located. She will also catch up with Hypnotherapist and Naturopath Kathryn Hams with some further insight on the questions raised this week from last week’s podcast.

Lots to cover and something for everyone in this Community Noticeboard episode. I Live, Love, Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode.

Rachael: I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and welcome to The Drive Home to Hawkesbury, where I believe every home has a story, and I love sharing those stories on real estate in the Hawkesbury with you. Here we share the best ways to add value to your property, how to avoid the common mistakes people make when buying and selling property, and how to get the maximum return on your investment with a focus on supporting local business. I live, love Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode with you, let’s get started.
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on what time you’re tuning in to The Drive Home to Hawkesbury, today I am joined by Kathryn Hams. How are you this morning, Kathryn? Or this afternoon, now that is has just gone midday?
Kathryn: It is just on midday, I’m good, thank you. It’s a lovely day here in Hawkesbury, isn’t it?
Rachael: It is, isn’t it? And I’m so pleased for the rain we had overnight, I’m just listening to the beautiful magpie in the back of the office here, and I’ve also got a special surprise, which is already saying “Hello” as it is. Hello to everybody watching too, this is Topsy. Say “Hello”, Topsy. Hi, everybody.
She’s the newest member to my family. Topsy is Bruce’s sister so I was very lucky to score her in the family and Bruce is at my feet wanting to get in the picture as well but Topsy is about eight months old I think and her and Bruce and little Louie. We’re all a complete family now so it’s lots of fun and the biggest time wasters, but they’re fantastic. So, Topsy says “hello” to everybody looking and she’s a Scottish Terrier. A little Scottish Terrier and they’re a lot of fun. So, I’ll pop her down so we can get on with the show, but I just wanted to share that with everybody.
So how is everybody today? We got a few people online which is great to see. Hello to everybody. We’ve got a few things today. What Kathryn and I … we’re sort of been thinking about lots of different things over the last couple of months, but how to best put this together for everybody is a bit of a community notice board on Mondays. The Drive Home to Hawkesbury covers all things to do with real estate and answers for questions from buyers to sellers and rentals all those sorts of things, but we also thought there was a little bit of a gap we’ve seen there and we want to just fill that gap with a few other bits and pieces that are coming up.
So, today that’s what we’re gonna cover off in a few different topics and we’ve also had a lot of questions throughout the week so thank you very much for those questions we really appreciate that and Kathryn’s gonna address all those questions in regards to and also smoking. The topic of smoking. I’m gonna cover off on the earn and reuse cycle. Sorry, the return and earn programme and also the homelessness situation that we have in Hawkesbury and also we’re just gonna touch on a couple of other topics including Bells Line of Road and the developments going on with that.
So, without further ado, we’ll get into the programme and we’ll see if you’ve got any questions. If anybody has any questions, feel free to type them in and we’re happy to interact with people as they’re watching and we’ll put those questions up on the board if anybody wants to ask more questions. So, how are you, Kathryn? You’ve had a great weekend. You’re ready for the week ahead. What’s happening?
Kathryn: I’m excited. I finally finished last year and the trophopathy course that I was doing to and finally got the go ahead last week so, I’m full into that now and it’s good because it gives me that ability to do a holistic way of looking at people, so that’s been great. But apart from that, I’ve actually been listening into what’s been happening around the Hawkesbury and you mentioned the Bill’s line of road [inaudible 00:03:51] What’s going on there, actually at the moment.
Rachael: Yeah, thanks for introducing in regards to that. That was actually an interesting topic and the councillor for our local Hawkesbury, I caught up with her at the Windsor business group this week in a meeting and she was actually mentioning that it’s about to be gazetted with the council, so it’s really important that everybody get involved if you wanted to have a say, I suppose. It’s like the bridge for Windsor and I don’t have an opinion one way or the other. This is not an opinionated show, it’s just a matter of getting the information out to people. However, if you want to have a say and you want to hear what’s going on, on the Bill’s line of road, there’s been lots of talk of tunnels and taking farms off people and taking main roads and taking properties on the side of Bell’s Line of Road, but it looks like it’s getting close to be in the word of the local council.
