Changes for Requests in Real Estate

Yesterday a young first home buyer passed comment that it was strange the way the City Council gridded the City when it was first developed. ‘Why would they make long narrow sections with a house on the front and a narrow driveway’ he asked.

That got me thinking about how requests for Real Estate have changed over the years.

Fifteen years ago, the ultimate was 3 bedrooms with or without a study, open plan living and a double internal access garage all sited on 800m2. Now the requests are for 4 plus bedrooms sited on 600m2 and triple car garaging is too small!!!

How life has changed from when the City was first developed with those long narrow sections. WHY? Well most people didn’t have a car so a driveway and garage were not on the listed of requests – backyards were used to grow vegetables and let the children play – and of course ‘Bull Rush’ was the flavour of the day.

Now we need all that garaging to house not only 1 car, but 1 for Dad, 1 for Mum and the teenagers car and of course let’s not forget, the Jetski, the Boat and the 4-wheeler for Sundays at the beach.

The bonus now on the request list is INSULATION! Never before has this question been asked as much as it is now that the Government has alerted us to the fact we have not been warm over the past 100 or so years!!!!

What next I wonder? Will we go back to the Kiwi ¼ acre and start growing our own vegetables??? Will we allow our children to play ‘Bull Rush’ again instead of taking them overseas for Holidays? Only time will tell.

An Introduction to Palmerston North

Palmerston North is often been the ‘butt’ of many jokes. Especially since the visit of John Cleese. After I had told someone last week I had lived in PN all of my live their reply was ‘that’s a pretty long life sentence!”
My aim is to change the perception of our fair City. A great place to live – only 1.5 hours drive from the Capital City Wellington, 2 hours from the Ski Fields and 2.5 hours from the most beautiful Lake in NZ where you can enjoy boating, trout fishing or just relax. Take a visit and enjoy the many cafes and shops – you will be pleasantly surprised.
AND as I write this blog, the sun is shining and there is NO WIND! Just please don’t call us ‘Palmy’!

AN INTRODUCTION TO PALMERSTON NORTH

Palmerston North is a thriving, vibrant City with a growing population and buoyant economy.
The lifestyle is easy and the people have opportunities to enjoy a wide range of activities within a safe, caring community and a sustainable environment.


Population

Palmerston North has an estimated population of 78,400. Compared to the demographics of the rest of New Zealand, Palmerston North has a young population (especially high in the 15-29 year old category). This is reflective of the City’s educational strengths.


Area and Location

Palmerston North covers an area of 32,594 hectares, and is the geographical centre of New Zealand. One million people live within a two hour (200km) radius. The City is a major rail centre with the main trunk line. State Highway 1 passes through the region, and there are excellent roading connections north, south, east and west.
Palmerston North Airport has domestic services to all of major cities as well as numerous provincial centres. It also has the record for being open the most days of any New Zealand airport. All of this means that the City and the Region have major advantages as visitor destinations and for national distribution industries. The urban area of the City is a service base for a large rural area, some of which is within the City boundary.


Economy

The tertiary education sector provides a massive $1 billion dollars to the economy every year through direct and indirect spending. The total number of direct and downstream jobs generated by the tertiary sector is over 4,300 (or 13% of all jobs in Palmerston North).
Palmerston North also has economic strengths in research (especially the bio-industry sector, smart business (entrepreneurial, innovative, highly skilled and technologically advanced businesses), defence and distribution.
The Manawatu-Wanganui region experienced the third strongest economic growth in New Zealand for the 2005/06 year, with a 3.3% increase.


Education

The City boasts a wide range of educational facilities, including a leading university, polytechnic, wananga, multicultural language school and a number of other specialised tertiary education institutes. With its great reputation, the City is able to attract both staff and students from throughout the world. Four out of every 10 people in the City either work at or attend an educational institution.

Harcourts Manawatu Franchise Changes Hands

Successful Harcourts business owners Stuart Pescini and Eliot Falconer have purchased Harcourts’ Manawatu franchise and recently welcomed a high-profile former independent realtor to their Palmerston North team. The pair, who are also shareholders in Harcourts’ Horowhenua, Mana, Kapiti Coast, Hutt Valley and Wellington franchises, bought the Harcourts Manawatu franchise recently from Wakelin Real Estate Ltd, which continues to operate Harcourts offices in Wanganui, Rotorua and Taupo.

Mr Pescini, who is based in Horowhenua, says he and Mr Falconer are thrilled to have expanded their successful operation to the Manawatu and to welcome the Harcourts Palmerston North and Feilding teams to their group. ” The Manawatu has a varied, solidly performing property market and we’re excited to be getting involved in it and able to use the skills, knowledge and resources we’ve built up elsewhere in the Lower North Island to help the strong existing team to build on their success in the region.”

Mr Pescini says that by achieving economies of scale and combing strengths and resources with the 15 other offices in their group both Harcourts Manawatu team and their customers throughout the region will benefit “For example, we’ve built a strong record of auction success in our group and will be able to boost the focus and resources in the specialist areas of rural and commercial real estate - which is great for the sales consultants and clients in those sectors.”

