Welcome to That Home Loan Hub, your ultimate guide to mastering the world of home loans and property. I'm Zebunisso Alimova, here to simplify the complexities of real estate and provide you with expert insights and the latest trends.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, an experienced investor, or simply curious about the property market, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we unlock the secrets to property success and help you make informed decisions. Let's dive into the world of property together!
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The fastest way to get confident as a home buyer is not another spreadsheet. It is asking the questions that reveal motivation, risk, and reality before you fall in love with the place. We sit down with Megan Love to talk through the buyer questions that actually help when you are dealing with open homes, private viewings, and listings that feel a bit unclear.
We start with the big one: why are the owners selling? That single answer can tell you whether the vendor is genuinely ready to accept offers or simply “testing the market”. From there we dig into days on market, what it can signal when a property sits longer than the suburb norm, and what relisting can mean when a campaign quietly resets. We also talk about buyer interest and why a packed open home is not the same thing as serious competition, plus the simple step you can take to make sure you are notified if another offer comes in.
Then we tackle the New Zealand property basics buyers get tangled in: RV vs registered valuation, the interchangeable RV CV GV terms, and where to find rates without relying on guesswork. Megan also explains how agents can provide comparable sales so you can anchor your view of value. We finish with the part many people underestimate: the neighbours and the street. You will hear why local stories can matter, and why your own due diligence like drive-bys on Friday night can save you a lot of regret.
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Today we're gonna cover off frequently asked questions or well the questions the buyers should ask the real estate agents when they're looking to buy a house. And I've got Megan Love in the house and her beautiful red top that she wore for me, she just mentioned.
Oh yes, that's a very good question. That's the number one question most buyers should ask an agent because it tells you what the buy the homeowner's motivation to sell is. Like, are they testing the market or is there genuine urgency to sell? Are they genuinely committed to receiving offers and wanting to accept them?
SPEAKER_02
Are you telling me some people sell a house not intending to sell it?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, some people are testing the market. I think less these days, but we have all had stories of somebody who pays the marketing fee, puts it on the the puts it on the market, and then like for example, there might be a homeowner who wants to move in with the parents, but there's no medical reason to move in with the parents as just like a dream for the future, and then they might have a high price expectation, which isn't realistic for the market or for the property that they actually have, and then they just kind of do open homes for ages and turn down all the offers they get, and I would say they're not motivated to sell. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02
You know what sprang to mind as you were saying that? I was thinking about my own situation a few years ago when we had to sell the house due to separation, and I didn't want to sell my house at that point. I just didn't, and we had to put it on the market just to test the market to see what offers we'll we will get, and then that we got a few offers, and then I managed to offer a little bit more to keep my own house. So I guess that could also apply. It cost me a fortune, though, was the marketing fees and the photography and everything else.
SPEAKER_01
But you might have had a genuine change of circumstances where you thought at the beginning maybe you couldn't afford to buy the buy the ex out, and then suddenly you might have had a pay increase or you might have had a change of circumstances where suddenly you are able to. And sometimes people do that throughout their selling process, like they might start by putting the house on the market for one reason, but then like change their mind halfway through because of a genuine reason, which is fair enough, like it's understandable, but it's it's the people that just stubbornly hanging on for no reason that the buyers tend to get annoyed about.
The next question they should really ask is how long has it been on the market?
SPEAKER_01
Can't people see that information themselves? Yes, they can. So this is a this is a list, it's not produced by me, it's produced by Westpac.
SPEAKER_02
Um this episode is not sponsored by Westpac, but Westpac, if you would like to sponsor this episode, we are welcoming you too.
SPEAKER_01
Yes, I know. I saw that question. I was like, the average buyer is so much more informed than this list. You definitely can see how long it's been on the market. But the reason they would have included that in the list is if it has been on for a very, very long time, unusually long compared to the suburb statistics, which we recorded earlier, then it could be a red flag, either about homeowner motivation to sell, or maybe there's a problem with the house that another buyer has uncovered. But yeah, days on market, about 56 days to sell at the moment. So anything longer than that, you might start like looking into it.
SPEAKER_02
So stupid question on my part. If one agent was selling it and then it came off the market and then the other agent picked it up, will it reset the clock? Or is there a clever way somehow to see that it has been listed before for this many days and now it's listed again?
SPEAKER_01
Usually the portals take it off and then the person has to pay marketing again to relist it. So it would reset the clock. But there's a lot of buyers in this market who are really clued up and they would have had it on their watch list the last time and then they would have gone, oh look, they're back on the market. I wonder if it was just a personality breakdown that they had with the agent, or that you know, maybe the agent had done something wrong, or maybe the homeowner had different price expectations and thought if somebody came in and appraised it at a different level, they could sort of buy the listing potentially, or maybe it's a service-based thing from the first agent. So yeah, I would be asking about that if I was a buyer, I wouldn't want to know what was going on. But you'd be asking the agent, so would you get the full story or not?
SPEAKER_02
Yeah. I did see it on homes.co.nz before when you click on a property, it does actually say previously listed.
SPEAKER_01
Previously listed. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02
So I guess you know, if you're a buyer, pay attention to that.
much buyer interest has there been? Can people ask you that question?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, people ask me that all the time, but it's like, well, it hasn't sold yet.
unknown
So you know.
