[sizzlingbadger]

Well we're quickly becoming disillusioned with the whole property game :wah

Had a second look at the house we wanted to definitely buy only to find out another lot had gone through yesterday morning and put in an offer at the same time as us :(

Both were presented last night and we lost out again ! The vendors had decided on putting a cash out clause on it as well and I hate those.

We've already lost one property due to this, it's almost the equivalent of gazumping in the UK in my eyes. If a better offer comes along while the people are waiting to go unconditional then the vendors can turn around and say we give you notice, then you've got to decide whether you want to risk saying you'll go unconditional and put the deposit down. Could mean you end up with two houses.

We'll see where we go with ours, it's due to go unconditional next Tuesday. Then it gets scary as we'll have no property lined up to go to, renting in Featherston is a nightmare at the moment as well :uhoh

[Andy-Dee]

Good Luck - sounds a nightmare but believe in fate - when the right house comes along it will all work out - trust me - I'm a would be migrant!

[nippa&pippa]

Oh dear, we also lost first house we put offer few weeks ago too. I kept looking 12/7 till monday (god know how many houses we have been viewing!!!), we finally found house that got our name on it...you will find your true house. Keeping looking...eventually will click to you :nice1

[jen]

Hang in there - it's a rollar coaster ride, isn't it? We lost out originally on buying our house to another offer that came in at the same time. Those buyers' financing fell through and the vendor's agent said if we offered the same amount we could have it (not very professional of them actually, as we would have paid a bit more for the house at that point if she had'nt outright told us the other buyers' price :confused:)


Both were presented last night and we lost out again ! The vendors had decided on putting a cash out clause on it as well and I hate those.


What is a cash out clause? Is that the part that lets them take another offer while you're offer is still unconditional?

Jen

[jess]

What is a cash out clause? Is that the part that lets them take another offer while you're offer is still unconditional? Yep.

I guess we were guilty of attempted gazumping. We wanted to see a house and the estate agent put us off and told us to wait until the open house. When we got to the open house we found out an offer was going in within the hour. Didn't give us much time to think. We put in an offer the next morning. They'd already accepted the other guy's, but because ours was better they told him he had 5 days (or however many it was, can't recall) to go unconditional or they were going to use the cash out clause to sell to us instead. He did go unconditional in time, and we did not get the house. Just as well. We like the house we are in now much better than the one we almost got, and anyway, I would have been a rotten gazumper. :o

[zardell]

Well we're quickly becoming disillusioned with the whole property game :wah




Tell me about it !!!!!

But I wish you good luck in all your endeavours.


Julie

xx

[diforsyth]

There is new book out to help the NZ buyer, here's an extract of the promo e-mail: -

The Streetwise Homebuyer is a new book from the publishers of Where to Live in Auckland and is available to purchase from our website HYPERLINK "http://www.wheretoliveinauckland.co.nz"www.wheretoliveinauckland.co.nz for NZ$26.62 excl GST (plus P&P).

Buying a home in New Zealand can be a minefield. Houses for sale without a price, secret reserves, high pressure auctions. It?s easy to end up buying a lemon rather than a peach.

One mistake can cost you thousands. As the saying goes; Let the buyer beware.

The Streetwise Homebuyer is a step-by-step guide on how to find, negotiate and buy the best possible home for the best possible price. It reveals the tips, tricks and traps of today?s real estate market in New Zealand.

Everything is covered. From buying an apartment to building your own home. From where to buy to what to buy. From making an offer to making a killing.

The Streetwise Homebuyer puts you, the buyer, in charge of the home buying process for a change. Inside you?ll learn how to:

· Spot a bargain from a rip-off

· Identify up and coming neighbourhoods

· Avoid buying a leaky building

· Do your own pre-purchase checks

· Recognise whether an asking price is reasonable or laughable

· Renovate without hysterics


Armed with HYPERLINK "http://www.wheretoliveinauckland.co.nz/StreetWise.aspx"The Streetwise Homebuyer, you will be a formidable buyer in New Zealand.

Let the seller beware for a change.

It certainly helped me & I would recommend it as much as the Where To.... book.

David.

[speckythecky]

Good luck with your search, hope you find just what you want soon.

The homebuyers book sounds good, especially for us non natives who struggle with the different laws / practices. I will look out for a copy when our time comes.

[sizzlingbadger]

Another good book is How to get the House you want by David Hindley.

Unfortunately I lost our copy but got another copy from the library to read up :)

We've been in contact with a private seller who fobbed us off a couple of months back. It seems they're willing to show us around their property, so things could be back on the up.

Have to say though I'm losing all will to live at the moment and sick of looking at properties :(

[Mexican in NZ]

Hi Vxxx!!
Sorry to hear all this is happening...do you definatelyu want to stay in Featherston or u r up to move a bit up?? Meaning north ...Carterton or Masterton?
Will be nice to have you as a neighbour... there are like 4 houses selling in my street here in Carterton!!

