As noted before open homes very often do not result in the sale of the property and sometimes the person who buys it could be someone who had a private viewing. What we have come across before and has again happened tonight is that the buyer has come through on a private viewing, but wants to get the negotiation completed on their offer before the open home. In this case the open home is tomorrow.
There are other sales we have made when people pop in to an open home not knowing what they are going to find. They say this is not what we want, but have you got a 3 bed with a big garden. It just so happens in a lot of cases the exact home they want is the next open home.
It may not be your property at the open home that is suitable, but it could be the one that a buyer is looking for was our previous or next open home. This means that we have to have a large selection of properties for sale, which funnily enough we have. We actually bought our own home in Christchurch this way. We told the agent that the property at the open home was not the right one and had he got anything else? He said that he had just signed up a new listing and we would be the first to see it. We loved it and bought it that day.
We personally do not use open homes to sell ourselves, but to sell houses. If people are impressed with what we do they will ask us to come around for a chat. We impressed a lady last weekend this way and did an appraisal today.
Open Homes are they any good?
July 23 2010 | New Brighton and New Zealand and canterbury and chch and christchurch and real estate | 1 Comment »
Google maps can now allow you to view certain locations at 45 degrees. It is a bit like street view; you can zoom into an area that you are interested in and when you get in close the view changes from a directly overhead satellite shot to a view that is looking at 45 degrees above the area.
The 45 degree view on Google Maps
You are not just stuck with a view looking North, using the compass in the top left hand corner you can turn the compass to look from North, South East and West. I have used similar products that have views of the UK. It is fascinating to be able to look at a property or area from all directions. It makes you feel like you are in a spy movie set in the near future.
Google maps is not the first to do this, but at least you can get different aspects of an area all from the same interface.
New Zealand has not been done yet, but maybe we will be in the front runners like we were with Street View.
Here is a view of San Francisco as an example San Francisco Highway
July 10 2010 | New Zealand and canterbury and chch and christchurch and real estate | 1 Comment »
Here are some of the interesting articles from the Government website for Landlords.
If your tenants are complaining of damp and or mildew take a good look over your property and consider:
Condensation
Is the ducting for dryers in laundry areas adequate to avoid condensation problems from the hot air?
Is there a covered outdoor area that enables a tenant to dry clothes rather than drying them inside?
Damp
If dampness is a problem, does the house need under floor sealing with building paper or polythene?
Are any of your tenants sleeping on a mattress on the floor? These make damp areas on the floor.
Bathroom and kitchen ventilation
Would extractor fans or safety catches on windows help reduce moisture or mould issues in these high use areas?
For Rent
Insulation
When was the last time you inspected under the roof and assessed the top of the ceiling and the state of any insulation?
Heating
What type of heating is used? Have you considered installing a flued gas heater which will produce less condensation and damp than an unflued gas heater
Water Use
Do your gutters, down pipes and drains need repairs or cleaning?
Do any outside taps drip?
Does your shower curtain sit inside the bath unit to avoid flooding?
If you have aluminium joinery, have you checked the drip holes are clear?
General
Are the inside linings of your cupboards, wardrobes and closets dry?
Are the air vents in the foundation areas of your house clear?
Are the under-house pipes in good condition?
Do the curtains have adequate thermal backings?
Do trees or shrubs need pruning to reduce dampness or enable greater light and sun?
Increasing the rent
For periodic tenancies, 60 days’ written notice must be given for rent increases. Many experienced landlords prefer to increase their rent to fair market rental in small and regular increments. This helps the tenant to adjust their budget rather than leaving the rent the same for a year or more and then getting a single large rent increase which might be too much for the tenant to deal with.
Rent must not be increased within 180 days of the start of the tenancy or the last rent increase.
If the increased rent is much higher than market rent, a tenant can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to reduce it to market levels. Market rent can be based on comparable tenancies in the area or similar areas.
For rent to be increased in a fixed-term tenancy, the tenancy agreement should state that the tenancy is subject to a rent increase, and should specify the day the increase is to occur.
If you have any questions about the procedure for increasing rent call 0800 TENANCY.
Redirecting a benefit to help pay rent
If your tenant receives a benefit from Work and Income your tenant can apply to have their rent paid by Work and Income to you directly. This may help the tenant avoid problems with meeting rent payments and prevent disputes.
Landlords can support their tenants by going with them to see their case manager to make an application at a local Work and Income office.
