A two-bedroom home in South Auckland that has just undergone an impressive $70,000 modern renovation is to be sold at auction with a reserve of just $1.
Harcourts listing agent Alex Dunn said the seller had inherited the property at 20B Middlemore Road, in Ōtāhuhu, from his father.
He had then splashed out another $60,000 to $70,0000 to replace the bathroom, kitchen, installing new flooring and insulation and repainting the entire home.
The owner had already tried to sell the property privately, Dunn said, but after having no luck and needing to sell, decided to take a risk and sell it at auction with a $1 reserve. It had been owned by the same family since 2016 and has an RV of $890,000.
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“He’s just so over dealing with the property. He just said buyers want to treat it like a buyer’s market – I think he experienced that a little bit when he was trying to sell it himself – so he said ‘put on a $1 reserve and see what the buyers really want to pay for it’.”
“It’s a highly risky, but really attractive way of breaking through all the clutter and saying here’s the most attractive property in terms of price and I’m the most motivated person in the market right now.”
While there had been a rise in $1 reserve listings in the last month due to people trying to make their properties stand out in a crowded market, Dunn said this was the first renovated property he was aware of to be sold this way.
Previously, properties sold with $1 reserves were usually in ‘as is, where is’ condition and last year included homes that had been destroyed in fires or slips or were uninhabitable.
The owner spent between $60,000 and $70,000 renovating the home inside and out. Photo / Supplied
A new bathroom has also been installed. Photo / Supplied
“In this market, it’s a matter of trying to show people how motivated as a seller you are to sell and then saying, ‘ok I’m going to be at the most attractive price point as well’. So being at $1 reserve you are obviously showing you are highly, highly motivated and then you are leaving the price solely up to the market to decide.”
The listing for the Middlemore Road property went on to describe the owner as being in a “spot of bother”, adding “this very well could be the best buy of 2024, take advantage of this seller’s misfortune”.
The Ōtāhuhu location was likely to attract first-home buyers and investors due to it being near the motorway and closer to the city than other parts of South Auckland, he said. It was also just across the road from Kings College’s teachers’ residence, near Middlemore Hospital for shift workers and close to the train station.
“First-home buyers should be all over it – 100%.”
The rental appraisal of $580 to $600 a week was also expected to attract canny investors.
“We’ve had a lot of people asking if they can rent the property.”
Last week a tired three-bedroom brick and tile house on Carisbrook Crescent, in Papakura, which risked being given away for free after the owner set no reserve in an auction that ended up fetching $827,000.
Harcourts Pukekohe auctioneer and sales agent Dan Hewes told OneRoof at the time the result was a win-win for the young family who had placed the winning bid and the vendor who was over the moon with the price that was just $23,000 short of the property’s $850,000 RV.
Hewes said setting no reserve sent a strong message to buyers that the vendor was not testing the market but was serious about selling.
Meanwhile, the overseas-based owner of a newly remediated two-bedroom corner apartment in Lakewood Plaza is keen to get rid of it and is selling it with a $1 reserve, despite paying $640,000 for it three years ago. While a run-down two-bedroom house 4/60 Moncrieff Avenue, in Clendon Park, that has holes in the walls and ceiling and an unfinished bathroom is being auctioned off on Tuesday night, also with a $1 reserve.
- 20B Middlemore Road, in Otahuhu, Auckland, goes to auction on April 4
