Raj & Family
140 Colwill Road, Auckland

Raj and his family were the proud owners of 140 Colwill Road in Royal Heights, Auckland. A lovely 3 bedroom, brick and tile, backing onto Colwill School and close to all amenities.

Given the prevailing market dynamics we knew this was going to be a popular property, the right price range for families, a great location, and lovely presentation.

We placed this property on the market and so it proved, we were inundated with people wanting to view the property, and buyers were quickly competing. A multi offer ensued and the property was placed under conditional contract immediately, above the original asking price.

Owners happy and buyers ecstatic. Just a few conditions to work through. All good.

Then a problem hit - there were some issues in the building report. Now this is probably the most common area for contracts to “fall over”. However, we had used clause 9 of the ADLS 9th edition and the buyers had no problem - a copy of the report was provided to Raj for review. Raj got his own technical advice and as is also somewhat common there ensued a disagreement about the issues identified in the report. The discussion bounced back and forth for a few days - Raj based on his advice, agreed that a couple items would be fixed but a couple of other issues were not issues, rather incorrect interpretations.

That did not work for our buyers and the sale fell over. Back to our buyers. The other bidders in the multi offer had decided not to place back up offers on the table (in many respects why would they - it ties them up from looking elsewhere). But Raj wisely decided to get the points of concern corrected before revving up the sales process again - buyers like to see a finished product, they are less good at imagining things. Saying something will be fixed prior to settlement is not as attractive as being fixed up front.

Our presentation this time of course included the issue with the previous building report, what had been done to correct it, and what would be done prior to settlement. Back to the market we went, with some extra online promotion and things were no less active. A new set of buyers got involved and one of the original bidders as well. Another quick multi-offer and wham the property was sold!

With a bit of perseverance we got there!

What could we have done differently? Obviously a pre-sale building inspection could have identified the issues that Raj fixed after the first report. They were not serious items, but they were not obvious either - this may very well have kept the first offer alive.

The presentation of the property was great - Raj and his family did a great job. The photos we used for the advertising were not professionally taken, so that could have helped us some more. We always recommend professional photos!

Quickly repairing the issues identified before reintroducing the property to the market worked well. Having the documentation to explain what had happened, why, and what had been done reassured the new buyers and took the issue right off the table.

But it’s easy to have hindsight - the key for us was to stay on task, make sure Raj and his family stayed positive, and that the presentation of the property was spot on. Selling a home can be a roller coaster - part of our role is to offer that emotional detachment, to encourage, support and help you through the process by being analytical and objective.