So, the reason meeting on next week, thank you for bringing it up, Kathryn, that’s on Wednesday, the second of May at 6:00 PM and that’s gonna be at the Charlie Pavilion. The Charlie Pavilion at the race course. So, if anybody’s got any questions in regards to that it’s probably a good contact from the Windsor Business Group. They’ve also got further details on that or contact the local council in regards to that meeting that’s coming up, but really good opportunity just to sit and listen and see what, I guess is projected. What they’re thinking, what programmes are in place, there’s a number of options for the roads and different ways it can be done and I guess that’s what the meetings all about is to find out about it and see what the best way forward is for everybody.
So, do get involved. I will probably be there as well. A number of other people and it’s gonna be a busy night, but lot’s of fun to hear all of the progress that they’ve got going on there.
Kathryn: There’s actually a lot of those going around in the community, those type of meetings for the local people to be actually getting involved in and even though we’ve got such a great, vast way of getting it out into media these days with social media and how we can get it out to everyone, I still inevitably hear of people that do miss it. So, it’s great that we’re actually putting it out there, , so it’s another way people can remember to get to these meetings and it’s important for them being living in the Hawkesbury to have their say of what’s going on or to know even.
Rachael: Exactly.
Kathryn: So, yeah why not do it.
Rachael: No, I think it is and equally if it’s any listeners or anybody that wanted to put a community event forward or business that wanted to be promoted, that’s what the Drive Home to Hawkesbury is all about. I’m all about community. I know Kathryn is as well and it’s just a matter of giving back to the great community that we live in, so Maggie’s saying hello to everybody as well. I think the three of them are anxious to be able to play in the backyard. Anyway, so I think it’s a really great way to do that and great community board, so definitely want to look into.
Kathryn: So, it has the recycling. What’s working with that, talking about the community and giving back? How are they doing that? You put up with of the recycling during the week?
Rachael: Yeah, [Justin Murphy 00:06:56], he’s the waste education manager for Hawkesbury City Council and they actually have embraced a programme with the new South Whales government and it was originally done, interestingly enough, the first recycle and earn programme was back in 1971 back in Oregon. Other country, but it’s good to learn from others that are doing things well and it’s called the return and earn scheme and basically what there is, there’s these collection points in and around the Hawkesbury area, including some local businesses that you can drop off recycling products. Now, some of the … it’s quite strict as to what it is, but some of the drop off points they’ve got is the Windsor Middle Recycling.
That’s a really good spot to go to. [inaudible 00:07:43]News agency, the Windsor news agency’s part of it. The Vineyard United, there’s also, that’s the service station at Vineyard, there’s also the one at Australian Pub or the Australian Hotel, I should say. Food Works at South Windsor and the [Black Top 00:08:00] Tavern’s coming on board as well. The [Royal Cafe 00:08:05] at Richmond’s and a friendly grocer at [Bosodia 00:08:08] and as I say, the Windsor Middle Recycling, he’s got an interesting way of doing it. It’s probably the most efficient in this point, even though it’s great to have other collection points, it’s great depending on what amount you have.
if you have a large amount in bulk, the Windsor Middle Recycling is probably good to go to because he can do it in bulk fairly quickly, whereas what you have to do is you have to go back to these recycling points with your recycling goods. So lets say for example a can that’s a particular size that hasn’t been crushed. That’s really important. You can’t have the can that’s crushed because they don’t accept those and they do get rejected.
Kathryn: That’s amazing.
Rachael: Yeah.
Kathryn: And a lot of people would get used to crushing them in the old days. We used to always crush everything to get it in the bag and take it off to the recyclers, but that’s not the game now.
Rachael: No, exactly and the other thing, too, is what do we all do when we have a drink? You wanna squash that can, you wanna [inaudible 00:08:56] and recycle it but I believe that if you have crushed the can and you’re creating more space to recycle other things, Lion’s Club will also take those crushed cans so don’t worry if you’ve made that decision to crush the can. That’s okay either way you win a prize, but you’re helping the local businesses as well as the local environment because it’s reducing the amount of litter that people are putting out there. I think what council we’re talking about was also reducing it by, let me just check the figures it was reducing it by 14%. They’re hoping by March from last year.
They calculated to this year. They looked at a 14% reduction in litter so I think that, that’s a positive effect on the environment but also we all wanna help out and try and do our bit for the community and so forth. Also, the money that you can gain from recycling these items.
