Buying a property involves a large financial commitment. Get it wrong and it could set you back years. Get it right and it could propel you forward. The sales agent represents the vendor, helping negotiate the highest and best terms for them. After all that is who pays them. But who represents the buyer? That’s…
Read More
Buying a property is a big purchase. Get it wrong and it could set you back years. Get it right and it could propel you forward. Know Yourself Before you launch yourself at the sales agent – do a little research so that you don’t waste your time: Buying Power. Know exactly what you…
Read More
Are you an ex-pat Kiwi? Many dream of owning their own little slice of unspoilt New Zealand. We know what it’s like to attempt a purchase while living on the other side of the world. There are some real challenges: Access to available property is limited – you can usually only see what’s on the net.…
Read More
The Herald today reported that house prices are stabilising. So what does that mean for next year? Are we to interpret from this that we are finally past the bad news and now the only way is up? Or is the ‘double dip’ about to bite? As someone pro property you might think I might…
Read More
Joshua and Adrienne, New York, USA I had been thinking about purchasing a property for a while but living away from New Zealand made this a daunting task. Also not being familiar with local conditions did not help. Having had past experience in looking for an investment property, I also realised how time consuming searching…
Read More
You’ve got your finance pre-approved – but that’s not a complete certainty the bank will lend you the money. The bank still needs to give you an unconditional offer once you have a specific property you wish to purchase. The last thing you want is finance to become a point of stress or uncertainty when…
Read More
We all have a tendency to want to renovate the way we like things to be. The Floorboards A good example of this is bare floorboards. You and I may think that timber floors look amazing and are a great design feature. Tenants look at them as being cold and drafty in winter, and…
Read More
The Nature of Property Scams The nature of a really great property scam is that there is usually a lot of truth in the story, but never quite enough to make it work. Salespeople carefully guide us to focus on the hidden secrets, the nuggets of truth, the compelling factors, and subtly convince us to…
Read More
Property Bubble or Boom Approaching?
As proponents of investing for the long term we spend a lot of time thinking long term. We’ve been looking pretty closely at what might trigger the next boom and what that boom might look like. One of the interesting issues that we’re pondering is around whether the next surge in prices will be a…
Read More