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House sale sweeteners thrown in
By NIKKI PRESTON - Waikato Times | Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Hamilton home owners trying to make their property stand out in a swamped market are throwing in treats such as cars, money and spa pools to sweeten the deal.
The owners of a house on Balmerino Cr in Pukete, who have already relocated to Whakatane, are offering their near-new spa pool as an incentive alongside the asking price of $330,000.
Lodge real estate agent Brenda Beale, who is selling the house, said this practice was not uncommon and extras made homes stand out.
The house is advertised on TradeMe as "Get a spa on the house".
Ms Beale said buyers also liked to think they were getting an added bonus.
"It's a case of you can either reduce the price, or another option is offering buyers something that is of value to them," she said.
"It's about getting people through the door at the moment."
Ms Beale said the house had not sold, but including the spa was attracting interest.
There were 158 houses sold in Hamilton city last month, two per cent down on May 2008, and just under half the number sold the same time last year, according to the latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.
A Rototuna house recently sold for $400,000, with the owners throwing in a late-model BMW.
Vaughan Heslop, the Lodge real estate agent who sold the house, said it had only been on the market for about five days before it was snapped up.
The owners were moving overseas so had no need for the $15,000 car.
Mr Heslop said it was a nice property, but chucking in the keys to the car definitely helped.
Geoff Knox is selling his investment property on Cullimore St in Pukete for offers over $310,000, but will also give the new owners $10,000 cash to spend on whatever they like new carpet, paint and wallpaper, an overseas trip, home theatre or new furniture.
Mr Knox, who has been advertising the house on TradeMe for six weeks, said he came up with the idea as a way of getting the property noticed.
He did not think lowering the price would make a difference as people who had seen the ad for the first time would not know how much it had been reduced by.
"There are so few buyers out there it seems, I don't think it is necessarily price driven," he said.
So far the lure of cash did not seem to be attracting any bites, he said.
Bayleys manager Stephen Shale said the agency had not been involved in any sales with incentives yet, but had seen the number of house swaps increase to six this year from one last year.
The swaps, which are termed "contemporaneous deals", are usually when a more expensive house is traded for a cheaper house with the owners of the cheaper house paying the difference in cash. The cheaper house was then either sold or kept as a rental property.
Mr Shale said this often happened when conditional agreements lapsed and the seller appreciated that the buyer might be the best offer they got.
However, a lot of the deals he had seen came from the buyer and not the seller, with people putting forward Bartercards, boats and Jaguar cars on top of a cash offer, as part of the deal.
By NIKKI PRESTON - Waikato Times | Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Hamilton home owners trying to make their property stand out in a swamped market are throwing in treats such as cars, money and spa pools to sweeten the deal.
The owners of a house on Balmerino Cr in Pukete, who have already relocated to Whakatane, are offering their near-new spa pool as an incentive alongside the asking price of $330,000.
Lodge real estate agent Brenda Beale, who is selling the house, said this practice was not uncommon and extras made homes stand out.
The house is advertised on TradeMe as "Get a spa on the house".
Ms Beale said buyers also liked to think they were getting an added bonus.
"It's a case of you can either reduce the price, or another option is offering buyers something that is of value to them," she said.
"It's about getting people through the door at the moment."
Ms Beale said the house had not sold, but including the spa was attracting interest.
There were 158 houses sold in Hamilton city last month, two per cent down on May 2008, and just under half the number sold the same time last year, according to the latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.
A Rototuna house recently sold for $400,000, with the owners throwing in a late-model BMW.
Vaughan Heslop, the Lodge real estate agent who sold the house, said it had only been on the market for about five days before it was snapped up.
The owners were moving overseas so had no need for the $15,000 car.
Mr Heslop said it was a nice property, but chucking in the keys to the car definitely helped.
Geoff Knox is selling his investment property on Cullimore St in Pukete for offers over $310,000, but will also give the new owners $10,000 cash to spend on whatever they like new carpet, paint and wallpaper, an overseas trip, home theatre or new furniture.
Mr Knox, who has been advertising the house on TradeMe for six weeks, said he came up with the idea as a way of getting the property noticed.
He did not think lowering the price would make a difference as people who had seen the ad for the first time would not know how much it had been reduced by.
"There are so few buyers out there it seems, I don't think it is necessarily price driven," he said.
So far the lure of cash did not seem to be attracting any bites, he said.
Bayleys manager Stephen Shale said the agency had not been involved in any sales with incentives yet, but had seen the number of house swaps increase to six this year from one last year.
The swaps, which are termed "contemporaneous deals", are usually when a more expensive house is traded for a cheaper house with the owners of the cheaper house paying the difference in cash. The cheaper house was then either sold or kept as a rental property.
Mr Shale said this often happened when conditional agreements lapsed and the seller appreciated that the buyer might be the best offer they got.
However, a lot of the deals he had seen came from the buyer and not the seller, with people putting forward Bartercards, boats and Jaguar cars on top of a cash offer, as part of the deal.
