I have heard quite a few stories in the last 2 weeks regarding property in Auckland. Fletcher’s building company has stopped all new construction until everything they have already built is sold. A major player in Auckland has listed 200 million dollars worth of his own property at a 20% discount because he thinks the market is going to stay bad and he is looking off shore.

Developers in particular are cancelling projects left right and centre adopting a wait and see attitude.

Well the good news is the longer they wait the more they will see prices go ballistic when they do recover. One developer who QS’d a project in Howick has been advised that material cost has increased his build price by nearly 30K per unit already and he hasn’t started yet!!
Our housing shortage is not going to go away because we are in a slump. In fact it will get worse as properties are not built and investors bail.

So we must keep things in perspective here. We are sticking our fingers in to stop a leak but behind it is a huge dam of demand that is only going to grow in strength. What we are enjoying in Oz at the moment and for the next 2 to 3 years is going to come to New Zealand. When the immigration flood gates are forced open you want to be owning plenty of property. In fact historically NZ is always around 2 years behind Oz so if that trend continues it is going to be gang busters here by 2011.

The other significant issue we face is that with Pioneer pulling out of NZ we basically have zero lo and no doc lending available. That will make it very difficult for lots of investors to buy more property. Smart ones will join me in OZ where we can get money and enjoy the growth there but this will only worsen the housing issue here. So eventually this lending will have to be reintroduced big time and it will of course coincide with a recovery. So one thing we can watch for is the re introduction of no doc and mezz funding. This will be a trigger to get buying if you aren’t already.

Look at that, an entire blog about property

Stay Safe Dean Letfus @ www.massiveaction.co.nz (AKA Dean Leftus @ www.massiveaction.co.nz)

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I watched the most incredible movie tonight called “The end of the spear”. It is the story of some missionaries in South America who were killed by some tribesmen earlier this century. I had read the book of their story, called “Through Gates of Splendour” some years ago but this movie carried on to the current day.

After all 5 men had been killed by these aggressive tribesmen their wives decided to continue to try to reach out to them in love. One woman, Rachel, lived with this tribe till she died of old age.
The son of one of the slain men ended up meeting with his dad’s murderer where he finally confessed to being the spear carrier. As he waited for the son to take his expected revenge, the son eventually said, “No one took my father’s life, he gave it”.

It really struck me how true this was. We all have a choice as to whether we will let things take our life or not. Maybe not a spear, but what about unforgiveness, jealousy, envy, unkindness, bravado. They will take your life.

Or are you willing to give your life to peace, to joy, to love, to God (as you find Him), to making a positive difference in a negative world??

If you can find the movie watch it, if you get to the end without being in tears you did better than me.

Remember there will never be a shortage of people who will try to put you down, lie about you and try and find fulfilment in their lives through belittling yours, so why join them??

Become a part of that wonderful powerful minority who celebrate life, love and success in themselves and in others.

Stay Safe Dean Letfus @ www.massiveaction.co.nz (AKA Dean Leftus @ www.massiveaction.co.nz)

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At the end of the day it’s people isn’t it. I was speaking at a church conference on missions today and the keynote speaker is a wonderful man who heads up World Outreach http://www.wointl.com/.

He has dedicated his life and his family to helping those who are suffering through persecution, poverty and spiritual blindness. His personal motivation is God, as mine is, but whatever your cause it needs to be bigger than yourself, it needs to be something of value to you. And when you visit a nation that is suffering under dictatorships or poverty, even so called paradises like my beloved Fiji, it makes you realise that people are what matters.

It would be very sad if the Kea became extinct or we lose a special Kauri, but how important is that really next to babies dying in our own country through abuse, the youth who kill themselves because they can see no hope when they are only 16?

Or what about nations like India, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma and many others where people die for no good reason every single day. Whether you are an atheist, Satanist or Christian, surely compassion for our fellow man is something that should define us as human beings, something that makes us different to every other species.

I pray that you find your “thing”, your cause, your purpose. It will not only bring you great joy and fulfilment, just knowing what it is, however as you pursue it, it will sustain you when things get hard.

And if your pursuit of a compassionate goal causes you to bump into Jesus, as it almost inevitably will, say Hi from me.

Stay Safe Dean Letfus @ www.massiveaction.co.nz (AKA Dean Leftus @ www.massiveaction.co.nz)

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It never ceases to amaze me how emotional we get about property. In the paper today the government is deciding whether to regulate property investment schemes etc. because of Blue Chip and NZinvest are being wrongfully tarred with Blue Chips brush.

