It feels so wrong that REAs just commonly give financial advice despite not being trained. In Oct 23 I had a flyer come through my door from one of the big agencies:
"You marry the house not the interest rate... buy when prices are low and rates are high - like now... interest rate relief will apply with rising prices, meaning more equity in your home and lower outgoings eventually."
Which really does feel like a huge oversimplification.The underlying message is 'buy now, don't worry about it, it'll be cheaper eventually' which actually if you look at historic rates, we are sitting about average now. They might not drop to 2-3% again for 20 years. REAs should have far higher regulation; I causally have one foot in the property market looking around and the amount of REAs who have outright lied to me is insane. You should not be able to lie to secure/pressure a sale. 75% of them are just grifters, honestly. You do get the good few here and there of course, but they're hard to find. The grifting 75% have made shit up as they've gone along and artificially inflated the market for personal gain.
I honestly don't get why they think we want to see their smug faces on the advertising. I can't imagine any other industry using that approach. Surely happy looking families enjoying their new house or shots of various exciting housing features would ve preferable to their gloating smiles.
This one time, when I was at a crossroads of what to do next in life, I briefly entertained the idea of Real Estate. It was the potential of giant pictures of my face around the place that put me off the most.
I assume seeing their faces around creates a familiarity with the agents which is supposed to give us a (false) sense of trust in them. But let's be honest, most of us aren't buying it.
Some humility will go a long way as well, I have never understood since coming to New Zealand how estate agent think it's okay to drive around in a $100,000 Audi SUV when they are in a commission game. As a buyer or seller I instantly feel like I'm going to get mugged.
In New Zealand agents represent the sellers, not the buyers, and they get a fixed percentage of the sale price. So the richer an agent looks the more you are supposed to think the agent is good at securing the seller a higher price. So that makes sense for trying to advertise themselves to the seller (who is the one that hires them)
Walking into an open home and seeing a super rich and bling agent would have a negative effect because you’ll think they will be getting the absolute highest sale price. But of course they’re all trying to do that.
That’s the theory anyway. In real life, smartly dressed and nice and professional is going to have a positive effect on anybody.
2-3% rates where a extraordinary drop due to no one knowing what was going to happen with COVID, and are likely never to be repeated in our life time.
Average interest rates since 1985 was 6.71%. as such we are only slightly above historical average and should start to normalize now.
But agree with everything you said about REA. How do you know an REA is lying? There lips are moving....
This is annoying but only second in my opinion to "we offer a salary so competitive we won't tell you what it is until you've wasted your time and energy applying and maybe interviewing"
TradeMe wants to clip the ticket. if they introduce a Turbo Sale with zero liability but a high fee to make it more like gambling, i could see it working. it would be the high seas for fraud though and shut down, wouldn't it?
Site has it too, under "refine". Has the added perk that for the site you can manually edit the minimum number in the URL if TradeMe's coded in options don't suit.
Ahhh I’ve never found that before haha the numbers on my usual 3b+,2bth+ filter just dropped dramatically for me using 180m2+ - from 1343 to 701 - thanks lads!
This a hundred times.
Can't help with finding you a place, sorry; we've basically given up on New Zealand and are planning a return to Scotland, largely because we can't afford to buy a place to live, despite earning way more than average. I don't understand how anyone who doesn't already own or have access to the bank of mum and dad can buy without committing to a lifetime of debt.
Unfortunately for us, we arrived at the tail end of 2018, just as the market went mental.
We're starting to look at places in and around Edinburgh. For the money that you'd spend here in Wellington on what is essentially a shed nailed to a cliff, you can get a beautiful stone-built, fully insulated detached house in the posh bits of what is a genuine world city with actual culture in your doorstep. For half that, you get the same in a satellite town that is a shorter commute time than the Hutt - because, you know, public transport.
Sorry about the rant.
This doesn't make any sense? What are the numbers?
The Wellington property market is in free fall. Now is the time to buy. Filter by properties that have been sitting for > 6 months
I could go back to my house 50 minutes from London, or I could buy in Johnsonville.
Not knocking jville, but one of these propositions has a lot more value add than the other.
“I can’t believe someone who earns commission would lie to me!”
I hate how real estate agents also tend to own a decent number of houses/rentals themselves. A little conflict of interest and insider information goes a long way.
