Great news, the agent took her initiative and obtained an offer from right under my nose. They say fortune favours the few but hey an offer is an offer and at the time of writing the Bay of Islands property market has taken quite a hit with the biggest sufferers being the Real Estate agents themselves. Two major Real Estate brands and countless agents packing their bags for pastures new.
The Offer
The offer, ah yes the offer, not exactly fantastic but one must remember the Real Estate market is a fickle beast and if you sell at the bottom of the market you can also buy at the bottom of the market so everything usually levels out somewhere along the line.
If we don’t hear that old cliche “cash is king” again I don’t think too many will mind. At the end of the day you can almost forget about registered valuations and personal feelings about what your property is worth; it’s all about what the buyer is prepared to pay and if there aren’t many buyers around then prepare to take a hit or withdraw from the market gracefully and wait for better market times – if you can that is.
The agent was hungry due to the lack of sales recently and we received countless emails legitimising the offer price. One must bear in mind that even though Real Estate agents legally represent you the vendor they are also looking out for their commission. If you don’t accept the buyers offer they don’t get paid!. So who is really representing who?
Anyway, after many sleepless nights and rounds of negotiations we finally accepted an offer which was neither attractive nor inviting but hey without that elusive crystal ball we don’t know what the future holds in the waterfront market in the Bay of Islands and with cash in hand we can hopefully buy well in the current slightly depressed market.
Factors that helped to form our decision:
- Non New Zealand residents can’t buy waterfront property over a certain size meaning that we were reduced to selling to our domestic customers.
- The Bay of Islands property market has been on the decline since 2007.
- In order to maximise the value of a large waterfront section a substantial 1M plus property would be required to be developed.
- There are few rental options on bare land to help minimise mortgage costs.
- Council rates are proportional to land value so high value land attracts a premium annual overhead.
- Subdivision is expensive and if completed puts this property in the larger pool of smaller sections that are also selling much cheaper in the Bay of Islands.
- Our lawn mowing costs were several thousand dollars a year.