Archive for the 'Real Estate' Category
There has been a lot of media coverage and attention paid to a Tractor being auctioned with a $1 RESERVE including a complimentary rural property on www.trademe.co.nz – if you’ve been reading the papers, watching the news and reading various blogs its no surprise that the property didn’t sell successfully by auction.
An example is the article on www.stuff.co.nz – CLICK HERE
The property is being professionally marketed by Kylie Anderson from Hacourts Gore - http://www.harcourts.co.nz/pcQSearch?qst=GO080805
Well after a bit of debate about the pro’s/cons of online auctions for property there’s been a positive development for the vendors – Alistair Helm has arranged a featured listing for this property on www.realestate.co.nz to help the vendors out.
You can see the impact on the Real Estate Listing here http://www.realestate.co.nz/861751/statistics or YOU can see the property profiled in the suburb serach CLICK HERE
Alistair this deserves a Thumbs Up in my book – good on you the vendors are obviously highly motivated to sell right now and absolutely appreciate the assistance you’ve given them. (I know this because I spoke to Kylie Anderson and the vendors)
I looked at the stats and prior to yesterday the highest traffic the listing had acheived was a high of 11 views on Monday 25 May – the vey next day traffic shot up to 278 viewings.
I spoke to the www.realestate.co.nz helpdesk today and they confirmed a two week featured listing is $250+GST – in my opinion this level of traffic in such a short time its a steal.
Such a dramatic change in traffic in one day is just awesome – I hope for the vendors and the Kylie Anderson that the increased exposure helps them secure the right buyer and finalise what must seem an elusive sale.
GOOD LUCK.
May 27 2009 | Property News and Real Estate and THUMBS UP | 3 Comments »
According to a Neilson Online research project: one of the top five activities online was REAL ESTATE SEARCHING.
Internet activities in the last four weeks
(April 2009) Percentage of respondents
(Total 29,012) Internet Users in New Zealand
- Internet banking 81.3%
- Read a consumer review online 28.6%
- Monitored a live sport or sports result 24.2%
- Made a telephone call (VOIP) e.g. Skype 22.8%
- Downloaded, streamed or watched a TV show or movie 20.8%
- Downloaded, streamed, or listened to a radio station 19.0%
- Used a mobile phone to access the Internet 10.7%
Top 5 Topics researched via the Internet in the last four weeks
- News/current affairs 80.3%
- Entertainment, e.g. movie tickets, shows, concerts, events 58.6%
- Airline tickets, flights 58.0%
- Sports 39.7%
- Properties or Real Estate 36.6%
Read the full article here at SCOOP
Now this really reinforces what I’ve noticed on open homes and when talking to Levin buyers and vendors – and that is that they research heavily before they come to Harcorts Levin Open Homes.
Levin Property Buyers and those interested in Levin Property are looking at:
- Youtube – such as www.youtube.com/successws for online videos
- Company specific sites for listings and salesperson qualifying – sites like www.masonparker.harcourts.co.nz
- Property portals with multi-agency listings for example www.trademe.co.nz/property or users will look at just Levin Property at www.realestate.co.nz/residential/all/levin
- After finding relevant properties users are researching the specific listings – often buying reports at sites such as www.zoodle.co.nz
- Many users have commented that they read market statsistics from industry leaders such as those found at www.newsroom.harcourts.co.nz
- Of course they read our various blogs www.www.unconditional.co.nz , www.unconditional.co.nz/blog/ , www.blog.harcourts.co.nz , www.noaddedfluff.com , www.www.unconditional.co.nz/noaddedfluff – just to name a few (no offence to those I haven’t mentioned)
- Users viewing twitter – see www.twitter.com/harcoourtslevin as an example
- Levin Property Buyers are often armed with pre-purchased property report from www.terralink.co.nz or www.qv.co.nz
What does this mean?
The job of the current agent is to inform and work with buyers helping them verify what they already know and apply expert knowledge to fill in the blanks and match buyers to homes they will be happy to live in. But most of all we are there to streeamline their searches – anticipating their logical questions and providing quality information that adds value.
