[UktoKiwi]

It would be nice to hear from members about how long it took them to buy their house/property.

A) Which area of new Zealand
B) How long to find?
C) How long to agree a sale/price and then sign agreement
D) How long for the conveyancing until you were able to move in?
E) Did you use professional help such as a lawyer?
E) Any problems with the whole thing?

Happy New Year

[jubjub]

A. Auckland (east), we had decided on the area from reading "Where to Live in Auckland" and a visit confirmed it.
B. about two/three months, although hubby viewed it alone within two weeks of being in country.
c. about an hour, we sat in our car outside while agent trotted back and forth.
d. three weeks, very quick and painless
e. Yup, cost $1300, as we were new to country it made sense, and we did not miss anything that way
f. No probs, we got builders report done, did our own LIM at the library cost $20 instead of $200 for sol to do it, if its a simple LIM (our house is exactly same as it was when built), nice and easy! If there have been many alterations you may be better to get a professional eye to look at it to check for relevant permits etc, mortgage was sorted within two days (kiwibank)

[driver]

Sorry what's an LIM? Is it a search?

[jubjub]

Have a look at this, explains it quite well

http://www.waitakere.govt.nz/CnlSer/bl/proprecords/liminfo.asp

I thought it had something to do with planning permissions etc., but its actually way more detailed that than, and indeed does look like the UK version of a land search

[driver]

Thanks jubjub, now i see, and am glad its something you can do yourself to save a few $.

[Avalon]

We took a fair while.

1. We bought in the wairarapa, but had spent a long time looking at different areas around Welly to see where suited us best (with friends who were prepared to tell us all the good and bad bits)

2.Found this house at the end of May this year

3. The sale aggreement wasnt signed until the 19th july as we were bargaining on the price. They wanted 650K, we didnt want to pay anywhere near that!

4. We had done most of the work before signing the aggreement (lim which we also got direct from teh council and just paid photocopy fees on) and a valuation. We got a builders report done after the aggreement was signed - we did have a few things to clear up from that but nothing major. Our offer "went unconditional" (exchange) on the 29th july and took posession on the 9th September.

5. Absolutely - wouldnt dream of not using a decnet laywer. Ours was recommended by friends - and wasnt cheap - but I never really want to use a cheap solicitor anyway (reassuringly expensive is how I saw it). We also used Realsure for the building report - and would highly recoomend them.

6. The agent was a bit of a snake who seemed to see the words "Rich Brit" flashing over our heads as soon as we opened our gobs. And the seller had an overinflated idea of what he could get for the place and didnt want to drop the price. (But hey - no one else wanted it so it was his choice as to whether he wanted to sell it or not). We had a few problems with sorting the mortgage: I was going to go with Westpac but our "relationship manager" was a patronising git, so I went back to ASB. Then we had some problems with the structure of the mortgage becase my parents were putting capital into teh house but didnt want a mortgage. The bank and the solicitors were great at sorting this out with us (one of the benefits of having personal managers - you actually speak to a human being!)

Hope that helps

[wayne]

We live in Red Beach on the Hibiscus coast 40 mins from Auckland
We saw the house within 4 days of arriving , put an offer in 3 days later and moved in a fortnight later, it couldnt have been easier the agents were top notch(Barfoot & Thompson Whangaparaoa Alistair&Norma)
I wandered into town visited the first lawyer I came across and she took control of the legal side organised the reports etc ,the LIM report was already in the sellerslawyers so it was just a case of transferring the cash.
We then went around buying the appliances etc set the delivery date as the day we moved in and two weeks later we had the keys the appliances turned up exactly the time we were promised ,all in all the whole process was as easy as buying a loaf of bread (alright you dont need lawyers to buy a loaf but you get what I mean)
Totally unlike the UK where it took 3 months of to and fro-ing from the date of accepting an offer
Oh and I got a job within 3 days of arriving and with no cv's or references, didnt want to see my quals either only $20 ph to start with but not too bad
We actually had a job and offer on the house before we got round to buying a car we were going everywhere with a bus timetable in our hands.
Wayne