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AJ Cartwright
I'll Hang Around A Little
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 10
Location: A tiny terraced house in S.E. England. Wishing for a large detached house Christchurch or Tauranga?
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Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2003 5:52 am Post subject: NZ Estate Agents Shocking |
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NZ Estate Agents charge three to four percent commission plus GST on a sale? 
Best be sure you're going to stay for a while put once you've bought. |
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John Miller
Valued Member
Joined: 17 Nov 2003
Posts: 102
Location: New Zealand
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2003 3:41 pm Post subject: Re: NZ Estate Agents Shocking |
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| AJ Cartwright wrote: |
Best be sure you're going to stay for a while put once you've bought. |
Agreed. Stumping up over $10,000 to sell a $300,000 house is no laughing matter. To be fair they do more than a UK agent would for their money. One drove me around North Shore for most of a day showing me houses and they do 'open homes' at weekends. The seller clears off for an hour and the agent runs an open home where all the people interested in the house can come for a look. Despite some minor redeeming qualities, when all's said and done, they're still a bunch of sharks.   |
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bigshotla
I'll Hang Around A Little
Joined: 17 Nov 2003
Posts: 16
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 8:32 pm Post subject: estate agents |
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Does the buyer pay that percentage? Here in California, the seller pays 6%. 3 to the sellers agent and 3 to the buyers agent. Plus there are a million other fees - it costs approximatelly 10% of the value of your house to sell a house here. The buyer pays tons of fees, but not a fee for the agent.
Is that unusual? |
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JCM
Moderator
Joined: 15 Nov 2003
Posts: 275
Location: Christchurch since last century
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Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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Hi bigshotla, seller pays around 3 - 4% commission to the real estate agent. If the house is sold by auction, there's an auctioneer's fee added on top of the 3 - 4%. There are also legal fees - not quite sure how much these are as I've never sold a house here.
In the last few weeks I've seen a couple of adverts from Real Estate agents offering to sell houses at a fixed fee of $3,000 or so, no matter how much the house sells for. I hope this catches on.
Estate agents here are continually putting adverts for their services in people's mailboxes offering a free valuation of houses, trying to encourage people to sell. Their tactics are more aggressive than I was used to in the UK. (Things might have changed in the UK by now of course.) |
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bigshotla
I'll Hang Around A Little
Joined: 17 Nov 2003
Posts: 16
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 12:33 pm Post subject: real estate |
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Aggressive doesn't even begin to describe tactics here in California. During the heavy months (May-Sept) there are countless newspaper stories about the lengths agents have to go to both get clients, and secure houses for their clients. It's incredibly competitive. I'm sure it is in every major city now.
Back to New Zealand: Can you give me any insider tips on house hunting/buying there? What does "tender" mean, or "auction". Very few houses I've seen on websites have prices listed! Also, do you need to be a resident to buy property? What are interest rates like? Down payments, etc.
Sorry to barrage you, just answer whatever you feel like.
thanks! |
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JCM
Moderator
Joined: 15 Nov 2003
Posts: 275
Location: Christchurch since last century
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:28 pm Post subject: Re: real estate |
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| bigshotla wrote: | | What does "tender" mean, or "auction". Very few houses I've seen on websites have prices listed! Also, do you need to be a resident to buy property? What are interest rates like? Down payments, etc. |
'tender' is a system where buyers submit sealed bids for a house. At a certain time, on a certain date, all of the sealed bids are opened and the highest bid wins, provided the seller is happy with the price.
'auction' is just that. All of the potential buyers gather for the house to be auctioned. The highest bidder wins, provided the seller is happy with the price. Real estate agents push auctions the hardest because this is the sales method from which they take the highest fees.
Non residents can buy property in NZ. The only restriction is if you try to buy acreages.
From what I know, U.S. mortgages tend to be at fixed interest rates for a long period of time. I think most people in NZ take variable rate mortgages that rise and fall with the central bank's interest rate.
Most banks will lend 95 - 100% of a property's valuation. If I remember rightly, you pay a slightly higher interest rate if you want to borrow more than 80% of a property's value.
The government owned Kiwibank's interest rates tend to be the lowest - currently 6.55% variable or 7.7% fixed for five years - much higher than in the USA, but savers here get much higher interest rates too. 
http://www.kiwibank.co.nz/rates/interest_rates.asp |
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martwend
I Like It Here
Joined: 17 Nov 2003
Posts: 62
Location: Napier since March 2004
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 10:31 pm Post subject: |
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Hi,
4% does seem like a high commission to pay when selling. However, we have just bought a house in Napier and our estate agent was very kind and helpful. She certainly encouraged us in going through with the purchase but she was also honest and straightforwrd. Before you do anything...get a lawyer. You don't need one before you make an offer but you can avoid a lot of hassle if you have one on board before hand. Also, make sure your lender is ready to confirm your mortgage very quickly once you make an offer. Things move fast here and you can make an offer, have it accepted and move in within 2 weeks.
Hope that helps.
Wendy |
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