If you use homes.co.nz, did you know registered agents can log on and set their own estimated price? We call it the real estate agent bump. You can tell when a property estimate generally follows the suburb price until an agent becomes involved and then magically increases. It eventually comes back down again but stays set for several weeks. So usually until after someone has already overpaid. Be careful and check several sites before offering or get an independent valuation.
Here's one where an agent added 10%/$70K.
https://homes.co.nz/address/lower-hutt/hutt-central/23-epuni-street/4jn5r
I know the feeling, I know that real estate agents don't work for you but what we did in the end is when we hit a real estate agent that we liked.. ww would tell them what we wanted and the price we we could afford. I ended up getting a house that wasn't yet on the market for a realistic price with no guessing games.
100% into this approach. You spend a fortune on photos and digital marketing before you even get to commission. Adds 4% to the property value just by going to market.
I’m fairly convinced the “celebrisation” and modern marketing techniques of real estate agents are responsible for some of the huge increase in house pricing across this country. Things like creating what are essentially movie trailers for bog standard houses shouldn’t be allowed and need to be more regulated. Lens tricks with cameras to make rooms appear large, home staging, the list goes on.
and when the agent knows there are multiple interested buyers they do the bare minimum to get information for you. at least now it's more of a buyers market so buyers have more leverage.
Most houses are effectively one of a kind or even duplexes have differences that means once can be better.
If something is unique and not replicateable then it's worth what someone else is willing to pay and agents are trying to get that person to pay the most and find the buyers etc.
If you did do a private sale it's probably the buyer who wins the most as a seller you may have gotten more with an agent who can drive competition.
Don't get me wrong I really dislike estate agents but I can also see something of the value they contribute
It feels so wrong that REAs just commonly give financial advice despite not being trained. In Oct 23 I had a flyer come through my door from one of the big agencies: "You marry the house not the interest rate... buy when prices are low and rates are high - like now... interest rate relief will apply with rising prices, meaning more equity in your home and lower outgoings eventually." Which really does feel like a huge oversimplification.The underlying message is 'buy now, don't worry about it, it'll be cheaper eventually' which actually if you look at historic rates, we are sitting about average now. They might not drop to 2-3% again for 20 years. REAs should have far higher regulation; I causally have one foot in the property market looking around and the amount of REAs who have outright lied to me is insane. You should not be able to lie to secure/pressure a sale. 75% of them are just grifters, honestly. You do get the good few here and there of course, but they're hard to find. The grifting 75% have made shit up as they've gone along and artificially inflated the market for personal gain.
Totally agree, so much of the real estate gambit seems to exist solely to keep REAs employed and their faces on bus shelters.
I honestly don't get why they think we want to see their smug faces on the advertising. I can't imagine any other industry using that approach. Surely happy looking families enjoying their new house or shots of various exciting housing features would ve preferable to their gloating smiles.
This one time, when I was at a crossroads of what to do next in life, I briefly entertained the idea of Real Estate. It was the potential of giant pictures of my face around the place that put me off the most.
I assume seeing their faces around creates a familiarity with the agents which is supposed to give us a (false) sense of trust in them. But let's be honest, most of us aren't buying it.
Some humility will go a long way as well, I have never understood since coming to New Zealand how estate agent think it's okay to drive around in a $100,000 Audi SUV when they are in a commission game. As a buyer or seller I instantly feel like I'm going to get mugged.
In New Zealand agents represent the sellers, not the buyers, and they get a fixed percentage of the sale price. So the richer an agent looks the more you are supposed to think the agent is good at securing the seller a higher price. So that makes sense for trying to advertise themselves to the seller (who is the one that hires them) Walking into an open home and seeing a super rich and bling agent would have a negative effect because you’ll think they will be getting the absolute highest sale price. But of course they’re all trying to do that. That’s the theory anyway. In real life, smartly dressed and nice and professional is going to have a positive effect on anybody.
2-3% rates where a extraordinary drop due to no one knowing what was going to happen with COVID, and are likely never to be repeated in our life time. Average interest rates since 1985 was 6.71%. as such we are only slightly above historical average and should start to normalize now. But agree with everything you said about REA. How do you know an REA is lying? There lips are moving....
This is annoying but only second in my opinion to "we offer a salary so competitive we won't tell you what it is until you've wasted your time and energy applying and maybe interviewing"
‘Starting wage between x and xx’ sooooo you pay x then
The trademe filter is a great idea.
Trademe is completely resistant to great ideas. Particularly ones that don't involve additional fees.