Kathryn: Pocket money.
Rachael: That’s right, it’s pocket money for the kids. I’ve seen mom’s and dad’s out there on the weekend with their kids and encouraging them to collect those cans and so forth and I think it’s positive. The things you can’t recycle is things like milk bottles or wine bottles so there’s a bit of a lit I’ve got of which I will put out on the website for people so they’ve got a link there, but basically what it is, it talks about what you can use and what you can’t use in the recycling plant, but equally you’re still recycling at home, you still have the yellow bin at home, but when you go to these recycling points you’ve got the cans that you can out in there.
They don’t accept the plain milk, flavoured milk, case of water, glass containers of wines and spirits, sashay’s for wine no containers for cordials or concentrated vegetable and fruit juice or registered health tonics and I think that’s probably because everybody’s recycling those at home. That they’re rewarding people for recycling the other items. There is a website that you can go to. It’s api.newsouthbottles.gov.iu so that will give you a complete list of the returnandearn.org.iu so they’ve got a handy website to have a look at.
What you essentially do is you have to on your iPhone download an app called Tomra so you can go to the Tomra app. I’ve downloaded the app as well, and basically you put your email address and a few contact. There’s a bit of a password in there so that’s protected for your own use and then you go in and start recycling and earning some money, but not giving just money, they’ll give you … Woolworths has come on board apparently and they’re actually suggesting that, well they do actually give you a voucher or there’s a PayPal where you can put funds directly into your account or you can donate it to a charity if you wanted to.
Equally, you are supporting the local business that are having these vending machines there, because it gives three and a half cents per recycled item so that’s handy for them.
Kathryn: Wow.
Rachael: That will help them pay their rent or what have you.
Kathryn: Encourages other businesses to get on board, too, doesn’t it ? To get involved in the community and doing that recycling that’s getting out there and the 40% that’s quite a large amount, really, when you look at it in percentages to other things that have gone and changed.
Rachael: Absolutely and you’re talking tonnes of waste that is reduced over the time so I think that’s a really important point and it’s been one that’s challenging over the years and for many different countries, but I think if we can all work together to do that and as I say, I’m not an expert in this and by all means, I’ve heard this from the meetings that I’ve attended and I’m just sharing it as a community announcement all in our responsibility with the statistics there, but I certainly will put the documents that I have up on the site for people to have a look through and if you’ve got any questions in regards to that.
Kathryn: That’s good. That’s good because I really do believe that we hear these things on the TV, but no one realises that there is local places that actually … where they can do it and a lot of the time people will hear it and even complain to the point of saying well that’s great, but where do we go? You’ve actually brought it to the notice that there is places like Middle Recycle and things like that and the most businesses get involved, the more opportunity to make it easy for people to actually recycle.
Rachael: Absolutely.
Kathryn: So the hard part comes out, you know?
Rachael: And I have to admit to it’s really hard with some of those sites, too, because they have had some challenges with the programme and I suppose we all need to work with them in regards to that. A couple of points that came up was that if there are cans and bottles that are rejected because they’re not the right size or they’re crushed instead being entire, sometimes there’s been about rubbish being left on site. So, what they’re essentially doing here is they’re going to mitigate against that by having the vendor that’s there so whether it’s Clean Away or Tom Ross Services they’re going to provide a and clean that daily on the new programmes that they’re looking at doing.
Kathryn: Oh, okay. That’s good.
Rachael: So that’s will reduce the refuse on site because you bring your recycled goods in a plastic bag probably and then you go through the thing, you’re left with a plastic bag normally ] take it home, but what do you do with it? So it’d be good to have that bin there and recycle that as well, but interestingly council handed out keep it in the cup which is a recyclable cup and API authorised Hawkesbury Environment Network responsible cafes. This is another initiative but what they’re doing is that with responsible café programme is all about essentially you take one of these recyclable cups to the café like for example the Outback Café up at Windsor, and they’ll give you a dollar off your coffee.
Kathryn: Okay.
Rachael: Now, that’s just encouraging people to use their own containers, whatever it might be that they use. I’ve got a glass one that I do use. From time to time when I’m going to different sites and I just think it’s handy. George Street Loft Café is involved with it, also Lime and Coconut Café in Windsor. So, there’s a couple of cafes that’ve taken it on board and I guess the problems that we saw in regards to that that arose as a result of that was interesting in that … what happens when you drink a cup of coffee? You’ve got a dirty cup, but if you want a second cup of coffee, you wanna go back to the café and have another coffee.
