Michael's Real Estate Column

There have been recent changes to the standard agreement for sale and purchase of real estate, and one of them is in relation to building reports. The front page has a yes/no option for building report required. Where yes is chosen, clause 9.3 applies, and that gives the purchaser 10 working days to obtain a report that is satisfactory to the purchaser, on the basis of an objective assessment. The report must be prepared in good faith by a suitably-qualified building inspector in accordance with accepted principles and methods.

If the purchaser avoids this agreement for non-fulfilment of the condition, the purchaser must provide the vendor immediately upon request with a copy of the building inspector’s report. This is a new provision.

The question is – who is a suitably qualified building inspector? In the larger cities there are plenty of fully qualified building inspectors. In the provinces, there are several competent building inspectors who don’t necessarily have the recommended qualifications. The Courts will have to decide whether these building inspectors are “suitably-qualified” if challenged by a Vendor. I hope that they will be accepted. The change means that a purchaser can not avoid a contract under this clause without a “proper” written building inspection report. We can draft an alternative clause, but the Vendor may not accept it.

Kind regards

Michael

Our Company can pay for all advertising for your property, including Feilding Herald, Manawatu Standard Property Weekly, signboard, databases, window display, www.trademe.co.nz, www.realestate.co.nz and www.watsonproperty.co.nz . This option will use small advertisements in the printed media.

We recommend larger advertisements, which you would need to contribute to the investment in, to give your property a better chance of selling for a better price in a shorter time frame. The price of some printed media advertising reduced substantially as a result of a price war between 2 publishers, providing you the Vendor with some great options eg ¼ page was $200 – now $115. We pass on 100% of our bulk buying discount with the publishers to you the Vendor, whereas some of our competitors do not.

I have handled vendor contribution marketing campaigns ranging from $57.50 to over $40,000, and can advise you on what would work best for your property and budget. We have several suitable options for houses for between $230 and $2,500.

Cadbury makes chocolate bars which are sold at the corner dairy. Who advertises the chocolate? Cadbury of course. It is a bit like that with selling your house. You are like Cadbury – your house is your product which needs advertising to sell. Don’t forget that we can do all the marketing (very modest sized ads), or I can tailor make a marketing programme for your property.

Regards, Michael

July saw the highest number of residential sales through all Real Estate Agents in Feilding since November 2009. July was 10% up on a long term average, which shows that the sales numbers have been down for some time. In saying that, 2012 to date has been slightly more active than 2010 and 2011.

The median sale price calculated over 3 months is sitting reasonably consistently at around $249,000, but on a monthly basis, the median has bounced around from $288,000 down to $209,000 over the last 12 months.

Palmerston North’s median is $265,000, Levin’s is $177,750, Wanganui’s is $170,000, Rangitikei’s is $165,000, Pahiatua’s is $135,500, New Zealand’s is $368,000, and Eastern Suburbs in Auckland has a median of $852,500!

There is a shortage of property for sale, so now is a good time to list.

Kind regards

Michael

I refer to the Roost report for June 2012. This assumes a first home buyer in their late 20’s, and a house in the lower price quartile. The report takes into account house prices, time to save a deposit, after tax income, and interest rates.

In the Manawatu/Wanganui region, a mortgage payment is 28% of weekly take-home pay. Palmerston North is at 36.6% and Wanganui is at 20.2%. I would guess that Feilding would be in the 30% – 33% range.

Our “patch” is far more affordable than most of New Zealand eg North Shore Auckland 88.5%, Hamilton 52.9%, Napier 37.4%, New Plymouth 47.3%, Wellington City 61.1%, Nelson 49.7%, Christchurch 57.2%, Queenstown 80.9%. Invercargill is lower on 26.9%.

Home loans are far more affordable than say 4 years ago when Palmerston North was 57.7%, North Shore Auckland was 118.1% and Queenstown was 128.3%.

Now is certainly a good time to be buying a house!

Kind regards

Michael

What a fantastic community we live in. I attended the Central Energy Trust AGM on behalf of Manfeild and Feilding Promotion, and heard about their support of so many outstanding local projects, including some of ours. The next night was the glam of Las Vegas at the highlight of the Business Community calendar, The Feilding Excellence In Business awards. 120 winners of awards, and great having the Community Award to the Coach House Volunteers and the Tall Giraffe Award to the Feilding Farmers Market for winning the best Farmers Market in NZ Award. Congratulations to all winners.

I then watched 2 brilliant one act plays at the Festival at the Feilding Little Theatre on Thursday and attended an Eltob function on Friday, and managed to watch the Chiefs edge out the Crusaders. Saturday included Centrepoint – “At The Wake” which I thoroughly enjoyed, and afterwards to a party in Wanganui for my Brother in Law’s birthday. Sunday included open homes, a visit to Thyme Out B & B – highly recommended, and a catch up with my Sister Linda and family.

Add to all this the Olympics, which I find enthralling, and July being my most successful month in Real Estate for a few years, and I am reminded that life is good, and being busy keeps me off the streets!

Kind regards, Michael