Do your homework when looking for a property

You need to buy a house, but where do you start? Here are some points to consider when looking for a property.

Sunday, February 20th 2005, 7:00AM

by The Landlord

Buyers’ agent Stephen Hart, author of Where to live in Auckland, says do your homework before shopping for a home. "Like anything in life," he says, "the people who do the most groundwork get the best properties at the best prices.

"It is a serious business and requires a serious investment in time. People have to accept if they do the bare minimum, they are more likely to make a mistake than if they commit themselves to the whole project."

The information is out there. Before going to the open homes, look up the Quotable Value New Zealand site or local authority sites. The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand has tips for buyers and sellers at www.reinz.co.nz, as do sites like Hart’s www.aucklandhomefinders.co.nz.

Don’t get stuck in a neighbourhood

"A lot of people feel inertia to stay in a given area, sometimes for irrational reasons. It may be familiar, but neighbourhoods change all the time. They become fashionable, then become less fashionable," Stephen says.

Sure, there may be sound reasons for living in an area - the commute to work, it’s where the children go to school - but some areas may be interchangeable. If Parnell, why not Freemans Bay? Look around a few streets down northern Sandringham rather than waiting for the ideal address to come up in Kingsland.

"People may have misconceptions about areas. People write off somewhere like Mt Albert, but it seems to me Mt Albert is determined to be the next Mt Eden or learn where Mt Eden got it right," says Stephen.

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