Work and Income will look at the merits of each tenant’s case to check that redirecting the benefit to your account is justified. A benefit will not be redirected to you simply because you request it. Work and Income will consider a number of factors to see if there is good cause to redirect the benefit. Factors that might be considered include:
- if refusing the request the tenant may be placed in a worse position, for example their tenancy might be terminated.
- supporting recommendations your tenant has from other agencies e.g. budget services, or medical evidence that indicates that there may risk to the tenant’s wellbeing if the benefit is not redirected.
- a history of requiring redirection assistance in other letting situations.
Redirecting the benefit must relate to an essential service to the tenant. Renting a property to live in is an example of an essential service. Paying off a hire purchase arrangement is not an essential service. Any redirection of benefit is entirely voluntary and the recipient of the benefit can request that this cease at any time.
Short term rentals
A short term tenancy is one which is fixed for a period of 120 days or less. This period is anticipated to become 90 days if proposed amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act are passed as law.
The landlord and tenant must agree in writing before commencing the short term tenancy that the term will not be extended or renewed beyond a total of 120 days. Once that agreement is in place the provisions in the Residential Tenancies Act about increasing rent do not apply.
If the landlord and tenant agree to extend or renew the tenancy so that it becomes greater than 120 days, then all those provisions of the Act will apply from day 121 onwards.
The Residential Tenancies Act does not apply where the premises are let for the tenant’s holiday purposes. If you want to let your home to someone wanting to use it for a lengthy sabbatical or holiday purpose, you could elect to ‘contract into’ the Residential Tenancies Act under section 8 to avoid any doubt about the terms of the letting arrangement.
July 05 2010 | New Brighton and New Zealand and canterbury and chch and christchurch and real estate | No Comments »
I have just been followed on Twitter by @WetMatters, which was nice until I found out that it is about adult diapers and Urinary Incontinence.
Is this an omen for the future?
Have anyone else had an inappropriate or maybe a very timely follow on Twitter?
July 05 2010 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
If you enable auto-complete on Google and you type in “Real Estate is ” you do not get a clear message on real estate.
What is Google trying to tell us?
It starts with real estate is the best investment and then the following: real estate is a bad investment, real estate is booming again.huh, real estate is not an investment, why real estate is a good investment, and why real estate is a bad investment.
When ‘asked’ about houses prices it is again all over the place. ‘House prices are set to soar’, ‘House prices are too high says economists’, it then answers the question with a question – ‘House prices are they rising?’, next ‘why house prices are falling” and lastly ‘why house prices are rising’. No clear answers there.
If you want to know what the world thinks of you personally put in your first name and ” is a “, e.g “Steve is a “.
Please remember when asking the above question that not everyone knows you personally.
The ones that do know me think I am a cool guy.
July 03 2010 | New Brighton and New Zealand and canterbury and chch and christchurch and real estate | No Comments »
The fundamentals for a homebuilding upswing in 2010 are still in place, says the Department of Building and Housing’s Building and Construction Outlook for the June quarter 2010.
The report said the industry is cautious about the outlook for the residential sector and the non-residential sector continues to show signs of decline, but also points to indicators which support a rise in construction activity such as an improving outlook for employment and a projected shortage in housing due to population growth.
The quarterly Outlook, which was launched in March this year, is a comprehensive overview of the building and construction sector, providing up-to-date information for industry players and all interested in the sector trends.
Trends identified in the first Outlook were confirmed in the March quarter of 2010. In its first report the Department said the slump in residential building activity had bottomed out; this view was supported by data showing a rise in residential activity in the December 2009 quarter. Non-residential consents continued to weaken and conditions in the non-residential sector are predicted to get worse before they get better
Key themes of the Outlook for the June quarter are:
- The industry remains cautious about the outlook for the residential sector. Although consents rose in the March quarter, the growth trend flattened. Demand was held back lack of certainty regarding the domestic economic recovery, concerns about rising interest rates and uncertainty surrounding potential changes to the tax treatment of investment property. Despite that, most businesses exposed to the residential sector are reporting higher levels of activity than a year ago.
- The non-residential outlook has worsened over the past six months. The downward slide in non-residential consents has continued, as a result of high vacancy rates and a lack of development finance. There are early signs that the recent stimulus from publicly-funded building is coming to an end; public non-residential consents were down 12% for the March quarter compared to 2009.
- The leading indicators still point to a rise in construction activity in 2010, although the pace of the recovery was slow and patchy through the first half of the year. Property investors appeared to be waiting on the sidelines until details of tax changes in the May 20 budget were announced. With the employment outlook now improving and New Zealand’s projected shortage of housing increasing, the fundamentals for an upswing in homebuilding are still in place.