May 23 2009 | Real Estate | 1 Comment »
Harcourts wins international marketing award Wed, 08 Apr 2009
Harcourts International has won the Best Property Marketing Products award in the marketing contest of prestigious global real estate network Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®.
In addition Harcourts has also been placed in the top three in both brand and general marketing products categories in the contest, out of more than 700 eligible real estate companies across 39 countries. Winners were chosen based on creativity and overall presentation, and effectiveness in the marketplace.
continue reading »
April 13 2009 | Mason Parker and Press Release and Property News and Real Estate | No Comments »
I hope everyone is enjoying Easter and quality family time – I don’t have my daughter this weekend but have her next week – so we’ll do Easter round two.
Time out of the office and the phone ringing less than normal gives time for reflection and time to read the papers, www.stuff.co.nz and google items of interest. I found an interesting article on the cost of Mortgage Holidays- see the image. or read the article
The story explains that while taking a “mortgage holiday” sounds great it adds a significant cost to the mortgage payments and total repayments. I believe we should rename “mortgage holidays” as a deferred payments because there is no holiday – the regular payments increase and thre total cost of the loan rise. The article goes on to say that “Mortgage Holidays” should be used as last resort – SOUND ADVICE.
In times of economic uncertainty I think its easy for us to think “we need a break” – I agree but maybe its a break from SKY – or gulp swallow – reduce the broadband plan or surgically remove the cellphone from your hand (unless its for life or death emergencies and not the calls inside a bar “where are you sitting?”)
A few years ago I worked in CBD Wellington and drank 3 coffees at the downstairs coffee house – consider this 3 coffees a day (@ $3.00 each), five days a week for 45 weeks a year (yes I’m trying to be conservative) is roughly $2,025.00 annually on coffee! And that’s without muffins – afghans or the inevitiable cafe lunches.
I stopped having coffees at the cafe -unless they were work related meetings and significant meetings with friends …I was surprised the difference it made to debt servicing.
Are there hidden monetary sinkholes like this in your regular patterns…finding these rather than taking mortgage holidays can save you much more in the long run.
Saying that sharing Easter treats with the kids and having hot cross buns with the adults – is worth investing in!
Happy Easter
April 12 2009 | Property News and Real Estate and Tips and www.masonparker.co.nz | No Comments »
Real Estate law in New Zealand is pretty robust in that we have good consumer protection law and good remedies if you BUT they are no substitute for simply taking cautious and practical steps when buying what may will be the biggest asset you own.
Make sure you at least do these:
- have a builder or building inspector look over a property for you (its a $400 to $600 insurance policy for you)
- make sure your solicitor views and approves title before settlement (are there caveats or restrictions on title you need to know about)
- go to the council yourself and ask to view the records yourself – although in Levin they have moved to a computer based system and not all information is readily available – you’ll learn a lot of information that solicitors and others may not think to tell you as they might not feel they are important and in Levin the council will encourage you to get a LIM
- seriously consider a LIM (Land Information Memorandum) which tells you all the information the local council has on file (or as is often the case it tells you what information they DON’T HAVE – it seems very council in NZ haa had a fire or other event destroying past files and documents). In Levin a LIM takes 10 working days and costs $130.00
- print and keep everything in one property file
- ask you agent this question – “is there anything else I need to know about the property before I purchase it?” – Under the Real Estate Act we have a duty of care to disclose any and all information – for example not telling you that we knew a Code Of Compliance has not been issued for a newly property would breach thta duty of care.
- make sure you check out school zoning rules
- make sure you consult a mortgage broker to make sure you can afford the property (with a buffer for bad times, illnesses and unexpected event like recessions
)
- drive around the neighbourhood and get a feel for the properties around the home – see if you can see yourself living there
I made this post after reading about some people who had done major works to a home without consents – if buyer never went to council they could’ve bought themselves heartache and stress for years and “reading between the lines” an uninhabitable building.
READ MORE HERE
April 07 2009 | CRIKEY and Levin and Property News and Real Estate and Smart Buying and Street Smart and www.masonparker.co.nz | 1 Comment »
You betcha!!