Now, normally if you got time, you’ve gotta wash the cup and then give it to them clean and everything else, but you hand this dirty cup across to the café owner, well the café owner, they’ve got a decision to make. Council’s got rules and regulations that we’ve got to have a clean environment.
Kathryn: Exactly.
Rachael: We’ve gotta do everything we’re meant to do and it’s not that they probably … that all cafes don’t wanna get involved, it’s just I guess there’s this process involved with that whole taking the cup or not taking the cup which was an interesting point brought up by the Hawkesbury Hotel and he’s quite right. It’s so hard to know what the right thing to do is in some circumstances because we all want to do the right thing. We all wanna make an effort for the environment, but you also wanna make the place.
Kathryn: Second cup of coffee.
Rachael: You owe me that second cup of coffee a day. It’s not true, so if there are some hotels or cafes that aren’t supporting it, it might not be that they’re not supporting it because they don’t wanna support it, it’s just trying to find the logistical or the best way forward to ensure the safety of their people that are having the cups of coffee because that reused coffee cup is always an interesting point so I thought that was fascinating in itself and as much as recycling and so forth doesn’t sound that exciting, when you get get into it and the topics and the people that are involved with it, it is.
It’s great to be avidly involved and it’s also great that people can get something out of it. Your sporting groups or your local school. Even if you just wanna get a bit of money for Christmas time or your special times of the year.
Kathryn: We’ll they’re always fundraising, aren’t they? [crosstalk 00:17:30] always fundraising and looking for funds [inaudible 00:17:34] so especially holidays, school holidays, just any of those things and it’s getting the kids involved in it then when they’re involved and they ask why and then they learn about recycling so if they learn at a younger age, then it’s something they can be aware of and probably fit that into the way that they will live, even. So, that then starts there a different generation of thought. So it’s great. It’s excellent.
Rachael: Yeah. I think it’s terrific because as you say, the kids of now are learning how to look after different things whether it’s putting the litter in the bin or whether being recycling and getting a reward for things, putting that recycling away. So, there’s so many different levels of it and I guess over the years we’ve all had the attitude of it doesn’t matter. My piece of rubbish won’t count, but what we’re essentially finding out from the [darter 00:18:30] is that it does. It makes a huge difference if we all just do one little bit for ourselves, the environment, and the local area. It makes it better place for everybody.
Kathryn: That’s really good.
Rachael: Yeah, that’s right and tell me, you’ve got some questions, really interesting questions this week, actually on some things that a lot of us have struggled with over the years or you know of people that have struggled with over the years. So, what was some of those things that came up for those people online?
Kathryn: Well, from our chat last week, I had a few people contact me on different situations that they’re involved in being that from reflex to not being able to sleep to fatigue, weight management, things like that and really when you look to the [inaudible 00:19:31] when you look at that sort of thing, what you got and what you go to, the symptom. It’s the symptom it’s not the cause and to get down into something where you can actually start fixing it from the bottom and work up, you go to your gut and your gut health is so important.
So, it was interesting the amount of people that came in with those sort of questions about it and then taking the time to check to them individually working out those few simple little things could alter the way that your gut operates or even the way you feel.
Rachael: What would a simple thing be for somebody that was listening?
Kathryn: Well, the thing is that when we look at gastric reflux or weight management and things like that, immediately everyone gets scared because it’s such a bandwagon that a lot of people that a lot of people have got on to try and make a load of money out of … with try this diet or try that diet and all this, but simply as you’re talking about how we’ve all grown up in a different society now, if we were to go back to parents or parents’ grandparents, and things like that, there wasn’t as many as preservatives around.
So, my first [inaudible 00:20:47] when they come to me and they say, “oh my god, here comes the diet,” I go, “no, it’s not. I’m not gonna do that to you, alright.” I’m gonna say to you is have a look at the [crosstalk 00:20:56]
No, no, no. That’s about it. That’s the reaction I get and you get the rolling of the eyes and, “this is gonna cost me a fortune.” [crosstalk 00:21:03] tell me to don’t panic. Tell me to do this. But just cut your preservatives down. It’s simple. Cut your preservatives down and after that, see how you go and start reading those labels and learning about what you’re actually doing. So, it’s really very simple to start and it doesn’t cost a lot. So, it’s basically just broadening your own knowledge. So, that was good work coming out of that.
