Down to Earth Real Estate

A recent Herald article covered the topic of the Real Estate Institute giving advice on using building inspectors for pre-purchase property inspections. ‘The Real Estate Institute is warning against low-quality pre-purchase building reports and told consumers only to use inspectors who are members of two professional industry bodies. Helen O’Sullivan, REINZ chief executive, said members [...]

Barb and Andy thought I should experience an auction as I had never attended one… I didn’t expect it to be so entertaining! On arrival the room was full of people.  A large number of Barfoot agents were all standing whilst the potential buyers, interested parties and some of the vendors were seated; everyone was [...]

What is a Unit Title? Unit titles were created (under the Unit Titles Act 1972) to allow people to own an apartment in a building and to allow for multiple ownership of the common spaces and facilities, such as driveways and lifts. – (Consumerbuild) The introduction of the new Unit Titles Act 2010 is applied [...]

Any home can leak.  It just so happens that many of the homes that have leaked over the past few years have been clad with monolithic plaster systems.  This does not mean to say if your home is clad with a plaster system that it leaks – DEFINITELTY NOT.  There’s a wide range of factors [...]

In December 2010 we experienced the lowest number of building consents issued ever since records began while in January 2011 we witnessed the beginning of a serious shortage of rental properties in the Auckland region.  The media have been quick to show the plight of people unable to secure a home to live in due [...]

If you are interested in what is happening within the housing sector in New Zealand, a report just released by the Department of Building and Housing tells some interesting facts. This first New Zealand Housing Report provides a broad overview of housing market conditions in the building and residential housing sector. It is the first [...]

The following information was passed on to me via Stephen Robertson a Director of Capital Care Finance who has a particular interest in the effect of ‘eco’ on the value of properties.  The information was sourced from Australia and provided by Colin Miller, Managing Director of VIP Properties International Ltd.   As we are due [...]

My colleague Mike Harper from Bayleys in the Coromandel has passed on this information relating to selling a property.  The writer is very direct in saying we need to be realistic about the current market.  If ever there was a time to use the auction process, it is in a market such as the one [...]

When considering selling your home, a big question is how do I get the most value out money spent on advertising?  This is something that must be done whether a home is sold privately or through a real estate company.  There are many options – the internet, magazine, local or regional newspapers, not to mention [...]

We are always being fed sales statistics from within the media.  It was interesting to read this week’s blog by Alistair Thompson from realestate.co.nz.  His comments were made after the following statement from QV research director Jonno Ingerson came through the media,  “the number of house sales in recent months has dropped around one third from [...]