We know how awesome Mudgee is, and food and wine lovers of Sydney will this week be privy to just how great our region is when the Mudgee region is put on show at the Pyrmont Festival of Wine, Food and Art between today and the 27^th of May 2012.

This Sunday’s free outdoor Wine and Food fair is set to be a hit with locals, being held at Pirrama Park, with wine tasting, fine food and produce stands and plenty to tantalise just about any palette, and of course Mudgee will be at the centre of it all!

Other events taking place as part of the festival include dinners, cheese master classes, long lunches, tours and art exhibitions, all revolving around the great products that come out of our very own country town. If you know of people in Sydney that are keen wine connoisseurs, love great food, or who appreciate art, then please share this post with them.

Hats off to the Mudgee Wine Region industry for collaborating with the Pyrmont Ultimo Chamber of Commerce and the City of Sydney to put on the event, which is aimed at introducing a little bit of country and showcase the origins of great food, wine and art to city folk and hopefully boosting tourism in the Mudgee region.

To find out more about the Pyrmont Festival of Wine, Food and Art or the Mudgee Region, click on these links.

Because we work in the real estate industry, it’s much easier for us to understand the implications of things like late rental payments on landlords. So if you’re a tenant, this might be a good read for you because it will help you understand what happens when you’re late paying your rent.

Property investors provide a means of housing for people who prefer to rent or can’t afford to buy, but that doesn’t mean they’re loaded with cash. For many mum and dad investors, they’re just as cautious about family budgeting as anyone else so when their tenant doesn’t pay their rent on time, it can have dramatic consequences.

1) Late rental payments mean the investor doesn’t get the money they expect to receive from that property.

2) This could disrupt budgeting for their investment mortgage payments and leave them out of pocket quite significantly.

3) If this happens consistently, the tenant may be issued with notices about their arrears, and eventually could be asked to vacate the property so that the investor can find a more reliable tenant. This isn’t a good prospect for tenants, and not ideal for investors because they’ve entered an agreement with the tenant that they would pay their rent on time.

4) Because most investors rely on the income from their investment property to cover some of the cost of the mortgage of the investment property, if things become too financially difficult they may have to sell the investment property, which is not only a major inconvenience for tenants, but the property could be sold to anyone… and may not be another investor.

5) With very low vacancy rates here in Mudgee, demand is high, so losing a secured rental property definitely isn’t something that most tenants in this area would be keen on.

The lesson here is that as tenants, you need to ensure they’re budgeting for your rent as a major priority because the consequences of paying your rent consistently late can be more than you think. So hopefully this post has given you some insight into why it is important not only to the landlord but to yourself as a tenant, to pay your rent on time.

We’d love to know whether the people of Mudgee are for or against the NSW Government’s plans to lift restrictions on Boxing Day trading in regional areas of the state because from what we’ve heard, retailers in other regional areas aren’t massive fans of the idea.

The plan would be that Boxing Day would remain a public holiday and workers would be paid public holiday rates in accordance with their employment, but the question is whether there is a demand for it in regional NSW areas such as Mudgee, and whether it is going to be profitable for local businesses.

Other concerns include the impact of working on the public holidays will have with families and whether it’s sustainable in our local economy.

The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) have started up a state-wide campaign called “Take the Time” to help people of regional areas voice their opinion, namely their opposition of the state government’s plan. You can find out more about the campaign at www.takethetime.org.au but if you’re not into signing petitions or contacting local MP’s, then you can comment here as to whether you’re for or against Boxing Day trading in Mudgee.

Well if you said “yes”, then you’re in luck because there’s a property that fits the bill right here in Mudgee – and it’s definitely a home with a difference!

Our day to day business of selling and managing real estate affords us the opportunity to see some crazy and wild homes here in Mudgee, some of the most prestigious and of course some of the most amazing properties you could come across. This property is one such property so we thought we’d share it with our readers, because it has something that no other property has (that we’ve ever seen anyway!).

Check out the deck and the immaculately designed and renovated internals of this self-contained railway carriage… you can imagine how great the accompanying house is! With a full sized kitchen, lounge, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, back deck and front deck with a pizza oven and view to die for, you can see why this railway carriage is different to most.

Now we wouldn’t normally talk about specific properties on the I Love Mudgee blog, but this is something you don’t see everyday and it’s already gained a lot of interest from the local community, so we thought we’d share.

