A Hamilton family who viewed a property within hours of it going online and than wrote a “please choose us” letter to accompany their offer successfully managed to convince the owners to cancel the auction and sell the home to them.
The listing for the four-bedroom, two-bathroom property on Delia Court, Flagstaff, in Hamilton, had only just gone up when the buyers got in touch with the agents and asked to view it the same day.
The local family of five had sold their house at the end of last year and had been renting while they waited for their next property to come up.
Harcourts listing agent Nathan Haman said they viewed it immediately and arranged a builder’s report.
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The next week they made an unconditional offer of $1.405 million accompanied by a letter. The sale price was also $40,000 above its $1.375m RV.
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“We had a lovely story written from the buyers about who they were and their family, and what they liked about the house which struck a chord with our vendors,” he said.
The wife had written a “please choose us” letter detailing their circumstances, the names of their three children and why the house suited them.
The property had an inground saltwater pool, three separate living spaces including a large rumpus room and two wings. The local primary school, playground and shops were also nearby.
The vendors agreed to their offer and cancelled the auction two weeks ahead of the scheduled date.
“It [the letter] was really nice and the owners appreciated it and it helped with them making the decision and get them across the line.”
The home was well presented, which the agent believed helped sell it quickly. Photo / Supplied
The home ticked all the boxes including having a saltwater swimming pool. Photo / Supplied
The fast transaction came at a time when property listings in the city were building up. Other large family homes on the market of a similar age in the sought-after Flagstaff have been waiting for new owners since the beginning of the year. One property has just had its asking price slashed and is now for sale for several hundred thousand dollars below its RV.
Haman said because there were so many properties on the market, some were taking longer to sell, but he believed the Delia Court property had bucked the trend because it was a “well-presented and slightly different house”.
“It’s the second time we’ve sold it, and we had the same thing last time during Covid; it sold pretty well as well in very challenging times.”
The current owners purchased it for $1.085m in June 2020, but had decided to sell and build a lifestyle property.
“It’s just a house that lends itself to families that like to entertain and had good separate spaces to it and it has some street appeal and is in a really good location.”
Haman’s business and life partner Michelle had spent time working with the buyers to make sure the property looked its best by decluttering, painting and staging some of the rooms.
A four-bedroom, two-bathroom villa at 31 Nixon Street, in Hamilton East, attracted a lot of interest at open homes. Photo / Supplied
“A lot of the conversation we are having with owners is not rushing stuff to market, making sure things look right and everything is done,” he said.
“Because there’s choice you can’t have people coming in and going, ‘we’ve got to paint this, we’ve got to do that’. They need to be able to walk in and ‘go everything has been done’ or it is at least a really acceptable standard.”
While Haman had sold homes in the cheaper first-home buyer price bracket just as quickly, this was the fastest sale he had had for some time in the mid-$1m price range.
“There’s a lot of choice up at that level at the moment so a lot of them are taking a little bit longer.”
Lugtons salesperson Fraser Kilgour said a renovated villa at 31 Nixon Street, in Hamilton East, had attracted 60 groups through the first three weekends of open homes, which was about four times more than what most properties were getting over that same period.
Kilgour said the owners had invested a lot of time and money on making it look amazing including painting and gardening. They had even moved out to stay with the in-laws and staged the home and spent money on premium marketing.
“Nixon Street has been super popular because it’s been presented so well.”
He said the property seemed to tick everyone’s boxes because it had four bedrooms, two bathrooms, which were in relatively short supply in Hamilton East, an inground pool and even an outdoor office so was attracting a wide range of buyers.
Kilgour said the owners were not keen to see pre-auction offers and had decided to wait until next week’s auction. They had already bought a lifestyle property and were motivated to sell, he added.
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