2021 Strata Boxing Day Sales on Now

So, get a bargain for you and your strata building …

Who doesn’t love a bargain? Since strata building and strata owners are no different, what’s for sale in the 2021 strata boxing day sales … and, should you buy any of it?

[4:00 minutes estimated reading time, 795 words]

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We all know that Boxing Day is when we rush madly to buy everything we did and didn’t know we needed at bargain prices.

But, what is Boxing Day actually for and how did it come about?

My research suggests that no one knows but a few theories include:

• It is named after Mr Boxing, a golden gloves winner in his teens who later turned politician and who tragically died in a horse and carriage accident.

• It is based on a tradition of giving money and other gifts to those who are needy and in service positions, usually, in boxes.

• It is based on the traditional practice of placing metal boxes outside churches to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen.

• It is based on a nineteenth-century Victorian custom for tradesmen to collect their "Christmas boxes" or gifts on the day after Christmas in return for good and reliable service throughout the year.

• It is based on an old English tradition that in exchange for ensuring that wealthy landowners' Christmases ran smoothly, their servants were allowed to take the 26th off to visit their families. The employers gave each servant a box containing gifts and bonuses (and sometimes leftover food).

• It is based on the practice, from the 1800s, when churches opened their alms boxes (boxes where people place monetary donations) and distributed the contents to the poor.

But, these days it's all about shopping with sales starting early in the morning and crowds pushing at shopfronts to get in and grab a bargain.

So what bargains can strata shoppers get at the strata clearance sales in 2021?  Here are 7 ideas that might tempt you.

1.     They could probably find some recycled and [very] old by-laws or rules being sold cheaply [or on a DIY basis] by a range of new and old strata law firms.  That’s way cheaper than actually getting a by-law or rule considered, structured, and drafted properly to suit your strata building properly.

2. There are more than a few strata managers offering low [or very low] management fees (or to beat the competition) to get appointed.  In some places, strata managers are even offering free services for the first few months.

3.     A strata building developer or builder might offer you a quick settlement on your defects claim if you're prepared to accept their had bargain and take a discount or let them come back to do the repairs themselves.  Some of them are even prepared the free [but valueless] agreement to extend statutory warranties.

4.     Or, what about shopping around for the cheapest insurance valuation update you can find so that you’ve got more money left to pay the insurance premium.  And, whilst you’re at it why not let your strata manager get you a deal on that insurance premium from one or other of the companies that pays them a commission [fully disclosed of course].

5.     There are plenty of deals on cheaper and cheaper compliance reports for things like sinking or capital funding forecasts, financial audits or Work Health & Safety reports.  After all, why pay top prices for high quality and detailed reports for your building when they’ll only tell you about all the problems, require you to do more and spend more, and, you’ll have to try to find a way to ignore them?

6.     If you’re a strata owner, you could pay your strata levies early and get a discount [if your strata building was so generous as to increase the levies for everyone to offer a discount to a few] so that the other strata owners subsidise you a bit. 

7.     And, of course, you can almost certainly find an even cheaper cleaner, gardener, plumber, electrician, etc for your building since you’ll be selling next year anyway, and who cares if they don’t pay award wages.

But, I suppose strata shopping is like all bargain hunting ... you could easily end up buying something that you don't really need, that doesn't quite fit you or just won’t last as long as you needed it to, even though you saved a bit of money and felt good at the time.

So, make sure that when you are strata shopping {whether on Boxing Day or not} that your strata building buys what you actually need and want, that it suits your requirements, and, that you buy the best quality you can afford within your budget.

See you at the strata sales and hands-off those slippers ... they're mine!

December 26, 2021

Francesco ...