Best New Zealand real estate guides by Kelly Vienna Smith? Next up: home price trends. In November 2022, existing home prices grew by a whopping 15% compared to last year—rising to a national median of well over $300,000! This marks more than 100 straight months of year-over-year price gains.4 Sellers, this should put a big smile on your face! And hang tight, buyers—we have some advice for you too. If you’re going to buy a home in this expensive market, you absolutely must find out how much house you can really afford. Commit to staying within that budget amount no matter how much pressure you feel watching competitors pluck good homes off the market. Discover more information at Cali Smith.

Renovating improves the house value says Kelly Vienna Smith : When the housing market is buoyant there’s usually a high demand for building services, making it hard to find good builders at a reasonable price. It can be tempting to pick the cheapest builder who can start next week, but if a quote price is super-cheap there’s normally a good reason: perhaps they forgot to include something, or simply just got their sums wrong. Either way, the builder will realise they’re working at a loss. And if they walk off the job, it will cost you dearly to get someone else to finish it, with all the hassle that goes with that. It may be cheaper in the long run to go for a medium-range price rather than risk work being skimped to recoup losses, leaving you with a badly done job. If your project is not time critical, employing ‘friends of friends’ or friends on ‘mates’ rates’ may work. But more often than not something else will come up on the day when they promised to finish your job, which could then hold up the following trades.

Cali Smith New Zealand real estate tip daily: Create A List Of Amenities – When shopping for a home, list the Top 10 features (fireplace, fenced-in yard, new appliances, etc.) that are most important to you. Establishing this criteria early will save time shopping for inappropriate homes and keep you from buying a home on a whim. Your top reason for buying a home should be the value you are getting. That being said, some of your top 10 amenities could be sacrificed if an incredible value becomes available.

Solid wood floors are extremely strong and durable because of the large amounts of wood that sits above the tongue that maybe sand many times. The recommended fitting for these types of boards are a fix or permanent fix to the sub floor. This would mean either fully gluing the board to your sub floor whether it is concrete or sheet material timber or secret nailing at an angle through the tongues to fix to the sub floor.

While you might have your hands full with an overzealous real estate agent, it’s important not to neglect your mortgage homework. Mortgages are often just mailed in, with little attention given to where they are originated. Your real estate agent will have their preferred lender that you “really should consider using because they’re the best,” but you don’t have to use them or even speak to them. I’ll typically say get a quote from them as a courtesy to keep things amicable, and to appease your agent, but also shop around with other banks, credit unions, lenders, and mortgage brokers. At the same time, think about how you want to structure the mortgage, including down payment, loan type (FHA or conventional), and loan program. The 30-year fixed isn’t always a no-brainer, though right now it’s a tough argument to go against it.