homebase

Sales in winter usually tale off because the unmotivated buyers cant be bothered to go to open homes in the cold! And, sellers rightly or wrongly don't believe its a good time to sell a house and will wait until spring.

So what this means is that often the people who are on the market at this time have to sell, and if you can get over the cold then you probably have a fantastic opportunity this deep cold winter to bag yourselves a deal.

Help yourself out and see a mortgage broker to make sure you have pre approved finance in place and your hefty deposit sitting in your bank account (Yeah right, you didn't borrow it from mum or dad or pop it on the credit card did you ?).

Rather than falling in love with all the beautiful homes why not go for one that needs some work as there will be fewer interested buyers because most people shy away from hard work. Yet if you can buy well, i.e. under Registered Valuation and then add some more value though renovation then you will be well on your way to climbing the property ladder - and what a fantastic time to start climbing when many distressed vendors are throwing themselves off the ladder so to speak!

If you need some help on how to renovate a property cost effectively or you want someone to have a look at a property that you are interested in purchasing to see what potential lies beneath the swirly old patterned carpet and the peeling wallpaper then check out www.fresheyes.co.nz . You can work with someone who has done it all before and can show you a few tricks to get the biggest bang for your buck.

So come on First Time Buyers, where the bloody hell are you ?