If you’re thinking about starting a unique B&B, we think this place ticks all the boxes and then some, not only because of the style of the railway carriage, but also because it has a spectacular view and dirt bike tracks for visiting guests or families with children want to get out and explore the great outdoors!

If you’re interested in purchasing a home with a self contained railway carriage out the back, then you’re in luck because this one is on the market and you can inspect by appointment with Chandelle Woods of Professionals Mudgee right now!

Click here to view the listing of this home, or click here for Chandelle’s contact details!

Sport is definitely great for the body and keeps the heart pumping, but it’s also great for the mind and soul.

Mudgee students were visited by touch football players from the Australian Trans- Tasman Test Series team (read article from Mudgee Guardian here), which got us thinking about how we can encourage people of Mudgee to get involved in local sporting teams.

We would really love to help promote local clubs and organisations that provide sporting facilities and competitions to Mudgee locals so we’ve put a list together below, but please feel free to add others in the comment section if we’ve missed any!

Mudgee AFL – Black Swans

Mudgee Dance Classes – Dance Unlimited

Mudgee Dance Classes – Dance With Attitude

Mudgee Dance Classes – Dream Dance Academy

Mudgee Gulgong Football Club (Soccer) – Wolves

Mudgee Golf Club

Mudgee Little Athletics Club

Mudgee Netball

Mudgee PCYC – Aerobics, Archery, Basketball, Boxing, Rock Wall Climbing, Futsal, Aquatic Physiotherapy, Netball, Pilates & more

Mudgee Pony Club

Mudgee Rugby League Club – Dragons

Mudgee Rugby Union Club – Wombats

Mudgee Swimming Club (Indoor)

Mudgee, Gulgong & Kandos Swimming Pools

Mudgee District Tennis Club

Mudgee Touch Association

Mudgee Triathlon Club – Red Devils

We quite often hear buyers refer to their dream home as being family friendly, so we thought today we’d clarify just what that means in terms of property searching, because for the most part, property searches are filtered by number of bedrooms, car accommodation, land size and other specific items.

A family friendly home is one that is suitable for one or many children to grow up in, from infancy to teenage-hood. Here are the things that we believe make a home family friendly:

1. Proximity to desirable schools, amenities, shops and parks. If you’re searching on our Professionals Mudgee website, you can use the ‘Walkscore’ feature on each property to see how it rates for walking distance to different types of facilities including eateries, schools, entertainment, parks, banking, shopping and more.

2. A family orientated neighbourhood. Talk to your preferred agent about the demographics of the area you’re buying in, having plenty of other families around you can help you build a network of friends and also help keep the neighbourhood safe.
3. Transport accessibility and car accommodation. They’re not just something that city-dwellers definitely have to consider, here in Mudgee, you may want to consider how your children will get to school and how you and/or your partner will be getting to and from work, as well as how many cars/bikes/caravans/trailers etc you’re going to need to park on your property.
4. Adequate area for your child or children to play indoors and outdoors. A home with a larger backyard, room for a play set and undercover areas outside, plus a separate rumpus or living area inside may be desirable for families who don’t want to feel like they’re living on top of one another.
5. Necessary bedrooms and bathrooms. You can’t underestimate the necessity for an additional or separate bathroom and toilet. The more people in your home, the more likely there are to be issues when the bathroom is occupied, so having enough amenities in the home to accommodate everyone is recommended.

One of the greatest things about Mudgee is the fact that it’s hard to find areas that don’t offer family friendly homes like the ones described above. Whilst not all properties will tick 100% of the boxes, you can generally find something to suit your needs by weighing up what you absolutely need in a property and then looking for the added bonuses or budgeting to renovate or add onto the existing property at a later date when the kids get bigger.

If you’d like to chat property or anything “Mudgee”, please don’t hesitate to get into contact with us – Adam and Chandelle Woods, Professionals Mudgee  – 6372 2584.

We’re coming a strong 8^th out of 52 teams taking part in the Mudgee Relay For Life on May 12^th 2012, but we’re not quite at our fundraising target yet, so we’re asking for support by the way of sharing this with your family and friends or kindly donating as much or as little as you can to our team’s fundraising efforts.

We have been very humbled by the kind contributions that not only have our local counterparts donated, but also our wider networks across much of the country. It means a lot to have the support of our networks of friends and family, and we thank you all very much for your generosity.

One of the great things about having such a wonderful community behind us is knowing that all the efforts we go to to raise funds, it is ultimately our beloved community that is helping the Cancer Council find ways to manage and research cancer and help cancer patients.