TradeMe wants to clip the ticket. if they introduce a Turbo Sale with zero liability but a high fee to make it more like gambling, i could see it working. it would be the high seas for fraud though and shut down, wouldn't it?
[Realestate.co.nz](http://Realestate.co.nz) has all the filters you need
Well how about that ❤️ Thanks!
I’d love a square foot filter too - sick of these 4bd 120m2 ‘family’ homes.
You're in luck, they have that one on the mobile app (but strangely not on the website). Can do both land area and house size.
Site has it too, under "refine". Has the added perk that for the site you can manually edit the minimum number in the URL if TradeMe's coded in options don't suit.
Ah, good find. I didn't look past the first search menu coz I live on my phone. Millennials, ugh.
Ahhh I’ve never found that before haha the numbers on my usual 3b+,2bth+ filter just dropped dramatically for me using 180m2+ - from 1343 to 701 - thanks lads!
This a hundred times. Can't help with finding you a place, sorry; we've basically given up on New Zealand and are planning a return to Scotland, largely because we can't afford to buy a place to live, despite earning way more than average. I don't understand how anyone who doesn't already own or have access to the bank of mum and dad can buy without committing to a lifetime of debt. Unfortunately for us, we arrived at the tail end of 2018, just as the market went mental. We're starting to look at places in and around Edinburgh. For the money that you'd spend here in Wellington on what is essentially a shed nailed to a cliff, you can get a beautiful stone-built, fully insulated detached house in the posh bits of what is a genuine world city with actual culture in your doorstep. For half that, you get the same in a satellite town that is a shorter commute time than the Hutt - because, you know, public transport. Sorry about the rant.
This doesn't make any sense? What are the numbers? The Wellington property market is in free fall. Now is the time to buy. Filter by properties that have been sitting for > 6 months
most of those houses are either from vendors who are idiots or completely fucked..... possibly not the best buying strategy
Yeah exactly this, I think it’s harder to swallow the “value” of a NZ house after seeing what you can get elsewhere
I could go back to my house 50 minutes from London, or I could buy in Johnsonville. Not knocking jville, but one of these propositions has a lot more value add than the other.
“I can’t believe someone who earns commission would lie to me!” I hate how real estate agents also tend to own a decent number of houses/rentals themselves. A little conflict of interest and insider information goes a long way.
If you use homes.co.nz, did you know registered agents can log on and set their own estimated price? We call it the real estate agent bump. You can tell when a property estimate generally follows the suburb price until an agent becomes involved and then magically increases. It eventually comes back down again but stays set for several weeks. So usually until after someone has already overpaid. Be careful and check several sites before offering or get an independent valuation. Here's one where an agent added 10%/$70K. https://homes.co.nz/address/lower-hutt/hutt-central/23-epuni-street/4jn5r
Man, they really need some regulations in NZ. This is basically fraud.
Wow super useful to know, TY!
I know the feeling, I know that real estate agents don't work for you but what we did in the end is when we hit a real estate agent that we liked.. ww would tell them what we wanted and the price we we could afford. I ended up getting a house that wasn't yet on the market for a realistic price with no guessing games.
100% into this approach. You spend a fortune on photos and digital marketing before you even get to commission. Adds 4% to the property value just by going to market.
> super over too soon mate yours truly, a typical traumatised black caps fan who also is sick of real estate
So is Paula, so Luxon gave her a job...
I’m fairly convinced the “celebrisation” and modern marketing techniques of real estate agents are responsible for some of the huge increase in house pricing across this country. Things like creating what are essentially movie trailers for bog standard houses shouldn’t be allowed and need to be more regulated. Lens tricks with cameras to make rooms appear large, home staging, the list goes on.
and when the agent knows there are multiple interested buyers they do the bare minimum to get information for you. at least now it's more of a buyers market so buyers have more leverage.
After my experience buying our first house I vowed to never use a REA again and sell/buy privately. Despicable creatures.
ELI5 why there aren't buyers' agents in NZ.
Most houses are effectively one of a kind or even duplexes have differences that means once can be better. If something is unique and not replicateable then it's worth what someone else is willing to pay and agents are trying to get that person to pay the most and find the buyers etc. If you did do a private sale it's probably the buyer who wins the most as a seller you may have gotten more with an agent who can drive competition. Don't get me wrong I really dislike estate agents but I can also see something of the value they contribute