A brand new riverside home plagued by lowball offers has sold to a Hamilton family for $1.049 million after the owner took a massive hit.
The asking price for the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home fell from $1.4m when it was first listed in October last year to $1.049m almost a year later – making it about three times cheaper than similar riverside homes selling in Hamilton.
RE/MAX Flagship Hamilton owner Harry Luther said the owner had initially been hoping to make a $100,000 profit on the home that had cost him $1.3m to build, but after receiving market feedback and some “lowball offers” eventually settled on a $251,000 loss.
The family of five first viewed the property in April but at the time the gap between what they were prepared to pay and what the seller would take was more than $200,000 apart. They also hadn’t sold their existing Rototuna home.
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The owner then moved the property to a different agency who ran an auction campaign and when it still didn’t sell moved it back to RE/MAX Flagship last month.
Luther had stayed in contact with the family who first viewed the house in April and they made an offer after learning the owner had dropped the price to $1.049m.
Not long after, their two-bedroom home, which had also been on the market for about six months, also sold.
“I was telling my vendors ‘all the stars are aligned this time’.”
The owner built the home but never moved in due to a change in circumstances. Photo / Supplied
The agent said the same property just 10 minutes further south along the river would cost about triple the amount. Photo / Supplied
He said the new family was “super stoked” to be able to make such a massive upgrade within their budget.
“They just loved this house because obviously having three kids and living in a small house – this house was their dream home. Especially having a house with really nice views, river views, brand new big house, big section. They said ‘this is like our dream home, we never expected that we could have gone to this big change’.”
The family had only moved about 10 minutes north of their current house, he said, but had been able to get much more bang for their buck in Taupiri.
The same house overlooking the river in Hamilton would have been almost three times the price because even a small townhouse overlooking the river in the city had an asking price of $1.5m, he added.
“It [Taupiri home] was a double-storey brand new house, high spec inside and had million-dollar views right there.”
Taupiri has had a massive transformation over the last decade as some of the original farmland has been developed into two new subdivisions – Mountain View Estate and Kildare Estate. Agents told OneRoof earlier this year that the once-sleepy rural town was appealing to budget-conscious Hamiltonians who could pick up decent-sized sections for half the price. It was especially attractive to young or middle-aged couples and families.
Luther said because Taupiri was in a massive growth phase, the purchaser had also bought it expecting a good capital gain.
Although the owner had taken a loss on the $1.3m he paid for it, Luther said he was pleased to have sold it so he could move on.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Taupiri