The Building and Construction Outlook for the June quarter 2010 has been published on the Department’s website and is available for download, http://www.dbh.govt.nz/building-and-construction-quarterly-report-2.
June 22 2010 | New Zealand and christchurch and real estate | No Comments »
Google Maps has done it again. There were areas that the Street View Google Mappers could not get to, so they allowed people to upload photos so we could see an area not previously covered. So now in Google Maps Street View if you click on the photos option you can walk the streets using uploaded photos.
Now they have gone a step farther and it is pretty logical what the next step would be. Lets look at photos that are from bygone times. This is being called History Pin, but expect the name to change in the near future. It is only in the testing stages at the moment (Beta). This is because, in my opinion, they have not got enough historical pictures uploaded by the public to be worth looking at, even for places like London. So here is your chance to scan in some old family photos, upload them and allow New Zealanders to see what the “Old Zealand” looked like.
I think that a museum employee in each City should be assigned to upload the photos they hold to Google Maps, so that everyone can get easy access to the history of New Zealand. Each photo can have a “story” written about it, which will make them even more interesting.
Here is a view of a street in London http://3.ly/g2s3
If you want to find out more about Historypin or “We Are What We Do” who are the ones who have created this in partnership with Google Maps, visit www.wearewhatwedo.org or contact historypin@wearewhatwedo.org
At sometime in the future this could be very helpful for agents selling a historical building as they can have a link to the property and see what it used to look like. If the agent has a copy of an old photo they could upload it themselves, but please tell a story about the building not about the listing.
June 04 2010 | New Zealand and Uncategorized and canterbury and christchurch and real estate | 2 Comments »
The IRD has a service for the true owners of unclaimed money which has been left untouched for six or more years in companies such as financial institutions and insurance companies.
There are quite a few names on the list even a ‘S Taylor’ so any one of us might be owed a few hundred bucks or even $25,000.
Here are the updated lists:
http://www.ird.govt.nz/unclaimed-money/
May 31 2010 | New Zealand and canterbury and chch and christchurch | No Comments »
Here is the song I wrote for one of our latest listings. A lot of time you get them titles like “Renovate or Detonate” or “Do Up or Blow Up”. I find these so over used that I thought I would market this property with a new slant in a song.
The star of the Do Up Doo Wop Song
Here is the full version:
A man bought this place a few years back
Did a little bit then gave himself the sack
He now wants it sold and would consider offers
Needs work, but it would not empty your coffers
Chorus
Do you think that you can make this big and strong?
Or are you just going to sing this do up doo wop song?
Stained glass windows and a polished wooden floor
Are what a lot of people and buyers adore
The fence’s wonky, the bathroom needs a bit
And the kitchen cupboards need a complete refit
Do you think that you can make this big and strong?
Or are you just going to sing this do up doo wop song?
The colour scheme is not in neutral shades
But then again neither is the Everglades
Plenty of seating and chairs at the rear
When you need a rest and a nice cold beer
Do you think that you can make this big and strong?
Or are you just going to sing this do up doo wop song?
Just get scraping and painting with all your Bros
Even the Mrs and the kids can swing them hoes
Your Dad can run down to Mitre 10
And your Mum can make a cup of tea again
Do you think that you can make this big and strong?
Or are you just going to sing this do up doo wop song?
Go on together we can make this big and strong
And then we can all sing this do up doo wop song
So far we have had compliments from 2 people and 2 people want to view it including one tomorrow morning. So it has made the property get noticed with on day 1 over 50 views on realestate.co.nz, so far.
If the idea catches on we may see agents serenading passers by about their open home or in the videos that some agents do for properties. Imagine a barbershop quartet informing you of the great indoor/outdoor flow, the property has a sunny patio, don’t forget the spa bath too and there is a basin in the loo.
Try something new and you may be surprised at the results…
May 25 2010 | New Zealand and canterbury and chch and christchurch and real estate | 4 Comments »
The budget seemed to contain everything that was expected and not the land tax that nobody liked. We have had only a few calls from investors since the possible tax changes was announced, but tonight we had a call from an investor who had seen our ‘good looking’ properties on the net.
So it looks like the investors are raiding their piggy banks that they have been saving up in for the last few weeks.
What about the rest of you, have you had calls?
May 21 2010 | New Brighton and New Zealand and canterbury and chch and christchurch and real estate | No Comments »
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