If that’s you, I recommend you do some research before you buy.  A great place to start is the Immigration New Zealand website.  It’s full of useful advice and further links. 

One important issue affecting home buyers that the Immigration website does NOT draw to your attention is New Zealand’s recent leaky home crisis.  This is a key issue that you should know about.  You’ll get a taste of the issues here at the links I’ve provided below. 

It is important that you know that leaky homes have adversely affected the lives of thousands of NZ residents.  The NZ Goverment is working to find a solution to the problem, but it is a work in progress at this time.

Anyone who buys a leaky home (or a potentially leaky home) is financially and/or emotionally at risk.  Before Nov 17 2009 New Zealand’s laws made it far too easy for customers to unwittingly purchase an at-risk home.  The new Real Estate Agents Authority and the Real Estate Agents Act (2008) tightened up the way real estate salespeople are required to advise you of the risks involved when representing sellers of homes that commonly fall into the ‘at-risk’ category. 

I have provided the following useful links relating to NZ’s leaky home crisis.  If you don’t know much about it, you’re about to become better informed and protected:

Department of Building & Housing media releases

Home Owners & Buyers Association of NZ – Leaky Home Info

Leaky Home Forum New Zealand

Consumer Build – What caused leaky homes

The whole experience was fantastic and the quality of information shared by speakers and participants was truly outstanding.  I came away thinking that I was lucky to be a part of something that I know will grow much bigger in years to come.  I hope to be an integral participant in future conferences.

I thought about writing a big blog post here to cover evertyhing I learnt but one thing I learnt is that posts should be kept short if possible.  So here are some insights and sites recommended and discussed by the various speakers as follows:

Joel Burslem – Joel flew in from the USA.  He is a blogger, respected expert in the real estate field and an integral member of the 1000 Watt Consulting.  The following is a just a small sample of the sites (most are only available in USA for now) he suggested could help if you want to turbo charge your online presence:

www.siri.com,  www.peep.ly, www.rapportive.com, www.sortfolio.com, www.flavors.me, www.cloudcma.com, www.pandora.com, www.1000wattconsulting.com.

I discovered that Nicholas O’Flaherty and myself live in the same neighbourhood.  Nicholas consults to www.realestate.co.nz and runs the team at www.bulletpr.co.nz and also shared his involvement with the Auckland social media club that meets the first Tuesday of every month.  I was salivating at Nicholas’ menu of online journalist contacts and I’m going to investigate the PR side of promoting Remuera and my knowledge of the area and happenings.  One of Nicholas’ takeaways for me was that I should put more focus on becoming the ‘go to’ person for anything ‘Remuera’.  Nicholas introduced the audience to social network icons Ben Gracewood, Luke Appleby, Radio Wammo and local wine shop owner Jayson Bryant.  Other suggestions were www.klout.com and www.socialmention.com plus sage advice to use Google Analytics to enhance your website’s performance and effectiveness.

Charles Coxhead is one of NZ’s foremost experts on SEO (search engine optimisation) and SEM (search engine management).  Together with Nigel Varcoe he runs www.clikki.co.nz and is very knowledgable in all things Google.  He talked about the importance of links and google juice.  I now know that (unlike most platforms) Twitter stops Google juice with a condom to prevent mass spamming – sounds messy doesn’t it!  Check Google Places, Google Base, Google Social Search, Googleme, and so much more!

To be continued…….

I’ve introduced a new service for my customers to make sure they’re the first to see new listings in my core area.

If you’ve been through one of my open homes recently, you will have received a text from me offering the service.  From then on, those who opt in receive a short text with appropriate new listings & viewing details.

Buyers -

1.  Indicate your price range

2.  Provide me with your cellphone number (txt 021864166 now)

3.  Receive text notification of listings as they hit the market

Sellers -

1.  Get the hottest buyers faster

2.  Create competition by funnelling buyers through quickly

3.  Tap into a real time fully qualified buyer database

If you know nothing about Ray you can read some more here.  Congratulations Ray, you are an inspiration to us all!

This is what really touched me during the night – During his short speech Ray shared a story about the Corporate Cab driver who had picked him up from his Mt Eden home and taken him to Sky City for the book launch.  The driver refused to charge Ray a fare, stating that because Ray had done so much for people all around the world, the least he could do was give him a free ride.  A great story of generosity from someone so generous.

The terms of employment and remuneration will be decided when the successful candidate is identified.  Hours can be flexible but may vary between 20 to 35 hours per week.

The following may describe the type of person this role would appeal to:

1.  You’ve previously sold real estate but you would prefer to leave the pressure of commission sales to your boss.  You know your way around a computer, especially microsoft outlook (not outlook express!).

2.  You are enthusiastic and entrepreneurial (perhaps in your twenties?), you have minimal sales experience, but you would appreciate the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the real estate business.  You are prepared to serve an apprenticeship and would be open to moving to commission sales once you have learnt the ropes.

3.  You’ve got a great smile and a great attitude.  You attract positive people and shun negativity.  You live close to central Auckland.

4.  DO NOT apply if you sometimes make spelling mistakes!

If this sounds of interest to you (or someone you know!) please send me an email in the first instance to s.koerber@barfoot.co.nz.  Attach a CV if you have one.  If you really are a ‘great’ candidate the absence of a CV may not matter.

With this many vehicles dropping off or picking up students it can be a recipe for chaos at the school gates, with parents dropping off their children while double-parked, parking on broken yellow lines, blocking driveways and slowing traffic flow.

To sort out this growing problem, in early 2003 Auckland City Council started to enforce a zero tolerance policy towards those ignoring the traffic rules – the ‘Chaos at the School Gate’ programme. The programme has been very successful and is helping to reduce the danger to children as well as improve traffic flow around schools at this busy time of the day.

The programme includes placing parking officers on patrol outside schools to observe non-compliant behaviours and issue tickets to those illegally parked.

Auckland City Council runs the programme at 15 schools each term. Other schools can go on a waiting list for the next term . Schools that have experienced difficulties with illegal parking have first priority to join the scheme.

Schools on either programme are required to inform parents that the school is part of the Chaos at the School Gate scheme. Schools must put the information in their newsletter and a send a copy of this to the council.

If you would like to be part of the programme please contact www.aucklandcity.govt.nz.