Now really, in place that people do write in and ask us these questions because it’s the way we can know what they need to know and what the community’s wanting to know. We can answer it.
Rachael: Absolutely. I think it’s terrific and I think it’s important. I think everybody thinks, I’ve got this thing going on and nobody else has had that same thing and there’s millions of people from all the advertising and marketing and also the natural paths and doctors and so forth on the gut hill so it’s great that more people are talking about it now and it’s more accessible. I think that people have so many great friends out there as a result of being able to tap into that knowledge but i think it’s really important for people to go to somebody like yourself, is qualified to give the right advice around because people can go into a health foods store and there’s lines and rows of gut health. This is great for your gut, this is great for that. This is great for weight management and you don’t know what you’re looking at.
Kathryn: It’s overwhelming.
Rachael: Where as somebody like you can just go, oh, you don’t need all those things. Maybe just this one product or try this and then add things to your programme or to your healthy rite of life as you go.
Kathryn: And I think it’s, well from he way that I like to do things with client, is that I don’t take a lot of clients on so when it comes to neurotrophy and the overall holistic health, I probably limit myself to six at a time and that’s it because really, the body’s so intricate in how it works. I’d rather deal with that one person all the way through. And the other thing, too, is that we don’t need to spend a lot of money on supplements on everything and I think that’s a mistake that we so commonly get caught in. You go into a natural path and anyone would come to a health foods store and you walk out spending hundreds of dollars.
Well, I don’t want that for people. No one struggling with money and I’d prefer them to be on to get good heath easily. So, that’s really important, I think.
Rachael: No, absolutely, and what else was people … what were their thoughts around different lifestyle habits that we have?
Kathryn: Well, the other thing that came up a lot was smoking which I was a little bit shocked at that because I thought we have conquered a lot of that but there’s a lot of people that are out there that are out there that are struggling. So, the question to me was, how do we know hypnotherapy’s gonna work? So, that’s a fair enough question because when you’ve spent lot of money on patches or this or that or you’ve gone off and you’ve bought the hypnotherapy [inaudible 00:24:20] for smoking and the one for anxiety and the one for failure, and then what if it doesn’t work?
So, why would they go and spend money with anyone when they’re so sceptical? So, I like those questions because you gotta know why and so explaining to the people that you can go to certain people. They will do smoking things and yes, you’ll get over it, but again you gotta look at the root cause. Why are you smoking? Why are you thinking too much? Why are you gambling? Why are you eating? It’s all those things and it’s the root cause. So, for me again, I’ll go back to the root cause when I do my smoking things and I explain that to people and I also explained how it’s very important that the main concept with hypnotherapy is that unless you really want it, you’re not going to get it.
So, you’re in total control of you mind and people worry that they’ll spend a session [inaudible 00:25:19] which I haven’t done that to anyone yet. Maybe to my children, I might do it but not to anyone.
Rachael: I dare you to do it to your children.
Kathryn: It’s tempting.
Rachael: It’s quite true, isn’t it? With hypnotherapy over the years and I think it’s come a long way and I think there is benefit to it, but certainly some of the things that are challenging, even with smoking, with some people that just don’t know how to give it up and it’s not that they don’t wanna give it up, either, it’s a choice because they enjoy it and what right do we or any of us have to say that something is not serving you, but I think once they come to that conclusion that they wanna give up smoking like you said, then it’s important to get all the support that you can to be able to align your behaviours and align the things that you need to do to be able to conquer the biggest fear [crosstalk 00:26:17]
Kathryn: That’s right the complete change. The complete change and redirect yourself and this is all a game of breaking habits so there’s a lot of things involved in doing anything you choose to change. It’s gotta create different focuses, different everything. So, it’s the whole things. It’s not as easy as going and buying a soda.
Rachael: No, it’s not.