Well send you the best of luck!
xoxo,
Ads

[willowshouse]

There is new book out to help the NZ buyer, here's an extract of the promo e-mail: -

The Streetwise Homebuyer is a new book from the publishers of Where to Live in Auckland and is available to purchase from our website HYPERLINK "http://www.wheretoliveinauckland.co.nz"www.wheretoliveinauckland.co.nz for NZ$26.62 excl GST (plus P&P).

Buying a home in New Zealand can be a minefield. Houses for sale without a price, secret reserves, high pressure auctions. It?s easy to end up buying a lemon rather than a peach.

One mistake can cost you thousands. As the saying goes; Let the buyer beware.

The Streetwise Homebuyer is a step-by-step guide on how to find, negotiate and buy the best possible home for the best possible price. It reveals the tips, tricks and traps of today?s real estate market in New Zealand.

Everything is covered. From buying an apartment to building your own home. From where to buy to what to buy. From making an offer to making a killing.

The Streetwise Homebuyer puts you, the buyer, in charge of the home buying process for a change. Inside you?ll learn how to:

· Spot a bargain from a rip-off

· Identify up and coming neighbourhoods

· Avoid buying a leaky building

· Do your own pre-purchase checks

· Recognise whether an asking price is reasonable or laughable

· Renovate without hysterics


Armed with HYPERLINK "http://www.wheretoliveinauckland.co.nz/StreetWise.aspx"The Streetwise Homebuyer, you will be a formidable buyer in New Zealand.

Let the seller beware for a change.

It certainly helped me & I would recommend it as much as the Where To.... book.

David.

Yay! This is the book I got free from National Bank when I went for a mortgage .. along with a copy of "Where to Live in Auckland" for free too!

[StevieD]

Good luck guys, know how you feel after our recent trials and tribulations with our old house back in UK.

[sizzlingbadger]

We had the builders report done yesterday and it now couldn't be more stressful. Found some stuff on the house that we didn't even know we had so started looking at everything in more detail (even how the front door didn't fit property, for goodness sake :wah )

Now got an anxious wait to hear if they're happy to continue or pull out. None of what he's found is major considering, probably about a grands worth of work, nothing to what we've had to spend on the place. He also recommended them getting a LIM, brilliant that could lead to a delayed unconditional date of another 3 weeks.

For some reason this is the most stressful move we've ever made. Back to panic attacks at the moment and just can't relax. With this on top I'm really going to start pulling my hair out.

Not sure why when in the past we've had people pull out of a sale literally the day before we were due to move.

Why can't it be straightforward :confused:

(Rant Over :o

[Tia Maria]

sizzlingbadger wrote:

We had the builders report done yesterday and it now couldn't be more stressful. Found some stuff on the house that we didn't even know we had so started looking at everything in more detail

I think builders reports are important to flag up things like serious damp, subsidence, roof likely to need replacing within a year etc.

However, if it contains things like kitchen a bit dated, a few examples of borer, roof will need replacing in next 10years (all examples from ours), then I wouldn't worry about it as much. To a certain extent building inspectors have to cover themselves and also every house that has been lived in will have ongoing maintenance issues. Have you seen a copy?

If they come back to you about it, you obviously have a few options - offer to get the situation rectified yourself, offer to knock some money off the price or stick to your guns politely explaining that the asking price reflected the condition of the property and that you are not selling a newly built house which would be expected top be free of any issues (although rarely are!).

Good Luck

Cheers

Tia

[sizzlingbadger]

Thanks Tia.

Doesn't help when the OH obviously isn't really that bothered about things.

Waiting to hear if they'll come back to us or not. OH is quite happy fixing the problems himself, just hoping that they'll still go for it.

If they do go for the LIM it has a knock on effect for the house we want. Simply won't be able to go for it if we don't go unconditional on Tuesday as it has an offer in progress at the moment and is due to go unconditional in the next week.

Oh well, Open Home again today so we'll see how things go :D

[sizzlingbadger]

No one turned up at Open Home :roll

Then the agent rang in the evening and popped over as he had news on the buyers. Suspense of a few minutes while we waited for the verdict.

The builder came back saying $6k of work was needed :confused: Well then it all fell into place he obviously saw the buyer wasn't a DIYer and so decided to price things up beyond belief to get work :no We've asked for a copy of the report and have suggested to the agent that they don't use him around nervous buyers as he could lose quite a few sales.

So the vendors asked to go halfs on it (phew !), but our great agent said he'd take a grand off the commission (got him for a fantastic rate anyway) and then that way we weren't left to short. Good job they didn't come back wanting $6k off as we would have said a definite no as they're getting it for a good price anyway.