I’ve been a Harcourts Sales Person for only a few months and in that time I’ve made it a priority to build links with co-workers, industry collegaues, local people and online friends.
Have a look at http://www.linkedin.com/in/noaddedfluff
its my brand new LinkedIn profile.
What I found within minutes was how many people I know have relationships with people I already know and deal with. These relationships just became stronger and more lasting.
I believe in the power of refferals and I am much more inclined to refer friends/clients/colleagues to people I already know and trust.
For example If I have a client in Wellington wanting to buy/sell because I have positive relationships with Andrew Duncan of www.andrewduncan.co.nz and with Tracey Morris www.traceymorris.harcourts.co.nz I would more inclined to refer to them and trust that they will look after them like I would.
Funnily enough these people also show the world their work relationships and networks in places like www.facebook.com and www.linkedin.com
These all add third party evidence and verification that you are respected and worthy of doing business with.
April 03 2009 | Real Estate and Useful Tools and www.masonparker.co.nz | No Comments »
What a day at Harcourts Levin – 8 auctions on the order of sale. Stu Pescini Auctioneer called up a storm – selling two under the hammer and a third ngoatiated shortly afterwards with conditional offers being presented on other properties.
The crowd was conservetively 50 – with good bidding action on most properties.
Harcourts Levin have recently installed a large screen monitor to promote the properties’ benefits throughout the auction
See the action below.
Well Done to all the vendors who committed to high profile marketing, congratulations to all succesful vendors, Stu for calling 8 good auctions and for all the buyers who purchased property today.
March 18 2009 | Auction Action and Levin and Property News and Real Estate and www.masonparker.co.nz | No Comments »
Real Estate of NZ sales figures for the Levin Residential Housing Market at 8 March indicate a pronounced jump in Real Estate activity.
After January 2009’s dismal Levin Residential sales of 15 (although the author feels this was 13 as two sales appeared to be lifestyle properties) the recent February 2009 sales have rebounded back to 35 Residential Sales recorded for February 2009.
Zoodle the industry sponsored web portal recorded the Levin Residential January figures as:
- Median Sales Price $201,379 (+ 0.9%)
- Number of New Properties 144 (+ 56.5%)
- Number of Views 11916 (+ 20.8%)
- Number of New Properties (rental) 14 -(12.5%)
- Number of Views (rental) 1150 (+ 25.3%)
- Days to Sell (median) 120
- Property Sales 15
The February figures (from www.reinz.co.nz at 8 March 2009) can be broken down as follows:
- The maximum sale was a four bedroom property at $410,000 (45,000 above the Rateable Value or RV)
- The average sale was $205,085
- The median sale was $174,000 which indicates that the volume of sales was predominantly in the lower price ranges
- Days taken to sell ranged from a very slow 450 days to a snappy 7 days
Anecdotal feedback suggests that:
- The low mortgage lending rates of under 5% p.a. are encouraging buyers back into the market – having taken a number of enquiries from bargain hunters and seeing a number of properties selling below build cost the author can see construction of new dwellings being slow. Local builders comments support the theory that homeowners are choosing to renovate rather than build new dwellings.
- Lenders have pre-approved a high number of buyers who appear to be waiting for bargains or further price drops before committing to written offers
Mason Parker Harcourts Levin Sales and Marketing Specialist has observed 57% of properties sold in February 2009 sold within $25,000 of the September 2008 RVs – with 40% of February sales under the September 2008 RV…which meant 60% of Levin Residential Property Sales were at RV or above in February 2009.
Is this the start of a recovery or of the huge Levin Residential market clearing? Who really knows but its safe to say buyers are now in what can only be described as the most affordable residential market we are likely to have for a number of years.
With www.realestate.co.nz showing 383 properties on the market down from a recent 420+ …this may be because of the recent spike but would likely be attributed to the very recent closure of LJHooker Levin. My commiserations to LJHooker, their staff and their clients.
March 09 2009 | Mason Parker and Real Estate and Statistics and Zoodle and www.masonparker.co.nz | No Comments »
