Make 2023 the year to buy that house

If January was the time for goal-setting, then February is all about action! If your plans for 2023 involve a step up (or even down) the property ladder, then now’s the time to set the wheels in motion.

Establish your priorities. The house-hunting process will be much, much easier if you’re clear about what you’re looking for from the outset. Start by creating a list of ‘must-haves’ and ‘nice-to-haves’. It’s really hard for sales consultants to help you if we don’t know what you want.

Know your budget. Understanding how much you have to spend is critical. Consult with your lender (or ask us about preferred mortgage brokers) early on in the process and clean up your finances as much as possible. A few months of responsible spending will give you the best chance of securing the ideal loan.

Do your research. Ask us about what’s happening in the current market; it’s where we work and what we do every day so our shared knowledge can be to your advantage. We can provide data on recent sales in the areas you’re looking at; the more knowledge you have, the better your decision.

For more information contact one of our consultants today

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Press Release – Harcourts Holmwood Auctions

Outstanding auction success

On Wednesday 25th January, Harcourts Holmwood achieved outstanding success in their auction rooms with all four properties listed for auction, selling under the hammer.

With five properties programmed for sale, one sold prior to auction. The four properties that sold under the hammer today, each had multiple bids.

Tony Jenkins, CEO of Holmwood Real Estate said, “today was a great day in the auction rooms and we are beyond thrilled for our vendors and buyers.” He continued, “there is a lot of conversation around the Real Estate market and auction as a method of sale. Today we have proven that there is still great activity in the Christchurch market for all price ranges, and auction is indeed a great way for people to buy and sell.”

With listings and prices ranging from a modest section in New Brighton to an established four-bedroom home in Ilam, buyers were a plenty in our auction rooms.

For further information, please contact Tony Jenkins CEO of Harcourts Holmwood on 0274 432 2896 or tony.jenkins@harcourts.co.nz.

About Harcourts

Harcourts was founded in Wellington in 1888 and remains proudly Kiwi owned. Harcourts New Zealand has 205 offices and over 2600 sales consultants nationwide. We specialise in residential, commercial, and rural property sales and provide property management services. Harcourts has been at the forefront of the real estate market in New Zealand for 134 years. Today, Harcourts International has over 900 offices in nine countries around the world. Our success has been built on ensuring our people have the knowledge, expertise and tools to achieve the best possible results for our customers. *We are also proud to be New Zealand’s Most Trusted real estate brand. *Readers Digest Most Trusted survey, 2013-2022.

Real Estate Christchurch: Presenting Your Home

Real Estate Christchurch: Presenting Your Home for Sale

So you are ready to sell your real estate in Christchurch, it’s very important you consider the way your property is presented. First Impressions Count!

Kitchen
Stove, refrigerator and sink should be spotless with all work spaces clean and uncluttered.

Bathrooms
Neat, spotless and fresh. Display your best towels.

Halls and Stairs
Remove any clutter to give a spacious appearance.

Wardrobes
Leave tidy and don’t have overcrowded wardrobes.

Lights
Dust off and replace all burned-out bulbs or faulty switches.

House Exterior and Garage
Remove mould or moss, wash down and paint if required. Keep tidy.

Children and Pets
We suggest that you allow buyers to inspect your property without distraction. Ensure your pets are secured.

Driveway and Patios
Water blast or use moss remover if required.

Windows
Clean if dirty.

Plumbing
Repair dripping taps, leaky toilets.

General Condition
Dust, wash, paint, fix defects as required.

Real Estate Christchurch - Presenting your home for sale

Consider
Creating a feeling of spaciousness, store away unneeded items to enlarge room size. Also consider placing fresh flowers throughout your home.
It is important to ensure your property looks its very best from the moment it goes on the market. A clean and tidy home will attract more potential buyers and has a better chance of selling or reaching a premium price.

Advise your Sales Consultant
††Let your sales consultant know which rooms benefit from morning to late afternoon sun or summer breeze.
††Tell your sales consultant the things you like best about your house, section and location.

When your home is being marketed:
*Open drapes in the daytime, close at night.
*Turn on sufficient lights when showing.
*Use a fragrant diffuser, or light a scented candle.
*Turn on soft background music.
*In winter make sure the house is warm and cosy when showing.
*De-clutter.
*Deoderise pet areas and secure your pets.
*Check your flower arrangements.
*Depersonalise as much as possible by removing personal items and some family photos.

 

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SuperStart: IGNITE 2023

At Holmwood, inspiring and motivating the growth of our people is a top priority to us. We are dedicated to providing opportunities that empower our agents to reach their full potential! For this reason, we are very excited to announce Harcourts Holmwood SuperStart: Ignite 2023!  🎉💙

We had so much fun last year, that we couldn’t help but do it all again!

SuperStart: Ignite 2023 will be bringing an all-new line-up of speakers from all around New Zealand and beyond, as well as sessions from some of our very own!
Stay tuned to our Facebook and Instagram as we introduce them in the coming weeks!

