A hurricane is one of Mother Nature’s most deadly creations. This natural phenomenon can easily destroy unprotected homes. There are some precautions you can take to defend it against this threat. You will need to do several things to accomplish this and the time (and materials) required for each varies for this reason. Hurricane season starts in June and continues through November. If you live on the coast you should protect your home against a hurricane.

Step 1

Know when to begin your hurricane preparations. It is extremely important to not wait until it is too late to protect your home. A good time to do most of the steps is as soon after there is a hurricane predicted as possible. Some of the prep work can even be done at the beginning of the season. Use common sense to decide when the best time would be for your situation. One of the few “good things” concerning a hurricane is the fact that you do get notified of its arrival several days in advance. This will give you plenty of time to prepare for it.

Step 2

Protect your home from falling trees and branches. During a hurricane the chance of your house getting hit by trees or branches can be decreased. At the beginning of each hurricane season you need to inspect all of the trees surrounding your house. Remove any dead or diseased branches from them or the trees You can use a tree trimmer and ladder, but be certain to use extreme caution when doing this step. If you are uncertain about it, hire a professional.

Step 3

Ready your home’s windows. If your windows break at some point in a hurricane, your house can receive massive damage. You can purchase specially designed hurricane shutters for each of the windows in your house or you can make your own. You will need to have accurate measurements for all windows. Use a measuring tape and make note of each one. Either order the shutters or buy an adequate amount of plywood to make your own. You can have the wood cut when you buy it or if you have a saw, cut it in the needed sizes at home. Use a black marker to note which window the wood is for. It is very easy to get them mixed up when you have several windows around the same size. Use screws and a drill to secure the cut wood to your windows.

Step 4

Remove items from around your house. This can be done after a hurricane is predicted. Go around your yard and secure or eliminate any objects found. You can store patio furniture in a pool or place it inside. Make sure you also get rid of any trashcans, plants, toys, BBQ items or any thing else that is not wind resistant.

With hurricane season almost upon us we thought we would focus this month’s tips on how to prepare for an on-coming hurricane. Much of it is common sense but we are all capable of overlooking some details that could prove costly.

Market Information

We took a booth at the recently concluded EPEX Overseas Property Exhibition held at Earls Court on July 10th and 11th in London to see if we could find some international buyers for our clients here who have properties to sell and to try to get a pulse for what is happening in the property markets internationally in general. We were disappointed with the number of visitors that turned up but happy that those that did come were pretty serious.

I think that my experience at EPEX can be said to be true about the property market here in Barbados. We are not seeing a lot of activity, but those who do show interest tend not to be time wasters and have put a considerable amount of thought and time into understanding what they want.

So, our approach at the moment is to focus clearly on the potential clients that do show interest. Wide advertising campaigns to capture lots of eye balls may be useful if you are offering a special or hot item going at a very attractive or discounted price, but good quality pictures, a solid and clear description of what you are offering and a competitive price are where we think any serious vendor should be concentrating their attention.

If you are serious about selling we think you need to be competitively priced as we do not see things getting any better for some time and they may even get a little tougher before they improve.

Good luck with your search or sale.

This month our real estate tips are on what you can do with the outside space of your property in an effort to improve its value.

I hope you have all enjoyed a relatively relaxing summer given the challenges that we all face as the true repercussions of the global economic downturn become clearer with each passing month. It is of course standard practice for real estate agents to talk up the market to try to stimulate activity. We prefer however to take a very realistic view of where we see the market going based of the various factors that influence it either directly or indirectly. A direct effect would be the reduced numbers of buyers coming out of the UK because of the heavy debt and government spending cuts that country is currently experiencing. An indirect effect would be the reduction in confidence that potential buyers are feeling because they are seeing a considerable amount of bad news coming out of the US and most of Europe with regard to poor growth, soft house prices and rising unemployment.

So where are we in terms of the property market and business in general? We maintain that now is a better time to buy than it is to sell and we think that while there may be some improvement associated with the coming tourist season, this is more likely to be seasonal than as a result of stronger medium to long term growth. We are still seeing some movement and selling some properties but this activity is well below what we have seen in better times.

On a more positive note, once you have taken the steps necessary to ensure that your business can ride out the bad weather we feel that this environment will help many of us to discard wasteful, bad habits and encourage new, innovative ideas and ways of doing business. Not all of the new ideas will work, but there is only one way to find out which ones do……

Good luck until our next newsletter unless you have some feedback that you would like to share with us in the meantime.

Looking for properties in an island that is not familiar to you? Visit this convenient website to give you an idea of where places are located… and how to get there… Atlas Barbados is a wonderful asset in the car and at home to help you find your way around!!!

This month we discuss the pros and cons associated with buying an existing home or building your own. I think in the current market, while land prices have softened, most land owners are not usually as motivated to sell as many existing home owners. Most land owners have either bought their land with the intention to one day build on it, or as an investment, whereas most home owners who wish to maximise the return on their homes would wait until the market improves to sell, unless circumstances dictated otherwise.

This is not always the case by any means. There are quite a few home owners out there who have either recognized that this is a good time for them to buy a bigger property at a good price, and are therefore willing to be reasonable on the selling price of their own home, or who need to liquidate some equity or downsize as a result of the uneasy economic climate.

It remains very difficult to read the current market so I will state what we are seeing and you can come to your own conclusion. We have seen a reduction in the number of buyers along with the amount of buying activity and an increase in properties for sale coming onto the market along with those that have been reduced.

Having said the above, properties are still selling, but they must be priced realistically and either be offered in very good condition or represent a serious buying opportunity for the purchaser.

Good luck if you are out there buying or selling, and above all, be proactive.