Im looking at buying a house in NZ.
are there any differences in terms of settlements / building inspections / solicitors / contracts / deposits?
Hi Crashy,
Can you be a bit more specific about your question? I'll do my best to answer…
Building inspections – cost about $400 here (I'm based in the Hawke's Bay – Napier/Hastings area) and the person I use goes over the place with a fine tooth comb and gives a full written report (verbal for about $100 less if you wish).
Solicitors – cost about $700-$1000 depending on how tricky the deal is and whether a trust is involved. They do all the legal paperwork and register the mortgage.
Contracts – the Sale and Purchase Agreement is a specific agreement and is used for all transactions through agents or private sales. If you need a soft copy let me know and I'll email you one that you can type into.
Deposits – if an agent sale, the deposit is usually paid to the agents trust account. If private, your lawyer can hold the deposit in their trust account. Personally, I don't give big deposits these days (often zero) and if an agent is involved, only enough to make sure they are paid their 4% commission.
Settlements – not sure what you need to know.
Do you have financing sorted? I can give you a couple of names of brokers if you need help there that are experienced dealing with out of country investors.
What/where are you buying?
Cheers,
VickyHi
Please provide some of the vital info about NZ housing .
Location and your arrange___________________________________
Dominican Republic Resort | Caribbean VacationHi Vicky
building inspections seem to be the same price, however solicitors seem to be 2-3x more expensive (maybe this includes searches?).
Ive managed to find some info but I still dont know what the quickest settlement possible is for cash buys?
Im looking for cashflow / development opportunities. Cant get finance as have no "income".
I will have a look at the website in your signature.
What areas should I stay away from?
What areas have the best yield?
thanks for your help
Hi Crashy,
Yes, solicitors charge like wounded bulls!!! They charge by the minute – every time they do anything for you the timer starts ticking. Yep, they do the searches too.
The quickest I've managed to settle is one week (5 working days) and my solicitor wasn't happy about having to work so hard! That said, he completed the settlement on the assigned day.
So, if you can't get finance, how will you be purchasing the property? If you have no money, then you're pretty much limited to doing sandwich lease options, which, even in this market are challenging to put together.
Hmmm, not sure what areas you should stay away from. I only shop in the Hawkes Bay and just stay away from a few bad streets, otherwise anything goes for me provided it's +CF at 100% financed.
I'm currently finding 8.5% + yields – I don't want to say "all day long", but they are pretty plentiful, and with the rates falling they are looking even better. And I've just sold a buy & hold with 10.6% yield, it's a renovated 3-bedroom home in Hastings with $20k of equity just sitting there for the purchaser to use on his next purchase.
I'm regularly setting up lease options with tenant buyers yielding over 12%. Lease options are definitely providing the best cashflow at the moment — it's a very good strategy for mopping up losses from negatively geared properties.
I'm also seeing subdivisable properties, but the yields are poor and you have to spend about $40K to complete the subdivision before you can realise profit from the section, all along having holding costs eating away at your profit. Personally, not a great strategy in this slower market.
Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with.
Cheers,
Vicky
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