Latest news with #propertybuying
RNZ News
30-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
How do I know what to offer for a house
RNZ's money correspondent answers your questions about buying a house. Photo: RNZ We're trying to buy a first home and lots of places we look at are "price by negotiation" or deadline sales. How do we know what to offer? I think there are a few things you can do to help give you a guide to what sort of offer might be appropriate. It can help to look at other recent sales in the area, and work out how they compare. You can find these on sites like - if you see a place that looks a similar size and condition and in the same sort of area, it might give you a guide as to what might be reasonable. This is where going to a few open homes before you start looking seriously can really help, because you'll get a sense of what represents good value. Sometimes you see data going around about a certain suburb selling at a percentage above or below CV - this can give you a general guide but won't account for the specific features of the particular house you're looking at. But Steve Goodey, who does a lot of this in his work as a property investor and investment coach said those sorts of data sites would not help for some of the factors that can make all the difference when you're buying a house to live in. He said while an offer for a rental property was usually about making the numbers work, when it was an owner-occupied deal other facts were more important, like the vendor's motivation, how badly the buyer wanted a particular property, how soon they needed a house and how "special" a place was. The price that a vendor might be willing to accept will also be influenced to a degree by their circumstances - someone who is just testing the market to see if they can sell will be less likely to take a lower offer than someone who needs to move. If someone bought recently, they might also have less room to accept a lower price than someone who bought a long time ago. Real estate salespeople should give you a guide as to what sort of price range the property might be in, but remember they are acting for the vendor. You'll need to do your own research and offer a price that feels right for you. It's then up to the salesperson to present that offer to the vendor, and you can negotiate from there if it's appropriate. I'm thinking about buying an investment property but how does it work to use the equity from my existing house? It's quite common for property investors to get started by using the equity in their own homes. It works like this. If you bought your house a while ago, and you've paid down your home loan, you might have built up extra equity in your property. Say for example you bought your house 10 years ago for $500,000 and it's now worth $1 million. If you had a home loan initially for $400,000, and you've paid off a bit of the loan over time, so you now owe $350,000, you've gone from having $100,000 equity to having $650,000. The bank may let you increase your loan to $800,000, giving you $450,000 that can be used to purchase an investment property. You can use that equity as a deposit and then get a loan for up to 70 percent of the investment property's value to complete the deal. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
What red flags do you need to spot before you buy a home? This is Money podcast
How long did you take looking round your home before you put an offer in for it? The average prospective buyer spends just 43 minutes. Surprise, surprise, research suggests that it pays to take your time. This is week, Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Lee Boyce talk about what should be on your checklist before you take the plunge and buy a property. Should you go by vibes alone, or do you really need to kick the tyres? And when you do buy, what happens if the seller leaves junk like a mouldy fridge, grimy washing machine and a stained sofa? We reveal all. Buy-to-let has taken a battering in recent years – but there are still pockets of Britain where investors are finding a decent yield. Cash Isas are back in the spotlight with a review likely to come in July – how likely is it that they will be tinkered with? And with news defunct furniture brand MFI will return after 20 years, what stores would you like to see make a comeback? Listen to the This is Money podcast We publish the podcast every Friday on This is Money and at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and more. Search for it at your favourite podcast platform. To download Apple Podcasts go to the App store. On Android devices, go to the Google Play store to download the podcast app of your choice. You can press play to listen to this week's full episode on the player above, and wherever you get your podcasts please subscribe and review us if you like the podcast. You can also listen to the latest episode, find the archive and join in the debate in reader comments on the This is Money podcast page.
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
A Place In The Sun's Laura Hamilton shares her top tips for buying abroad after purchasing dream house in Spain
Laura Hamilton has shared her top tips for buying abroad after purchasing her dream house in Spain. The A Place In The Sun host, 43, bought a house in the heart of Pollença back in August and has been renovating the six-bedroom townhouse ever since. Drawing on her own experience, Laura has now shared the lesson she has learnt along the way after completing a 'big part of the demolition.' She is currently working to reconfigure the 'higgledy-piggledy' house into a four bedroom home with a courtyard garden. Laura explained how she has forced to change her plans along way and has ended up paying more than she expected. In an interview with The Sun, she detailed: 'You need a lot of patience because you have to follow the rules and regulations. She continued: 'You need to do a lot of research before doing a project overseas. What I will say is like any property you buy, you should get a survey. 'Something else that I would say is to get the right mortgage. There are some amazing mortgages available out there.' Laura said that due to her three per cent mortgage which is fixed for 25 years, she didn't have to 'sink all my money' into the project. The presenter also urged anyone thinking of buying a house abroad to 'do it now' as she regrets not doing it sooner. Laura ended up knocking down most of the house in order to create her dream 'plunge pool' as a centre piece to the holiday house. Taking to Instagram at the end of November, she posted an update for her fans, writing: 'LOOK HOW FAR I'VE COME... 'Back in August I purchased a holiday home in Mallorca. But of course me being me, it had to be a 'renovation project'. It's a massive undertaking and I am loving the process and of course the transformation. 'I decided not to post lots about my renovation on this page as I know not everyone is interested so I decided to create a separate page with more content on the project over on @myrenovationinthesun.' The presenter urged anyone thinking of buying a house abroad to 'do it now' as she regrets not doing it sooner Laura shared how it was tough to gut the house as it is on a small lane in the middle of the town - and it took a team of eight people three days to empty everything. The whole back of the house had been demolished and the roof terrace has gone in order to create a space for a courtyard garden with a plunge pool. She has also gutted the old fashioned bathroom, downstairs bedroom and kitchen to make way for a more modern design. Laura has been one of the rotating presenters on Channel 4 's lifestyle series A Place In The Sun since 2012. She began her rise to fame in 2003, appearing on popular children's programme Fun Song Factory on CITV - alongside JLS' Aston Merrygold. Laura also presented the Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards and was in talks to host The X Factor accompaniment show The Xtra Factor. Since becoming a firm favourite on A Place In The Sun, Laura has appeared on Dancing On Ice, where she came second.
