Whilst we would wish to keep cost increases to a minimum, we do need to pass on these costs, as well as reflecting the costs of the operation of the Zoodle website.

We have been delighted by the growing appeal and support of the service over the 3 years that the website has been operating. In that time we have served up over 65,000 reports to homeowners and investors providing valuable insight to assist in the homebuying process. Every week we see over 40,000 people use the website to verify information and be better informed as to the situation regarding the specific property they are interested in – a year ago that number was just 25,000 indicating how the appeal of the site keeps growing.

Zoodle is now the most visited website in NZ for property information witnessing more than twice as much audience than the nearest competitor.

These increases in prices have given us a chance to  adopt a new approach to pricing. Whilst the conventional wisdom is to price reports with a price point just below a full dollar amount ($24.95, or $4.95, or $9.99) we have decided to streamline our prices and charge a simple round number – easy to see and easy to understand.

You tell us. Thanks

Alistair Helm

Managing Director – Zoodle

The new pries are as follows:

Comprehensive Report $75

Home Valuer Report $55

Local Sales Report $25

Ratable Valuation Report $4

Previous Sales Report $4

Recent Sales Report $16

Title Details Report $8

Certificate of Title (with diagram) $15

Home Details

Some pretty basic facts about the house (size, number of bedrooms, etc.) It also asks you the type of house you have and shows photos of the different types. As we live in a villa this was pretty straight forward.

Energy

This section covers what type of heating you have, hot water, lighting and also if you generate any of your own electricity.

Health and Comfort

Windows, ceilings, walls and floors. This section basically goes over how well insulated your home is aling with how well things like sunlight affect the house. The one issue we had with this questions is that it doesn’t really show a roof type where there is a bedroom in the ceiling as we have. A quick check with my wife the architect and we came to the conclusion that a Skillion roof was the closest match. This is probably one thing they need to add to the questionnaire. There were also some interesting questions on downlights as in the conclusions this made me aware of some issues with these types of light which are so prevalent in NZ.

Water

Some pretty straight forward questions your appliances and if you use any of your grey water. An area which I think will have an important role to play in the future.

Waste and Home Management

These 2 sections start to cover  some less major physical aspects of the house and more around some of the lifestyle choices. Questions about compost bins, recycling and home security. All easy questions to answer but great prompts for things that you can easily do to change your habits. We personally have that already so did quite well in this section.

Site

The final questions are about outside and where the site is located. You can’t do too much about some things like how close you are to public transport but there are a few things around planting that are good to think about.

So how did we do at the end of it? I’m pleased to report that we got a 4 although I expect that if we had the official measurements done it would come out slightly lower as the house is cold in winter. The results also come with a handy summary of things that you can do to increase the score and comfort of your home. One eye-opener was that recessed lighting can be really bad for the efficiency of your house. Basically since there is no insulation over the top of them and they are hot, air gets sucked up through them and out into the roof. It is definitely something that we will be looking at during the renovation.

There were also a lot of other recommendations but I will leave some of the decisions we made to another post. We’ve just had a Homestar Practitioner around and he did a more thorough look through the house and pointed out some areas where we may be able to improve things.

The Origins of Homestar

There are approximately 1 million homes in New Zealand that are under performing. New Zealand is known for cold damp homes and it is something that needs to change. Poorly performing buildings cost more to run, are uncomfortable and can lead to increased spending in areas such as healthcare. Kiwis also spend around 3-5K on home performance measures and we need to make sure that this money is being spent wisely.

From this need Homestar was born to develop a common language that we could use to assess home performance in New Zealand. Homestar is a Joint Venture partnership between BRANZ and the New Zealand Green Building Council and is backed by various partners including EECA and the Department of Building and Housing.

What is Homestar?

Homestar is a voluntary environmental rating tool which helps you measure your homes environment against a set of well defined standards. It currently only measures stand alone homes (not apartments). They have taken the best from overseas and also local tools to develop an easy to understand measurement framework.

The assessment measures your house on a scale of 1-10 although it is important to note that in New Zealand most homes are rated a 3-4. The medium term goal is to get most New Zealand homes up to a 4-5 (4 is about where a house built to New Zealand building code sits). As you get higher up the scale the points get hard to achieve. For example solar panels to generate electricity and other innovations that tend to be more niche at the moment.

The measurement covers various aspects of your house with energy being one of the most important measures. There are other measurements as well including moisture control (e.g. extractor fans tied to switch in bathrooms) and water efficiency e.g. restricter valves on taps).

So How Do I Get It?

Simple. Just go to Homestar.org.nz and sign up to do your own assessment. From there you can get extra services if you need a little help or want to get professional advice before you start. The site helps you find someone qualified who services your region.

Yep. It really is that easy. The questionnaire is pretty straight forward and only takes about 20 minutes.

What Next?

Let me know in the comments if you have gone through the questionnaire. I will post updates as I go through the process myself.

