Talking to Real Estate Agents

[Aston]

Hey Saphire,

I'm with you... I'm out of NZ at the moment also and I email all day long to REA's and only one out five emails gets replied to. What I do is email the Manager of the company, tell the Manager that the agent isn't replying to emails and I get an answer from the agent usually within about 15 minutes.

Good luck.

[Aston]

Hi Patrick,

To bypass this the REA's, how about this one.

A trader in the Wellington area, goes around the suburbs he is targeting and nails signs on lamposts saying.. "We Buy Houses... 021 XXX XXX"

Apparently it works for him.

Good luck.

[Propoholic]

Hi FH

She in turn said that because there are multiple offers being presented on the property,
it was best for me to have no due dilligence and by having fewer clauses it would increase my chances of a sale.

Multiple offer situations are typical of the buoyant market we have been experiencing. This is the ideal situation for the vendor as a mini auction may eventuate. The agent will advise interested parties to present their best offer because they may not get the opportunity to counter offer/negotiate further. In this situation it is very common for the vendor to receive offers above list price. This situation is probably the least attractive to you ie bidding competition from other buyers.

Stick to your buying rules and maintain a position of being a reluctant purchaser (unmotivated purchaser). Dont get caught up in the hype of this deal, present your offer (inc due diligence) and continue to work other deals! The multiple offer situatons will fall away as the market simmers down.

[FreezingHot]

Hi Propaholic

Thanks. My gut feel was to keep my due dilligence.

Am learning all the time.

FH

[SEIBU]

Aussie phone card companies - cheap rates to NZ

I accept your point about using the phone but you are asking me to make floods of international phone calls (I don't think so, thanks, especially not to a mobile!) for the answers to a dozen questions, to some of which they won't know the answer without doing at least some research.

Sapphire, take a look here - Australian phone card companies, cheap rates, some of them too.

http://www.phonecardselector.com.au/store/customer/

I use a similar one when calling from Japan - extremely useful. I get a rate of 7 yen (NZ 10c) a minute, good for faxing too. Another thing, these companies usually have a website with account admin facilities, you can check and print off all the calls you made for a particular period, very convenient come tax time.

By the way, I don't work for any of these companies (I wish I did, they're raking it in).