Pre Auction: Due Diligence

Bidding for and buying a house at auction can feel intimidating if you have never done it before but a little bit of preparation and homework can make the process far less stressful and more empowering.

Pre Auction: Due Diligence

So you’ve found a house you want to buy and it’s being sold by auction process. First things first, you have to do your due diligence. What this means is reviewing all of the information made available, assessing and ensuring that you are ready to make an informed decision. Typically the agent handling the sale will provide you with a copy of the Title for the Property and the LIM. Those two documents should be reviewed by your lawyer. You will also need to have a conversation with your financier or bank and particularly in Christchurch you will need to discuss with your potential insurer for the property.
The vendor may provide you with a Builders Report. Be aware, this is there as a guide only. It has been commissioned on behalf of the vendor so if there is anything missing from that report, or anything not correct within it, you will not have any comeback. For this reason, it can be a good idea to commission a Builder’s Report of your own.

Typically in Christchurch you will also you will also get documentation around what has happened to the house after the quakes and what has been done to the house. Your bank and your insurer will likely want to take a look at this just to make sure that any repair strategy has been carried out correctly. Particularly for older houses in Christchurch, spend some time looking through the reports, through the insurance documentation consider getting your own Builders Report.

Some buyers get frustrated at the expense of this process, only to not be a successful bidder and having to repeat the whole process with a new property. It helps to think about what the long-term cost could be of not completing that due diligence only to find something critical is wrong with the property. This due diligence process is vital in Christchurch now following the rebuild, do not bid on a rebuilt or remediated property that does not provide the necessary basic documentation of the repair strategy.

Jim Davis
Christchurch Regional Manager

Helping Your Kids Buy a Home

With the rising cost of property across New Zealand, it’s not surprising that so many parents are having to help their grown-up children buy property. In fact, it’s estimated that the “Bank of Mum and Dad” is the sixth largest lender when it comes to mortgage lending in New Zealand. While bank lending requirements have made it harder for first-home buyers to use their parent’s help to get onto the property ladder, there are still a few ways you as a parent can help.

Cash loan

Helping with a loan towards the deposit could be the kickstart your child needs to buy their first home. As with all loans though, it’s important you document the loan properly in a loan agreement, specifying whether you want your child to make regular repayments and how much, how long the loan term will be, and whether or not you’ll charge interest – and if so, how much.

Things to think about: if you have other children, will you be able to help them with a loan too? If you’re borrowing from a bank to lend to your child, can you realistically afford it? Many retirees are asset rich and income poor – and the bank will want to know that you can afford to repay your loan.

If you’re still paying off your own mortgage, consider the financial implications of dipping into your own equity or taking on a much bigger mortgage without having the income to cover repayments.

Monetary Gift

If you have the money, you may want to give your children an early inheritance with a monetary gift they can use as a deposit. This is a really straightforward process as you simply gift your child the money they need.

Things to think about: can you afford to gift more than one child? Will you have enough money to live on comfortably in retirement? Be mindful of your future health and medical needs. An early inheritance should only be for families who have significant capital, who won’t be placing a financial burden on themselves by gifting their children.

Guarantor

Acting as a guarantor for your child’s first home purchase is another way that you as a parent can help your child onto the property ladder. It’s a decision not to be taken lightly though: if your child defaults on repayments, the bank will look to you to repay the loan. If you need to put your own house up as security in order to act as guarantor, you could end up losing your own home to repay your child’s debt.

Things to think about: does your child have the means and motivation to repay their loan? Will you be placing a serious financial burden on yourself by acting as guarantor? To limit your exposure to risk, ensure that you guarantee the absolute minimum amount that the bank will allow and obtain legal advice before making any decisions.

Co-ownership

Buying a property with your child means you have a share of the property and will be registered on the title of the property. It’s a good way to protect your investment and have a share in the capital gain on the property when it’s sold.

Things to think about: ensure you sign a Property Sharing Agreement that specifies who pays what, who lives in the house, and what happens when the property is eventually sold.

 

As always, it’s worthwhile seeking sound financial advice when it comes to buying property. If you’d like to sit down with an adviser and review your current situation with a view to helping your children onto the property ladder, simply call Kevin Burrowes on 027 232 2316 or email kevinb@mx.co.nz.

Our thanks to Mortgage Express for this insightful article.

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Christchurch Real Estate: November 2022 Update

Jim Davis, Harcourts Christchurch/South Island Regional Manager, shares his latest view on the property market in Christchurch.

With just one week to go until Christmas day, it’s fair to say the interest in the property market locally will not be a high priority for most people over the next few weeks! However, for those of you who are in the market currently or perhaps are thinking about what your options and choices are over the holiday season then the following information may be helpful.

There are a lot of comments out in the marketplace currently and the current situation is best summed up by the following statement. “Buyers are again weighing up the likely impact on mortgage rates with current downward pressure on property prices. Those thinking of selling are again looking at the market and asking, ‘is this the right time?”