Kathryn: Unfortunately, that’s what marketing is and that’s part of life these days and the same as when you were saying about Dr. Google it’s very important for people when they’re getting information from the internet to look at the source and to see how well that that source is and they don’t get caught up in these blogs and things like that that are people’s opinions that have no education. So, that’s important, too. One of the things I heard that you are doing during the week is that you’ve caught up with a lot of community organisations, , and I think it was about the homeless in the area of Hawkesbury.
Rachael: Yeah.
Kathryn: How did that work out for you?
Rachael: That was really good, actually. That was a really nice meeting. The mayor, Mary Lyons-Buckett and Susan Templeman 180 was there, Salvation Army was there, the community kitchen people, Wentworth Housing, all the great people that do so many things for so many people and they’re the unsung heroes of what we do, especially the community projects that are going on that we don’t even know about but everybody wanted to get together to look at the chronic homelessness in the Hawkesbury and how to best tackle that because everybody has seen the homeless growing in the Hawkesbury.
Kathryn: Yeah.
Rachael: a lot of people have different opinions one way or the other and that certainly come through fairly strongly in the meeting as well, but equally it’s something that needs to be addressed to be able to help these people to be able to find a home and find a real solution as opposed to just providing a short term fix of whether it’s clothing or food so that they can live another night on the street versus help them with rent, bond, and those sorts of things to head towards getting in to property themselves, so I think that was what the message was, that there was a bunch a steps, really that lead it to be addressed before you could address the whole homeless situation because it’s not just a matter of stop doing this or do more of that or make this happen.
It’s not that easy. It’s a process that’s in place and it’s kind of like when you’re renting a house. You can’t just move into a house. Before you move into a rental property, you have to apply for the property. You have to inspect the property. You have to go and look at as to whether it suits your needs and once you put the application in and the application gets checked by the agent, that agent then gives the approval to then go forward to the owner to ask their approval.
I think there’s been a hundred cases that we’ve identified with the process of just renting a house, so when we’re looking at a homeless person, you look at where they’re living, how they’re living, are they rough sleeping, in what way are they rough sleeping, are they out in the open do they have a tent, are they just in the cold on the park bench or are they in somebody’s … couch surfing from one person’s couch to another because that in itself is homeless in a way, too, because it’s not just about people that are out on the streets and you often see them begging or so forth, but you won’t see them because they’re tucked away.
Whether it’s on the river or whether it’s in the grandstand at Windsor, it’s another spot where they’ve congregated. It’s lots of different places and they’re just looking for a safe place to stay and essentially Wentworth put a fantastic programme together. I’m sure she’d be available to talk to anybody that wants to since I haven’t actually been able to ask her about that, but I’m sure that they would provide information if anybody wanted to help with that homelessness project and I know that there’s a couple of people that I’ve spoken to since the meeting.
Big shout out to Barry. You’ll know who I’m talking about. He wanted to put his hand up because he’d done a lot of work with he homeless in the past and it’s just a matter of working together cohesively as a community and I think that was the message of the meeting, too, that it’s right that we have 5, 10, 20 different organisations all helping the local community. We need to bring that together so it’s one big … that could also really take some speed and work together as a team to make it happen because if we’re all about the same message, we’re all doing the same things, we can all help one another and we’ll get there faster I think.
Kathryn: It’d be interesting to know because I’ve worked a bit, as you know, in the communities of doing things and I’ve done a lot with women’s groups in the areas regarding these sort of things and you’d come up with the reason why are they homeless and as we’re all individuals, they all have individual reasons for that and I think that in itself is very interesting to look at and to see how you can work their situations out so that cracks at that problem. It’s not there and they wanna go on with their lives again.
Rachael: Oh, absolutely. No, I completely agree with that and there’s a gentlemen by the name of Vander Joan and he’s overseas in Oakland, California. Jenny Raft from Wentworth Housing provided this information but he’s got a couple of points. One is that he’s driving by change and is fueled by passion for the people that are trying to achieve what we’re trying to achieve and trying really hard to end homelessness in developed countries around the world. Expand harm reduction practises, make housing happen and reform the justice system because I think people don’t realise that domestic violence and assault is a big factor with homeless people.
It’s a lot higher incidents than the average family or person within the local community so I think it’s really important to note that and that’s why we wanna get them off the streets as fast as we possibly can to make things a lit bit easier for everybody.