So fingers crossed that we go unconditional tomorrow :nice1

[Singel]

So fingers crossed that we go unconditional tomorrow :nice1
Keep everything crossed for you :nice1 :nice1
BEST OF LUCK:cheers

[Riddley]

Fingers, toes and everything crossed for you. Good luck.
We are selling ours in the UK - spent Saturday showing a muppet round who is in a chain of 5. FIVE. I wanted to shoot someone as the info we'd had was "they have sold and are in a good position". Estate Agents - agents of the dark side they are.

[sizzlingbadger]

Yep agree with you there Riddley, although I'm training to become one at present :uhoh :laugh

Our agent is great, got no problems with him, in fact they're way better than the first agent we had as they hardly got anyone through the door.

We've had people come through in the UK who have been in chains up to 13 ! ! So 5 is pretty good going. We've been lucky with most of our sales and usually end up with a chain of 3/4.

Good Luck with the house sale, thinking back to how stressful the big move was to get out here this is nothing but still managing to stress me out beyond belief :nice1

[nippa&pippa]

We've had people come through in the UK who have been in chains up to 13 ! ! So 5 is pretty good going. We've been lucky with most of our sales and usually end up with a chain of 3/4.



Mostly we had people came around haven't sold their or not on market yet:( before we told estate agents stop wasting our times! A person who brought our house last month haven't got his own house, mean no chain, mean very quick exchanged in 4 weeks! :raebanana

Sizzingbadger, have you found house to move in yet? I still find very hard to accept that we gave the current owner of our house the date of 29th June or earlier that they have to move out by!! Not waiting, like UK, for the chains to end.

[Sam B]

Oh I'm stressed for you. Let us know as I'm worried for you now! My own house things seem to be going smoothly, so I need to worry on someone else's behalf....

[sizzlingbadger]

I don't want to pass stress on :(

Just felt like I had to write it down to help my stress:) And to show that not all house moves in NZ are straightforward.

We're on tenterhooks at the moment. The house we really want and is under offer goes unconditional on Friday. As soon as we go unconditional tomorrow we're ringing the agent and presenting our offer, it's still on the table at the moment.

With that comes more stress as we haven't got access to the deposit and as there is a cash out clause the other people could come back and put the deposit straight down :(

Man I can imagine many more bottles of wine before the situation is resolved. It's beginning to feel like a right soap opera especially when we found the builder is the partner of the other agent working at the same real estate, oops :D

[Debbie]

Best of luck with the house. NZ house buying is no better than the UK IMO. We put in offers on 2 houses and lost out, (one of them we offered twice on because the first 'sucessfull offer' fell through). We lost a house at auction and finally ended up with this place. I felt bad about offering on the house we eventually brought because there was an offer already in place but the owners had a clause that allowed them to give notice to the other party to compleat in a time limit.
Buying houses here is so fast paced here, it seems if you like a place you have no time to think things through and because everythings in writing it's so perminant. Scared the pants off me, the most stressfull part of NZ so far.
You have my sympathy and best wishes.
Debbie

[Sam B]

Don't worry, I've had a cocktail and I feel much less stressed for you!

[Karen]

You've no idea how great it is to hear other people are in the same boat as us...(not that l enjoy wallowing in others misery!!)

Last week-end we put an offer forward on a house which was verbally accepted by the vendors but we had to wait until yesterday due to the vendors shift work for it to be confirmed in writing...how stressful was that!

As the house wasn't officially on the market (we were lucky and met the 'right' person in the know) the kitchen although being made hasn't yet been fitted. We made an offer conditional on the vendors supplying the kitchen and appliances even though we've no idea what colour/style it is!!!

Still haggling over who's responsible for supplying things like the taps and cupboard handles when all we really want to do is sign the contract and go unconditional!!

Tomorrow we get to go to the cabinet makers and see the kitchen being made...l've reached the stage now that it could be lime green with purple spots and l'd still sign as we love the house and would have been happy to buy with the kitchen in it's original state (but couldn't as it was already being made when we offered).

Stressful times...................roll on Weds when we'll hopefully eventually go unconditional.

Karen

[sizzlingbadger]

Feeling for you Karen as well. Hope the kitchen isn't lime green with purple spots, could make for a very unique kitchen though :D

Update on ours ....

We were supposed to go unconditional today. Agent has just rang to say they need another couple of days ......... aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh

Apparently they're waiting for a valuation on one of their properties. We weren't made aware of this and feel very angry at the moment. They had said they were in rented and ready to go. It means it's going to be very tight getting the offer in on the other place agreed before they go unconditional on Friday. I think if they come back on Thursday and say they want another extension we're taking the place off the market, cannot get anymore stressed at the moment :no

[Sam B]

They sound like the buyers from hell. I've had to hit the cocktails again on your behalf...