Now I’m all for consumer protection but we sometimes pick on property and ignore other more heinous issues.

The Bible talks about 3 kinds of sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, sexual sin and all other sin.
In other words sin is basically sin, we don’t have to grade it, it’s all bad.

So it is with human nature and human beings. Blue Chip is a sad fiasco but is it any worse than an incompetent doctor, an overcharging mechanic or a fraudulent tax return??

No is the answer but because it is property and because the numbers are big, we decide these people must be controlled and regulated against.

The flaw in this is not just the fact that it is unfair compared to other things, but also that it fails to actually solve the root cause, which is sin.

I’m not trying to preach at you here, I’m simply pointing out that Mark Bryers for example is no more evil than anyone else. We all sin, telling a lie to keep the peace, not telling the checkout girl she has given you too much change, saying you like something you hate to impress somebody, these are all just as bad. The difference is they involve less money and don’t appear to hurt others to the same extent.

We need to be wise, we need to do our homework before investing in the same way we need to decide which doctor or mechanic to use. However I believe we also need to be slow to judge and finger point when we don’t know the real story. The media does a fantastic job at being critical, judgemental, biased and dishonest to suit a god story, we don’t have to buy their garbage.

You see as soon as a better story comes along all the bad news property stories will disappear. The media don’t care one jot about people’s plights or the truth, they just want to improve ratings and sell newspapers etc. Don’t get sucked in that all you hear is truth, it is simply media.

Let me tell you a story of 2 men.

The first broke into a house and stole as much as he could. He took it and sold the proceeds and pocketed the money. So far you don’t like this guy do you??

What you don’t know is that he had lost his job and had 7 kids. Social welfare had allowed him to slip through the cracks and he arrived home to his wife gone, a baby screaming with hunger and not one but 2 pregnant daughters, one of which required special expensive medication. That is why he broke into the neighbours. What do you think of him now??

The second man was walking across a bridge on his way to a job interview. He heard a scream and looked down into a secluded park where a woman had been grabbed by a man. It was a 30 second jog to reach the woman but he was worried that if he ran down he would sweat and might smell at the interview. As the attacker drew a knife he imagined his suit getting blood on it and then he couldn’t even attend his interview.

So he did what many of us would do, he decided to do nothing and walk on.

The next day he saw in the Herald that a woman had been murdered in the same park and he realised he had witnessed the beginning of that attack.

What do you think of the second man??

So do I.

His “sin” was to do nothing wasn’t it??
Who was the biggest sinner?? Who would you understand and forgive more easily, the burglar or the person who did nothing??

Well tips anyway

I said yesterday I would take you through some numbers today but it is going to be too hard to do in a blog so I will put it in my newsletter that will be emailed out over the weekend.

So a few more tips for dealing with need to sell properties today.

1. Get a letter printed to drop in every letterbox within 500 metres of the property letting the neighbours know it is for sale and giving the properties good points. Many many times people have friends or relatives looking to move into an area, they can’t buy your house if they don’t know it’s for sale. Don’t assume that because you have a sign out that the neighbours will know. Some people rarely venture out and don’t register that the property is on the market. Tell them in a letter and make sure you have your contact information and state that you can help with finance if you are willing to leave money in or lease option.

2. If you are dealing with an agent tell them to bring you something on paper, anything. At least this gives you a bottom line to start from. Most decent agents have someone like me in their database who will buy anything at the right price so even if the offer is an insult at least you know well the worst thing that can happen is I could accept this offer. It also means that when you get other interest you can create some urgency by honestly saying you are considering an offer currently. This may encourage them to make a better offer.

3. It may be useful to get a current registered valuation. Investors will take no notice of it however you may be selling to a home buyer so if you have a current official RV it often makes people feel more comfortable that you are not asking too much. One of my main agents is using RVs less than 2 months old as asking price and it seems to be working.

4. Trademe. No secret weapon in this one except MAKE SURE YOU TAKE GREAT PHOTO’S, TWENTY OF THEM. I can’t believe some of the photo’s I see and people wonder why they have no bites. And remember that if you are getting lots of hits with your ad and no emails or enquiry your advert is bad. Something needs changing. Check for spelling mistakes, change or remove the price, make sure you haven’t accidentally said something stupid. Keep changing little things till the phone rings.