Another significant development for Harcourts in the region is that successful local independent realtor Wendy Goss has joined the Harcourts Palmerston North office. “There was no better office i wished to merge with than with NZ’s Largest Real Estate Company” says Wendy Goss. Mr Pescini says having Wendy join Harcourts Palmerston North is a real boost for the business. “Wendy has been successfully operating as an independent realtor in the area for many years and has an established reputation and client base but she realsied that to take her business to the next level she needed the support that comes with being part of a larger group, and she chose to merge with us which is great.”

Property Sites

There are so many property web sites available today giving agents a larger choice of where to best market their Vendors properties.
So how do you, as an agent choose? What is the best portal for you?
As a professional Real Estate Agent, it is important for me to belong to a governing body (REINZ) - they support me and I support them. So why would I not then support their internet site www.realestate.co.nz.
In New Zealand as members of the REINZ we are extremely lucky to have such a site as realestate.co.nz. If you google search ‘real estate nz’ or houses nz’ the first site to come up is www.realestate.co.nz. As an international buyer seeking to view Real Estate in New Zealand, whether it is in Auckland, or in Bluff, then be assured they will find your properties quickly by using this website. How it is then viewed by the buyer is upto you as an agent; how much information you provide and how many pictures you upload.
The site is easy to use, provides room for lots of pictures, provides relative information and also provides links to your own site if necessary.
How it is perceived by the public, is up to us as members and whether we promote it or not.

Technology

We either embrace it or ignore it. So how does increased technology affect the Real Estate Industry.
I recently had the pleasure of attending an education day where Alistair Helm spoke about ‘What’s Happening and What’s New.’ Sometimes we feel threatened by technology often because of a lack of knowledge, but ‘Traditional Agents will not be replaced with Technology…..they will be replaced by agents with Technology’ says Alistair. To me, this seemed extremely logical. The internet has become a part of our life, just like night follows day.
Alistair also spoke about the realities of today - “Consumers will email if they have a question and the response expectation is 2 hours!”. How do you rate?
We are living in a ‘now’ society where expectations are great and the consumers of today want an answer immediately.
Emails are the easiest thing to deal with. Check them regularly (obviously within 2 hours) and respond immediately. Acknowlege the email even if you can’t supply the enquirer with the full information.
It never ceases to amaze me when I get replies back from prospective purchasers who acknowledge my quick response to their email. What does everyone else do I wonder???
So if you are not responding to a email enquiry quickly - then you are possibly losing business. Can you afford to do that???

How is the Real Estate Market going?

One of the questions Real Estate Agents are most frequently asked is ‘how’s the real estate market going? There will always be an honest answer from me! Things are very quiet in our industry at the present time, but so is everything, retailers, food, cars, you name it, almost everyone is feeling a slow down. Why is this do you think? Well my thoughts are; it is Winter! We traditionally have a slow period during this time, its quite ‘normal’. However the past few years has been very busy and this was ’abnormal’. It is amazing how quickly we get used to the good times! Realistically, for every up there is a down and for every high there is a low. We are experiencing a slight stabilisation in the market, added to that we have an incredibly bad weather, storms, rain, snow and yet more rain. Each Sunday in the last two months has brought about terrible weather, funny how it gets worse on Sundays when we are doing open homes. This does not inspire anyone to go out and purchase anything let alone thinking about moving house.
What will the future bring? Nature is poised ready to burst into Spring and in another month there will be blossom and flowers everywhere — the sign of new beginnings! This of course, inspires people to move forward and think about their future. I guess at the end of the day we are all like bears and hibernate over those cold winter months to prepare for a great summer.

There is never a right time to sell...

When is the right time to sell your home? I believe there is never a right time to sell. The time is right, when it is right for you. There are many Vendors out there waiting for the warmer weather before they put their house on the market believing there will be greater interest. However, there are always buyers looking to purchase no matter what time of the year, and some buyers only ever look at homes during the winter months. If your home is not being marketed then you may miss the very person who would purchase your home. Remember you can ‘never sell a secret!’
All markets work on supply versus demand and as the cold weather moves away and the warm weather arrives, the amount of property for sale increases. Surely it would make good sense to market your home when there are less properties for sale, thereby making your property stand out from the crowd?
A Vendor has one chance for a buyer to stop and look at their home for sale. It has got nothing to do with the time of the year but all to do with how that property is represented or advertised. If that buyer turns the page of a property magazine without stopping and looking, then you have lost them. So consider carefully your choice of agents advertising. Does it stand out from the crowd? Next time you are looking through the Property Press, ask yourself - Would I stop at this page and look for a home? Why did I stop at this page? What is it about this agencys advertising that appeals to me? Would I be happy to have my home represented by this agency? Think like a buyer.
As market forces drive Real Estate Companies to put more properties on a page, it results in a hotch potch of advertising. They are trying to convince Vendors that large advertisements are the only way to sell a home but as a Company they put as many propreties on one page as they can. Consider how this would benefit a Vendor.
So if you are thinking of selling and the time is right for you - go and look through the Property Press and see what jumps out at you, then call that Agent!