Property Point 7 November

About six months ago I attended a family budget strategy meeting where the chief financial officer decided it would be in the best interests of everyone for me to be allocated a set cash payment each week to cover certain personal expenses.

The family’s chief financial officer (CFO) explained that the system up until then, in which I simply swiped a credit card to cover every personal expense, did not give me an adequate awareness of how much I was spending every week.

Under the new strategy I can continue to use the card for work/car/family expenses but the cash is used for random personal expenses … buying breakfast, shouting lunch for a few colleagues, having a few beers with my mate Lawrie after open homes on a Saturday afternoon.

The CFO, who has an additional role as my wife, pointed out that while the specific cash allocation was certainly generous, it ensured I kept an eye on, and perhaps tempered, what I was actually spending.

I’m going to Brisbane for four days next month to attend the Ashes Test at the GABBA with a group of Mackay mates and it will be a social event that will involve entertainment expenses. The CFO said it will be a good opportunity to set aside a decent portion of the cash allocation in the weeks leading up to the trip and use it  to cover those expenses. Apparently that is called “saving up”.

The CFO’s new system has been going well, although it is as though a dinosaur has walked up to the counter when I go to pay. In the past you had to specify if you were paying with a credit card; these days you are the weirdo saying “I’ll pay that with cash thanks”.

Payment is made through what used to be called a cash register but, from what I can tell, is now known as a Point of Sale System, or POS.

Anyway, I was at Zambreros in the city recently when there was some sort of a technical breakdown which meant their POS system could not process credit card payments. Only cash.

Everyone in line, except for one person, only had credit cards to pay for their meals. Staff were trying to get customers to download the Zambreros app that would  allow them to pay with credit cards.

The young woman in front of me said that she was using someone else’s card and did not have her mobile phone so could not do the app thing.

Of course, Cash Man was standing there with some fifties in his wallet and felt sorry for the young woman, so he paid for her two burritos as well as his own. The young woman was very appreciative and it was another reminder for me of how good it feels to help someone out.

Surprisingly, there is a real estate point to all of this. We too have embraced the digital age. We send listing documents and contracts through DocuSign, which means there is no need to be face-to-face as it is all signed digitally.

A link to a digital offer to purchase form is automatically texted to the mobile phones of all attendees after our open homes.

It’s all very digitally delightful and I am more than happy with it but it isn’t particularly personal and it doesn’t work for everyone. I like to have physical offer to purchase forms at open homes so people can actually use a pen and write on them if they want.

There are some clients who prefer me to sit with them and go through the listing documents and explain things in person before they sign … and I like it too because it deepens the connection and ensures the sellers know exactly what’s going on.

And when the work is done and the sellers are happy with the result, it’s a similar feeling to buying the girl those burritos. It feels good to help.

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