5. Power of humour. Whether it is a billboard or Trademe or a flyer for a letterbox humour sells.
So instead of “House for sale” try “I’m an orphan desperately in need of adoption” If you can make them laugh when they realise you’re a house and not a child, it will help you get them to ring.

Stay Safe Dean Letfus @ www.massiveaction.co.nz (AKA Dean Leftus @ www.massiveaction.co.nz)

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Now there is no cure all for coping with lemons when a market goes west, however there are things we can do to maximise our opportunities.

So if you are trying to quit a property here are some ideas to help.

A: 101 Presentation. I was talking to a house stager this week and she said that most people never take the time to think about first impressions when trying to sell a home. Typically the woman makes the buying decision and she does it within 30 seconds of walking in the door. So if you need to sell then you need to make sure you present the home well. Everything clean, smelling good, entrance and grounds all tidy, you know basic stuff that can cost you a sale if you ignore it.

B: Finance. Assuming you already own this property then you are in a position to offer “whatever it takes” to the buyer in terms of finance options. When you are offering something no one else is, it’s amazing how often the price becomes that little less important.
So make sure your advertising states that 100% finance is available, you can purchase this home with no deposit, etc. etc. This is a powerful strategy to find buyers when they are scarce. Between leaving some money in through to offering a lease option you can solve anybody’s finance issue to assist with the sale.

C: Creative solutions. Advertise the home in the swaps and trading sections of your local papers etc. You will be amazed how often someone has something that you can sell and get your money out of a deal. In the last few months I was offered a boat and 2 cranes as part payment on a trade. In one case it didn’t fly but with the other one I was far better off taking the cranes and selling them, nearly 100K better off. You will never find these people through a typical agent or marketing programme, these are horse traders so you need to advertise where they look.

D: Vacant land. Sections often suffer in a soft market so you have to look for solutions to entice buyers. The 2 main ideas are to offer builders terms and pursue every developer builder you can find in an area. Tomorrow I’ll show you what to do and how to work out the numbers.
I’ll also give you more info on the other main strategy which is to sell the site with house plans already attached.

E: Create 1 wow. By this I mean think of one thing you could do to create a wow factor that will assist with getting a buyer over the line. For example if the lounge is perfect design and shape for a huge plasma TV then put one in and include it in the sale. You can rent it till you sell and then buy it once they are unconditional. If you never got round to putting a dishwasher in while you owned the place put a twin dish drawer in now. If yours is a family home consider putting a decent playground or swing set in the backyard, like a really cool one. It’s amazing what you might find on Trademe that costs you not much but adds huge value.

With all these ideas remember it is the WOMAN you want to impress. A huge beer fridge generally won’t cut it.

More solutions tomorrow!!
DEAN

G’day. I’ve been in Taupo leading worship at a camp for Easter. The weather has just been unbelievable hasn’t it?? Best Easter weather I can ever remember.

It was interesting how many comments there were about it for the 100 plus people at the weekend and how good it made them all feel. It’s interesting how easily we are affected by things like weather. When you spend time on the Gold Coast I wonder if one of the reasons they are more positive and successful than a lot of kiwi’s is actually due to the fact they usually have 310 days of sunshine a year, (this Xmas being the exception).

Anyway on to property. I promised you some of my views on how to survive in NZ for the next little while etc.

1. Finance. In New Zealand and Australia for that matter there is growing fallout in the finance industry from the yanks. No one has a crystal ball to know how bad things may get, we may have seen the worst, we may have not. One thing that affects us is that non standard lending is getting harder to obtain, much harder.

So you need to contact your broker, like yesterday, and ensure that your lines of credit and top up’s on any existing mortgages are being done NOW. Lo-doc and No-doc products are vanishing everyday, so your first most urgent job is to ensure you have as much credit on tap as possible. Do whatever it takes to get this sorted immediately. Contact my broker Kris if you don’t have a good one 021300192 kris@propertyfs.co.nz.

Whether you need some cash to ride out your negative gearing or you want to bag a bargain that you fall over you’ll need money.

There are still lenders out there working with investors etc. but it is coming down to who your broker knows rather than what the standard rules are.

So that’s your job for today.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about some strategies to exit a lemon.

Stay Safe Dean Letfus @ www.massiveaction.co.nz (AKA Dean Leftus @ www.massiveaction.co.nz)

PS: Did you know you can receive email notifications whenever I post a new blog?? Tick the email notification HERE

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