Manager's Comments 1-9-15

Harcourts office has moved to a new location at 51 Devon Street West, on the corner of Brougham & Devon. Our new home is a little bigger than the old one, and when completely finished will serve us well for years to come. Some of the infrastructure is still being finished, but we hope to be pretty much settled in by early next week. Nothing else has changed. We are still number 1 on line at taranakiharcourts.co.nz , we are still at P O Box 610 NP and you can call us on 0800 we sell. Business as usual, but in a new location.

John Christiansen

Manager's Comments 17-8-15

The market has become very tough over the last 3-4 weeks. Buyers, although still very much active, are cautious and frugal. I’m not sure if it’s the winter blues, some trepidation about the future look of the local economy, or just a blip on the radar. It is fair to say good economic news in Taranaki is sparse and a rural downturn is apparent. This always filters through our local economy to some extent. However there is a feeling things here are not as focused on farm incomes as in the past. Our economy is more diverse than it was at the end of the 20th century. We are still growing our population. Employment is still high. Interest rates are minimal and funds are available. Opportunities for astute buyers are here now and that gets them moving. Price and promotion are king. Get those two in line and you take the advantage.

John Christiansen

Manager's Comments 20-7-15

Winter is the slowest time of year for real estate sales. There are just less daylight hours and it’s often cold and wet. However buyers are not seasonal, they develop new needs all year round. Increasing family, empty nest, marriage, death, transfer, all manner of everyday issues mean people need to move house. That is why there are still buyers and sellers all year round.
One of our agents had an inner city property that was not getting the buyer interest it should have. Right price, reasonable promotion, not a lot of interest. She did what needed to be done. She changed things, upped the ante, listed the property for auction. Since the first Auction ad there has been real and constant buyer interest. This property should sell at auction; there certainly is enough buyer interest to negotiate a deal post auction at least. Have a think about your property if that scenario seems familiar. Auction can make a real difference to buyer perception. It says very loud and clear – FOR SALE NOW.

John Christiansen

Manager's Comments 6-7-15

Our biggest month this financial year to date, 44 sales, sees us with a shortage of good stock for the buyers we have. This should help your situation, if you are still on the market. More buyers, less competition. The other side of this is of course, is that if you haven’t been getting buyer attention, something is awry. Buyers work using comparative value. Seeing value will attract their attention and ultimately an offer. If this is not the case there is a problem to be sorted. There are 2 things to look at:
                                                                                                                                                                 
1:  Marketing and Promotion. Do the market know you are selling? Is the profile high enough to ensure you are in the mix when it comes to an open home visit, a call to the agent or internet search attention?  Review that and make an adjustment if you need to.
                                                             
2: The other critical factor is price. Do you offer a ‘market presence’ in the sense that when the advertising is getting attention, it tells a story of your willingness to offer comparative value? If that information is not getting through, or is unclear, then an adjustment is required there. Review the pricing strategy to get yourself considered as a viable buy in today’s market.                                        
We have buyers. They want comparative value.

John Christiansen

Manager's Comments 22-6-15

At last the rain has gone and by and large New Plymouth has been spared the horror of major house flooding. Not so our neigbours in Wanganui.
This is a good time to count ourselves lucky and do a couple of timely little checks ensuring we continue to be safe and secure. Do you have an emergency pack? Basic first aid, water supply, canned foods, multi tool? Is there an obvious place water pools on your section that you can drain to help save house flooding? Most importantly, are you well enough insured? The horrors of flooding start with the water, but the cleanup will be long, messy and can be very expensive if gib board walls and the flooring need to be refurbished or replaced. A few extra dollars a month for a good policy to cover this sort of damage could be well worthwhile. The misery of a flooded or wind damaged house will be bad enough without worrying about getting it sorted and ready to occupy again. A good time to take stock. We have just witnessed what can be. We know the threat is real.
These events have not affected our market. It’s business as usual.

John Christiansen

Manager's Comments 8-6-15

50% of online marketing is now searched on mobile devices, mainly smart phones, and also tablets. Desk top computers are used less and less to search for information. This trend is growing exponentially as more and more smart phones are used. One of the issues with this is that older websites don’t view easily on a smaller device. They don’t resize their content in a simple and readable format for smart phones and tablets. taranakiharcourts.co.nz and harcourts.co.nz have been redesigned to do just that. Now when 50% of our on line inquiries come in on small devices, your web presence is displayed in a good usable format, easily read, easily searched, enquiries go straight to your listing agent. Being number one on line is not only about volume, it’s about quality of service. It’s about getting your information to the buyers in the best possible way.

John Christiansen

Manager's Comments 25-5-15

17 of our New Plymouth sales team attended the annual Harcourts Conference held over 3 days at Sky City last week. Over 1000 delegates heard from an array of fine speakers, attended several workshops, and generally ‘upskilled’ over the period. There were even a few quiet drinks with colleagues from all over New Zealand, further cementing a referral network second to none in the world. This is all part of our continuing education programme. We are required to do 20 hours every year of continuing education, but your average New Plymouth Harcourts Agent will end up doing about twice that by time the year finishes. Just another way we try to be the best realtors we can be, which is a win win situation for you and for us.

 John Christiansen