Kathryn: I think also it’s interesting that you say because when you talk about homeless, it’s also the people that are living in cars. That’s another problem.
Rachael: Oh, absolutely.
Kathryn:Myself, I see that happening around the area and coming down to that domestic violence and what’s going on for people and how very sad it is. Just very sad, and for anyone with these, I know that this for the community, but LifeLine is something that is always valuable for people to call if they need to talk to anyone about it, too, so I just think it’s a good thing to have that out for people and I know when I did my volunteering for LifeLine that we had a variety of people. It wasn’t just only suicide, it was a lot of situations in life, so we’re all well-trained down there to talk to people they wanna speak to, so that’s another route.
Rachael: Oh, absolutely. LifeLine, Salvation Army, Brilliant, Wentworth Housing, they’re good for emergency housing to help people out as well. 180, youth platform services. There’s so many great local organisations. The community kitchen. Everybody want to help and I think that the whole team, a tribe of people are working together to achieve that aim. Topsy thinks that’s a good idea. She’s just barking a lot. Yeah, she thinks that’s a positive project and to get involved with it. So, anybody that wants to get in contact with myself or Kathryn for that project or we can put you in touch with some other people happy to include you in that process because I think the more people that are involved the better it is and we’ve all got certain skillsets that we bring to the table and we can achieve things. Was there anything else?
Kathryn: It comes back to the old thing that the united we stand, and divided we fall so the more we unite as a community the better we can move things and have things happen.
Rachael: Yeah, absolutely. So true, Kathryn. You’re definitely a community player. You’ve been in the community. I think we both love living int he Hawkesbury and we both love giving back and it’s been something that we’ve both wanted to do over the years and you think that you’re helping that person, but essentially what happens is you feel really good about it and you get so much more out of it by giving and it’s a funny thing, but once you give your time or money or whatever it is that you can give.
It doesn’t have to be money. It can be just essentially skillsets or times or just some providing assistance in some way to local organisations and sometimes you’ll think, I won’t. I won’t [inaudible 00:35:43] I won’t get involved because what will it matter if I just do that, and yet that one person might know somebody else that can put them in touch with somebody else for whatever reason. It’s sort of like that six degrees of separation. I kind of think it’s really exciting because it just starts that snowball and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and everybody just gets so much out of it.
Kathryn: You start fighting about it, don’t you ?
Rachael: Yeah, you do and I think you get more excited about it as you say, you start the conversations with people and you don’t realise that there’s those six degrees of separation or the links that tie in together and everybody can help one another and equally if there’s anybody watching or anybody that watches this at a later time and they want to chime in and they need somebody to do something for them or if they wanna hep out an organisation, just put your hand up and we’ll and put you in touch with people that we know and equally if there’s a community organisation that needs help and you’re looking for some sort of sponsorship or something just let us know as well so because we can put the word out and you just never know who somebody might know somebody.
Kathryn: That’s it. The power of the word.
Rachael: Indeed, indeed. Well, I think we’ve covered off quite a few topics today, a bit more than I what we thought we would, but certainly each Monday we’re gonna come back together at 12:00 noon and any questions or so forth in regards to whether it’s on health with Kathryn or whether it’s on real estate with myself, we’d love to hear from you. We’d love to hear what’s going on in your life and how we can help you and certainly the Drive Home to Hawkesbury is dedicated to the local community and doing that for people. So, if somebody wanted to get in contact with you, Kathryn, how can they do that?
Kathryn: They can call me. My number is 040-841-1865. I’m sure you got a link or something up in this anyway, , so they managed to do that last week for questions so I’m sure they’ll do it again.
Rachael: Yes, it was great to see so many people come back with all those questions. We were super pleased and we really appreciate everyone being on the line and catching up with you because we get to see you and say hi as well and we really enjoy interaction with you. So, thanks very much for joining us today, Kathryn, and everybody online.
Kathryn: Always.
Rachael: We look forward to seeing everybody next week.
Kathryn: Okay, bye.
Rachael: Bye bye. Thank you so much for taking out and listening to today’s episode. If you have any questions on the process of buying, selling, leasing or [inaudible 00:38:18] management, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and I’d really appreciate it if you could spread the word by Liking and sharing this episode with your family and friends. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and I look forward to caching up with you on the next episode of the Drive Home to Hawkesbury.

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