So, is this the right time?

All I can say is that you have all the information currently available, and all the information indicates that Harcourts in Christchurch should be the brand of your choice. The right time is when you are ready and if you are ready then now is as good a time as any. The bigger decision is choosing the right person and the right company to represent you. It’s interesting that even some of the builders and developers who previously did it all themselves are now asking Harcourts to help sell their stock. If you need any more convincing this data might help:

REINZ Figures:
Median $680,000
Average $767,140

Harcourts Figures:
Median $715,000
Average $790,433

You have all the facts; all you need to do is decide whether “the time is right now?”
If so, Harcourts is the logical choice.

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Proud to Support Cholmondeley Children’s Centre

Donate a gift and bring a smile to a child’s face, who otherwise might go without.

A vital part of the Holmwood culture is giving back to our community. This Christmas we will once again be supporting Cholmondeley Children’s Centre.

Cholmondeley Children’s Centre provides short-term emergency and planned respite care and education to children aged 3-12 years whose families are experiencing genuine stress or crisis. Their aim is to give these children the opportunity to build their resilience, while issues at home are resolved. We are extremely proud to support this important charity.

You Can Help Too!

  • Gifts needed for children aged 3–12 years
  • If you’re having trouble deciding on a gift, gift vouchers from retailers like Toy World and Farmers are great too
  • Donations of new, non-perishable food items or Christmas Hampers are welcome
  • For monetary donations please visit cholmondeley.org.nz/support-us/donate

We are collecting presents for these children under the Christmas tree in our Auction Room. If you would also like to support this worthy cause, please bring your gifts to the upstairs reception of our head office at 397 Ilam Road before midday on Wednesday 7th December (unwrapped).

You can also visit www.cholmondeley.org.nz to read more about the amazing work Cholmondeley do in the community to help families flourish.

Thank you for your continued support.

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Holmwood’s Continued Support of Nurse Maude…

The name Nurse Maude is seen by many as the brand associated with district nursing in Christchurch, however it was over 120 years ago that Nurse Maude herself took to the streets of Christchurch to care for the poor and sick. While the principles and values are the same, nursing has been transformed by continual advances in training, research, and technology. At the centre of all Nurse Maude’s Community Nursing Services is keeping people out of hospital and residential care wherever possible so they can live in their own homes and communities.

Through snowstorms, earthquakes, pandemics and the ups and down of the real estate market, Harcourts Holmwood hasn’t missed a beat, sponsoring nearly half the fleet of Nurse Maude cars since 2009. Every day of the year Harcourts Holmwood agents are travelling the length and breadth of Canterbury on the back windows of the Nurse Maude cars to support their work across the region.

Holmwood agents are much more than just a face on an ad. Whether our agents have been supporting Nurse Maude from day one, or have just come onboard as a new sponsor, each and every one of those agents contributes to the care of those in need in our community. These are also the people who supplied their own four wheel drive vehicles (or found someone who had one) when patients needed to be transported through deep snow. They helped to shovel mud and silt from the hospice shops and run vital supplies to patients in the community after the earthquakes. Although these events had a direct impact on Harcourt Holmwood and our agents, we never let them down, which is probably why Harcourts has won the Most Trusted Brand consistently since 2013.

In every respect Harcourts Holmwood is certainly Nurse Maude’s kind of people.

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We’ve struck gold for the sixth consecutive year!

Harcourts is thrilled to have been awarded the Reader’s Digest Quality Service Gold Award in real estate agencies, as voted by the people of New Zealand, for the sixth year in a row.

We know that working with a real estate brand that truly understands your needs when it comes to buying, selling or investing is what really matters, so we are delighted that you have voted with your feet and yet again given us your gold seal of approval.

“In a challenging market in a year full of change, it is humbling to see first-hand that the team at Harcourts has yet again got the vote of confidence from New Zealanders,” says Harcourts New Zealand Managing Director Bryan Thomson.

“It is Harcourts’ consistent commitment to service excellence that has been instrumental in us retaining the Gold Quality Service Award for six years and the Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Award for 10 consecutive years. We are proud of our people from all across New Zealand and what they deliver but even when we know we are winning awards such as this, our people continue to strive to be the best. This is what keeps Harcourts at the top.”

This year’s Reader’s Digest Quality Service awards are based on five pillars: understanding, consistency, simplicity, satisfaction and personalisation. Market research agency, Catalyst, surveyed 1,620 New Zealanders who were asked to nominate a service provider in a wide range of categories, including real estate agencies. To qualify to vote in a category, the respondent must have used a service provider from that industry.

In the research our clients told us that “Harcourts have a knowledgeable team who go the extra mile” and that “Harcourts went over and beyond what they expected.” Reader’s Digest says it is confident that the Quality Service survey results for 2023 are a truly accurate measurement of New Zealand consumer sentiment.

If you’re buying or selling property,
we’re here to help.