SPEAKER_01
I mean, like, usually they'll be like, oh, how is your open home? I mean, I'm I'm happy to tell them because they can turn up to the open home and see. I'd be like, yes, we had a very busy open home. Doesn't mean we're going to get offers from all of those people. Sometimes what the most motivated buyers would come through on a private viewing, but we only need one buyer to come through to get an offer. So also the quieter open homes aren't really a good indication of whether they're serious buyers. So what they can do is say, hey, I'm interested in this house. If you get another offer, can you please let me know? Which is our process anyway. And then we'd call them and see if there's like a multi-office situation that we can generate for the homeowner.
the rateable valuation? RV, not to confuse with RV that we say for the bank purposes, registered valuation.
SPEAKER_01
Yes, it can be very confusing. I mean, people do ask me that, not often though, because I print that on the open home flyers. So I have like a little list of commonly asked questions that I proactively just print. And the RV, the council valuation is one of those things. I just put it on that flyer alongside the land size and the house square meters, what type of title it has. So I put a bunch of that stuff on the flyer. And then when they ask me, I don't use my memory for anything because you know I might have five properties on the go. So I just say, oh, let's just grab that flyer, I'll double check it for you. Here it is in writing, and you can also check that on the council site as well.
SPEAKER_02
So just to clarify for our listeners, RV, C V and G V is the same thing. Yeah. Rateable valuation, council valuation or capital valuation, and government valuation.
unknown
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
And it depends on the age of the person, usually as to what they use. Some people come along and say, what are the rates that they can also ask that? Okay. It's the same.
SPEAKER_02
Okay. Oh, how much are the rates? Again, this information can be easily found. I usually educate my buyers through, you know, our application process. And I go, hey, look, if you're interested in any of the properties, like if we're just doing a pre-approval for random property in this region, you can actually go on the council website and type in there is a rates search. You can type in any address you like and it will spit out how much are the rates for the process.
SPEAKER_01
How much are the rates and the RV is all on the same site? The same, it's on the same link. So if you're ever getting stuck with that, let me know. I can email you the link.
next few questions are interesting again. What are the properties nearby are worth and what have places nearby sold for recently? Can you answer those questions to the buyers?
SPEAKER_01
It's kind of interesting because it's kind of the same question, sort of. That's why I read them together. So yeah, absolutely. We can print off, we've got access to all the sales stats for New Zealand. So we can print off the whole streets worth of sales if they want. Or otherwise, we can do it more like what we do for the homeowners and pull up comparable sales, so similar houses, because you might have one really massive house in a street of two-bedroom properties.
SPEAKER_00
Hello, little pussy cat. She's meowing.
SPEAKER_02
She's fine. But you're right, which actually brings us to the next questions. What
are the neighbors like? Do they have children, pets, noisy parties?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, we get asked that a lot. And it's quite cool. Like we just sold a house in a cul-de-sac. And like I grew up in a cul-de-sac. I love cul-de-sac. And so one of the first things we do when we list a property is we go on door knock. And I know people feel about that, but we do it as a customer service thing, just saying, hey, look, we're we're bringing a house to the market in your street. There might be more traffic, especially in a cul-de-sac situation. And we just get to know the people. So like we're like, oh, that one's rented, and that one, they've got three children, and this one told us a story about our vendor handing out ice creams in summer, and you get a feel for it. We also have one at the moment where the neighbor actually told us that there's a man down the road who brings everybody's bins in at on bin day, like rubbish bins. That's amazing. Isn't that cool? And they were like, Oh, hey, look, we're able bodied, we are able-bodied, we can bring our own bin in. But he was like, This is my job. I like to do this for the neighbors. It's my thing that I do on bin day. Please let me continue. They were like, sure, if you want to. So you get these little stories from the neighbors. You build up a picture of the neighborhood, and it's lovely to be able to share that with the homeowners. Sorry, the buyers when they come through.
SPEAKER_02
I love that because we just talked about my neighbor, neighbor Dave, and I feel like he deserves a whole episode on his own. And that's going to be our last question for this session. We're going to do part two of questions shortly. But can we just take a moment and just appreciate neighbor Dave? Because I feel like this man has just really lifted my faith in neighbors. Anytime we need anything, he's there for us. And and vice versa. Look, you know, he always calls me in if he's got computer issues or phone issues or charging issues, and I'm there in a heartbeat. But at the same time, like this morning he messaged me and said, Would you like would your dog like to go out for a walk? You know? So he just takes my dog for a walk. He knows I'm too busy. Uh yes. To take walks with him. But he's often, yeah, comes and takes my dog for a walk. And he did my lawns one time. He lets me wash my car in his driveway using his water, his vacuum cleaner.
SPEAKER_00
And you pay rates on those water water bills, so that's quite something. Yeah. Shh, until Labour Dave.
SPEAKER_02
Um but no, he's really, really cool. And I think because of him, that makes my living experience so much better. And when I thought about selling and I thought about moving, part of the reason I decided against it is because of the neighbours around me and the street that we have, and the kids can go around and see their friends and play with their friends. So I feel like having good neighbours is really, really important. And unfortunately, I don't think agents should be liable for identifying who are the good neighbours or not. I think buyers should also do their own due diligence.
SPEAKER_01
Do drive by drive-bys, yeah.
SPEAKER_02
And on like Saturday night or Friday night and have a look how noisy it gets or what happens there. Are there lots of cars parked there all the time? Like you would be able to spot if there is anything sus.
