Buying a house is the biggest investment most of us make, so it is important to get it right.
Your first home may not be your dream home, but it could be an affordable first step on the ‘property ladder’.
There’s no point owning your own home if you can’t keep up with the mortgage repayments. Sometimes ‘the worst house in the best street’ is the way to go – particularly if you are good at DIY!
A few tips before you get started on your journey to home ownership:
Know how much you can afford:
There is no point looking at houses that maybe above what banks would be prepared to lend you only to have your hopes dashed.
Get Pre-Approved:
Pre-approval will help you to understand how much you can expect to borrow from your lender. Knowing your spending range can help to narrow your home search to properties within your price range. It can also give sellers a little more confidence in your seriousness when making an offer.
Prioritse your Wants and Needs:
Working within a budget, sometimes you have to make some compromises. Knowing what you really need can help narrow your home search options and also make decisions easier when it comes to making an offer. Create a checklist of your needs and wants. Don’t forget to include things that aren’t actually a part of the house, but could be just as important, such as the neighborhood, work commute, schools, etc
Use the Internet:
There are some great sites that can help with your search for a great property; Trademe.co.nzrealestate.co.nz to name a couple also you could download their apps to your smartphones so you get all you need on the go!
The bottom line is buying your first home can be an exhilarating experience, provided you do some research, stay within a comfortable budget and work with reputable professionals who will guide you through the process.
So I have just heard that the realestate.co.nz app has just hit the 90,000 download mark, congratulations Alistair and team.
I have to say it is a great app, it is GPS enabled so you can view all the properties for sale or rent in and around your area.
You can get directions to the Open Homes you intend on going to, take a few photos once you are there and write some notes on the property and each room. Because as we all know once you have gone to 3 or 4 Open Homes you get home and try to remember which property had what and wind up viewing the a property for a second time only to realise that it wasn’t the property you had in mind.
It even has a mortgage calculator so you can find out what the repayments might be.
April saw a drop in the amount of New Listings nationally but demand is still very strong reinforcing the previous month of a seller’s market. Realestate.co.nz’s monthly housing report for April said despite heated market conditions in specific parts of the country, mainly Auckland where the asking price jumped from $559,369 in March to $568,820 in April.
Realestate.co.nz CEO Alister Helm said the more muted numbers for April also put splashed cold water on the contention that the New Zealand housing market was headed back into bubble territory. He said while property sales were strong for the latest month’s data, for March they did not show a seasonally adjusted increase.
“This indicates that the market would appear not to be diving headlong into a property bubble, but rather is seeing a steady turnover and pragmatic buying and selling in the main.”
Despite an anticipated slow down over the next three months, realestate.co.nz is forecasting an increase in asking prices as “demand flows through to vendor expectations.” “Clearly there are pockets of the market where there is not quite this degree of balance.”
The inventory of unsold homes, which saw a four year low in March, eased slightly in April.
Ashburton’s rental shortage is hitting an all time high with landlords reaping the benefits of the shortage in terms of rising rent prices and in increasing selectiveness over tenants. In Saturday’s Guardian there were just four houses to rent, ranging in price from $220 for a two bedroom unit to $360 for a three bedroom home. While there were several listings on Trademe, many had availability dates that were several weeks old.
Today sees the end of and era, Tony Sands of Harcourts Ashburton hangs his hat in the Real Estate Industry and moves onto greener pastures. No matter which way you look at it Tony definitely left an impact on the real estate industry in Ashburton and has set the bar high for all that follow. I wish him well with his future endeavours. Good Luck Tony
I know this has nothing to do with Real Estate but we are quite proud to have one of our own Ashburtonians make it into the top 10 of Master Chef New Zealand.
If you watch Master Chef New Zealand you may know that we had a contestant from little old Ashburton on there. Chantelle O’Brien owner of Twelve Wine Lounge & Tapas Bar on Tancred St.
Unfortunately though on Tuesday night, her journey ended. In the 3 seasons that the show has been running she is the first Mid-Cantabrian to make it this far.
Well done for making it to the top 8 on Master Chef New Zealand Chantelle.
Hey guys, just trying out a video format for keeping you informed with weekly updates. Have a great Easter be safe and try not to over indulge in the sweet stuff!
Houses in Ashburton were changing hands in greater numbers and in faster time for the month of August than any other month this year. But the median house sale price was down from $264,500 to $241,000 according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand’s figures.
The other market commentator Quotable Value measures prices as an average over three months. It put the district’s property market in a better light, giving a three-month average sale price of $268,390 which was a 2.3per cent growth over July’s average.
To say that it is a buyers or sellers market at the moment who can be really sure, however, what I do know is that the houses on the market that are well presented and priced accordingly are flying of the proverbial shelf. We have sellers that are getting close or better than what they expected for their properties and the buyers are happy with their purchasers. So to me it is currently a WIN WIN market for seller and buyer.
There was a fantastic initiative held in the Ashburton District over the weekend that being the Great Living Legends Muck-In. This is a nationwide Muck-In that aims to plant 85,000 native trees across the country at the same time celebrating New Zealand’s Rugby Legends.
Ashburton’s part in the plan was to plant 2,500 native trees at the Harris Scientific Reserve the guest of honour being our very own ex-All Black Jock Ross.
Close to 200 people showed up on the day with spades and gloves in hand ready to work, which goes to show that the good old country town community spirit is still alive and kicking, at least in Ashburton.
Proof that many hands make light work was evident with the planting being completed by lunch time, after which a sausage sizzle was held and everyone gathered around for a chat.
All in all it was a good family day out, kids got to meet a Living Legend at the same time as learning about conservation efforts going on around Ashburton and the Ashburton District which will benefit from the work completed for years to come.
Using the data he has gathered from his website for July he paints excellent picture of the current market.
He has noted that the number of new listings on the site is down along with the overall listing numbers on the site.
“The level of new listings coming onto the market in July fell again to 8,966. This represented a 15% year-on-year decline but a marginal 1% seasonally adjusted rise from June”.
At the same time interest from buyers is up and time to sell is shortening, all signs of a developing sellers market. what is interesting and Alistair mentions in his clip is how although it is a sellers market the overall asking prices have edged down not up as you might expect in a sellers market, he suspects the lower asking prices and low interest rates are what might be driving this increased activity.
Buying a house is the biggest investment most of us make, so it is important to get it right.
There are some great sites that can help with your search for a great property; Trademe.co.nz realestate.co.nz to name a couple also you could download their apps to your smartphones so you get all you need on the go!
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