Thursday, July 31, 2008

A good week inspite of the bomb

In spite of a flurry of blows to the market place that included a weather bomb, an All Blacks loss and the ongoing dissection of Hanover Finance’s demise, we have been encouraged to have fielded some strong offers and made a number of significant sales in excess of $2 million over the last week or so. The counter balance to some bad economic news was the Reserve Bank softening interest rates for the first time since 2003 last week. No doubt it will take some time for the impact of this to filter through, in the mean time, a few sunny days would be nice.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Bollard cuts the OCR - spring in sight?

Just as the last of the extreme weather front went through on Thursday morning, Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard announced a cut in the official cash rate to 8 per cent, the first time since 2003. This piece of good news helped to counter balance the news of Hanover Finance’s difficulties announced Wednesday evening. There is no doubt that this is proving to be the winter of our discontent, but maybe, just maybe, we have weathered the worst of it. Oil prices are falling, sure this economic climate will not be a quick fix, but we have noted canny buyers rightly assessing this as potentially the best time to buy. With financial analysts pricing in five further rate cuts by March next year, the expectation is that the OCR could be around 7% at that time. Putting two and two together going forward, buyers waiting in rental accommodation in anticipation of an ongoing softening in the housing market, may now want to reassess their options.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Entertaining the kids

Yes the school holidays are upon us, and with them the challenge of keeping the children occupied. Traditionally real estate goes a little quiet over the holiday period with mothers particularly being disturbed. However it appears with the limited number of listings available currently, buyers are staying on task, pursuing a result with encouraging focus. In short it may be a better time to be on the market than some would have you think.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

How 'bout a trade?

What a relief to have a spell of sunshine – everything just feels better. Or was it the All Black win? Either way, sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy!

The way we are making an increasing number of buyers and sellers happy in the current market is by using the trade mechanism. It is not always doable or appropriate, but in a number of situations we have been able to get a great result for both buyer and seller buy taking a lateral approach to their needs and in so doing, asking the question what do you want to achieve as a result of selling/buying? The answers can produce a more immediate solution.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Good news

It’s been another great week at UP!

We must be seeing things a little differently to others. We were interested to see the Herald front page headline ‘Agents leaving the industry in the face of the current housing slump’. We didn’t think as a story it rated – let alone a front page headline.

There’s no question our battle is essentially against current sentiment – yes, we know the facts, but lets all get on with our lives. Life is still beautiful! Real Estate will go on. We challenge the Herald to cover good news front pages for the next 3 months. As my mother said, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it at all. ;)

Also we launched a video this week to give you a little taste of who we are and what we do check it out HERE