There would be few people in Mudgee who don’t know someone who has been affected by cancer of some type, so it’s something that we know is close to the Mudgee’s community’s heart. Together we can help kick cancer’s butt, so again, we thank everyone who’s shown their support thus far, and ask anyone who can, to share this post, or donate to our team!

To get involved or find out which teams are currently registered, visit the Mudgee Relay For Life page here or to help team “Professionals Real Estate Mudgee” achieve our goal of $5000, you can click here to donate or join our team. We’d love to have your support!

Are you a female living or moving to Mudgee? Are you looking for ways to network and interact with other local ladies, to get to know women in the Mudgee community and above all, get out and see just how great Mudgee is with like-minded, motivated women?

A new initiative that we’ve just heard of, called “Girl Talk in Mudgee” has been created to provide a comfortable environment for women of Mudgee to meet each other, network, and form friendships or support groups for all aspects of our busy daily lives.

Whether you’ve lived here for decades, or you’ve just arrived in Mudgee to live, Girl Talk in Mudgee is a great way to take away the sometimes daunting task of making friends and meeting new people.

Set over a relaxing lunch at one of the many great venues around Mudgee, Girl Talk in Mudgee holds events throughout the region, and can be found on facebook where you can register to attend the next event to be held on the 8^th of May at High Valley Wine & Cheese Co.

What we love so much about this initiative is that it was an idea though up by local ladies who just want to help Mudgee women mingle and identify with each other. As they say on their facebook page “It doesn’t matter if you are a domestic goddess, a harried mum or out in the work force, come along, meet, mingle and network and get to know more about Mudgee at the same time”.

Join Girl Talk in Mudgee by visiting www.facebook.com/GirlTalkInMudgee!

Even though we’ve been used to non-smoking laws indoors throughout Australia for some time now, NSW still doesn’t have a uniform law governing outdoor smoking, and as such the NSW State Government has just announced new smoking laws that will restrict where people can smoke outdoors throughout the whole of NSW, not just in some council areas where local governments have imposed smoking bans.

The state-wide law will see smoking banned at all of NSW’s sports grounds and children’s playgrounds, as well as bus stops, taxi ranks and swimming pools. In addition, there will also be a smoking ban applied to outdoor commercial eating areas from 2015.

With a large portion of the Australian population being non-smokers the news is welcomed, however there has been some conjecture about the affect the laws will have on local establishments that cater for smokers, such as beer gardens and outdoor eating areas that allow smokers. Will there be a loss in patronage?

There’s no denying the research that shows smoking and passively inhaling second hand smoke can contribute to the early onset of cancer, so for us, the move is positive for the health of everyone in NSW. We’d be interested to know what Mudgee residents think about the new smoking laws – are you for or against them? And why?

The current Mid Western Regional Council policy for outdoor smoking can be found here.

Deciding to put your house on the market can be an emotional decision, physically signing the contract to sell your house can be even more emotional, especially if the process has taken longer than you’d expected. So we’ve put together “Showtime”, a booklet of 101 ways to showcase your home for sale. The idea of Showtime is to help give sellers an ultimate advantage in the marketplace and get their home sold for the maximum price in minimal time.

Want a sneak peek at our 101 tips for showcasing your home for sale in Mudgee?

Tip 1 – THINK LIKE A BUYER

You are not just selling a house; you are selling a lifestyle and a dream. In this guide we will step through what it takes to highlight your property’s best features, try to look at each room as objectively as possible and perhaps even have an impartial person with you for an honest opinion.

Tip 36 – THE EXTERIOR

The driveway is one of the first impressions so make sure it is cleaned and free of weeds (for paved or stone driveways). Your driveway and paths could benefit from a pressure clean and re-seal to really lift their presentation.

Tip 77 – BEDROOMS

Include your children in the selling process, take time to explain the move to your children, if they understand what’s going on they are more likely to find the moving process a smooth one. Ask for your children’s help in making their beds and picking up in their rooms prior to showings.

These are just a few of the tips out of the 101 we have listed in Showtime! As a special offer, local property owners are being offered a FREE copy of “Showtime”, an essential guide for property sellers with 101 ways to showcase your home. BUT, we’ve only been able to secure a limited number of free copies, so when you find a letter in your mailbox from us, Adam & Chandelle Woods of Professionals Mudgee, be sure to contact us!