[jen]

Wow, this better get resolved soon or Sam's going to be in rehab :D

I still have my fingers crossed that your buyers get their act together!

Jen

[Sam B]

Ha ha ha, (sound of a slightly tipsy Sam)

[sizzlingbadger]

At this rate I'll probably be certified by the end of this week :exit

We're also hoping, fingers crossed, it all gets sorted on Thursday. When our solicitor rang us it took her 4 attempts to get through to their solicitor. Apparently the solicitor they were using had left and no one had any idea what was supposed to happening :(

[Juniper]

That sucks :( Such a nice place, why oh why can't it all go smoothly...

Hubby likes to say "we'll buy it!" when I update him on your woes, but of course I can't see how that could really happen, lol... well maybe you can show it to us anyway in a few weeks, just for kicks, I'd love to see a couple of nice NZ homes in person! :D

Of course, I will cross my fingers that it is off of your hands by then ... :cool:

[sizzlingbadger]

:D :clap

HOORRRAAAAYYYYY ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

We've finally gone unconditional today, PHEW.

Now just got an anxious wait now to find out if the property we're after goes unconditional or not to the other buyers. If it doesn't then we're jumping in and going for it.

Hopefully one more stressful night and we can finally relax. If not then we're going to have a stressful week trying to find something :o

[Tia Maria]

Wooo Hoooo :clap

I'll keep everything crossed for you!

Cheers

Tia

[jubjub]

thanks goodness part one is over, I have no nails left!

Good luck for the house you want....

[Moorf]

YAY Congrats Sizz!!!! :raebanana I can uncross limbs now.....

[nippa&pippa]

yippeeee:raebanana that one stress out of way for me!

My problem is my house situation is it happening too quickly, it was due to exchange on 29th June, give us plenty of times to pack between me resting and children's activities. Two night ago, we had phone call that our houe is ready for us on 20th May as current owners have found another house to move in :exit
Is that normal to have house ready that quick??....I am so used to UK market where you sit and wait till the chain is finish up to 6months.

[Moorf]

Yep, that's quite normal :yes Sophia! Not long now eh! :raebananaRemember, if you need extra boot-space... ;)

[sizzlingbadger]

Thanks guys, feeling mighty relieved right now :D

When we moved into this place it took just under a week, from viewing to moving in :exit

The place was empty and we were cash buyers, didn't need a LIM, just builders report and finance on the contract.

With this one we've got till end of June but hopefully we can move quicker.

Good Luck Sophia :nice1

[nippa&pippa]

Yep, that's quite normal Sophia! Not long now eh!Remember, if you need extra boot-space... ;)

Of course! I told my OH that :nice1 I think he is getting few people to help out too with heavy items (cos we both can't lift heavy items for some reasons :exit )
I hate packing, I hate packing, I hate packing.....I do try avoid doing it like now while ash at kindy and Rom is napping, now is good time but no thank you!..on second thought, off to continue packing now...bye!

[Juniper]

what a relief! good luck on the next part!

[Sam B]

Hey, I'm having a celebratory cocktail for you! Hic.

[sizzlingbadger]

Unfortunately the property we were after went unconditional with the other buyers :wah

So we're now homeless unless we can find something we like, absolutely nothing coming on to the market at the moment, so I'm not holding out any hopes.

Feeling really piddled off with our buyers, wish I could pull out and leave them feeling like I do at the moment :(

Some more strong alcohol needed for tonight :o

[Juniper]

Yikes...how long do you have?

I'll have what you're having. Flying out for four weeks on Monday, feelin the stress fer shure!

[sizzlingbadger]

Got 5 and a bit weeks to find somewhere, go unconditional and move :exit

[Juniper]

:uhoh yeek...

Well, you gotta put it out of your mind for at least one night, have someone take you out soon!! Is that theater open yet? ;)

[Sam B]

Oh no! Why didn't they choose you? Was the other offer better? Did you lose out cos your buyers took so long? I'm so sorry.

[jubjub]

OMG Sizz, the market down there sounds a bit like here at the moment, we are only casually browsing at the moment, but every open home we try and go to its already been sold, one in my friends street did not even get to open home, sold in four days after sign went up!

I wish you best of luck finding your home, and you better do it soon, as we are all turning into nervous wrecks to keep you company!

[jaycee]

Hey, look on the bright side, when you do find something you want, at least you're not stuck trying to find a buyer for your own, or knocking down the price to get it sold. I confess I ousted another bidder for my house because they had to sell their place first - they had a few days to do it before my offer took precedence. You won't be homeless, you'll be in an excellent cashflow situation :)

[jen]

Oh that's too bad - here's hoping you'll have a very productive, positive 5 weeks coming up & find someplace great, or at least someplace temporary that's good enough!

Jen