With a lot of properties going to auctions these days the Realestate.co.nz team put together a great video with some tips on getting the most out of the auction process. Check out the video and follow these steps to follow, to ensure you are 100% prepared for auction day as a buyer. Here are a few guidelines to follow:

• Do your homework: start attending auctions as an observer – this will give you a better understanding of the auction process.
• Ask questions: if you’re unsure of how the auction process works, ask your real estate agent for advice.
• Make sure all the t’s are crossed: have your solicitor examine the Contract of Sale prior to the auction to ensure everything is in order. Also have any building and/or pest inspections carried out prior to auction day.
• Get your finances in order: you should know exactly how much you can spend on auction day – and, most importantly, you need to stick to your limit on the day. If you’re the successful bidder, you will be required to pay a deposit on the spot, usually 10% of the purchase price – so make sure you have the funds available.
• Register to bid: if you register with the company prior to auction day, the agent will be able to keep you informed of progress during the marketing phase leading up to the day.
• Come prepared: on auction day arrive at the auction venue early, with cheque book in hand. Position yourself so you are close to the auctioneer, but have a clear view of other bidders also. When you are ready to bid, do so with confidence. However, if you don’t feel confident about bidding, you can hire a buyers’ agent to do the job for you. Ask your real estate agent for advice in this regard.
• Going once, going twice…: if yours is the successful final bid, congratulations! You will then be required to sign a contract and pay your deposit immediately. The balance of the purchase price will be paid on settlement.

And remember, if you don’t get the house at auction there is always something else on the market that will suit your needs.

One of the benefits though of Terralink doing this as a NZ company, has been their ability to be able to provide this service on the ground in the heart of Christchurch. The CBD of the beautiful garden city has been cordoned off since the horrific earthquake of February 22nd. Terralink has been allowed to enter the Red Zone and provide images of all the streets in a detailed 360 degree view as seen from this snapshot below which shows the area of Cathedral Square.

The online site of eqstreetcam provides an interactive visual which is easy to navigate with motion video as well as single image capability – well worth a look.

As a point of disclosure Terralink International is a 45% shareholder in Zoodle.

Well as is the norm in TV programmes like “Mythbusters” and “How do they do it” the team at a new reality show “How hard can it be?” set about seeing if they could lift a house in real life with helium balloons.

Well it turns out if you take 300 helium filled balloons (2.5 metre high balloons) you can lift a small house (28 m2) right up to 10,000 feet!

Sadly the balloon powered house did not make it to South America and the legendary “Paradise Falls” – it managed a rather shorter one hour flight!

Here is a video of the background and first flight of the balloon house – complete details will be shown on the National Geographic channel sometime soon.

The first shots to demonstrate the appeal of this issue have been fired in the UK, where the leading real estate website Rightmove.co.uk is apparently about to release data of internet speeds for property on the market. That would have to be a powerful piece of information, something that any house hunter, investor, owner or even tenant would like to know.

At Zoodle we would see this as a logical extension to the rich information we would be keen to share on the sight. Naturally such information is not as yet available. A brief review of some of the NZ teleco’s reveals the performance for a single address – I wonder if they would be willing to share this data wholesale for all properties in a dynamic fashion. For whilst the relevancy would be compelling for today, we would also like to be able to review it from time to time to see if it has improved (and be prompted for any improvements).

Food for thought.

Here are the links to check out your current home or future property:

Vodafone: http://www.vodafone.co.nz/broadband/

Telecom: http://www.telecom.co.nz/broadband/speed/adsl2

Woosh: http://www.woosh.com/ContentClient/Home/Home.aspx

An animated map of Auckland’s public transport network from Chris McDowall on Vimeo.

As Chris says the video is best viewed in HD and full screen.

From the 33,000 sq ft (that is about 14 normal sized NZ houses) sitting on 20 acres of Michael Dell to the significantly more modest 4 bedroom suburban house rented by Mark Zuckerberg. All of the giants of the tech world are exposed here from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to Larry Ellerson and Jim Clark.

My favourite would have to be Bill Gates lakeside house on the shore of Lake Washington.

Flickr photo: TikTik

A total of 202 mortgagee sales were recorded in June, by no means a return to normal levels pre-recession when monthly totals were in the order of 50 per month, but certainly a slowing from the 289 recorded in June last year and the 264 last month. On a seasonally adjusted basis sales in June were down by 24% from the month earlier.

As the chart above shows the sales per month have been keeping pace with, but not greatly exceeding 2009 sales figures since February. In the first 6 months of 2010 there have been 1,231 sales as compared to 1,262 in the same period last year.

Delving deeper into the numbers shows some interesting trends, specifically in regard to regional representation. The chart below shows the percentage of mortgagee sales by region for the first 6 months of 2010 as compared to 2009.

Most noticeable is the lessening of the impact of the Auckland region which has gone from 45% to 37% of sales. Rising sales have been seen in the Waikato (9% to 14%), Northland (6% to 8%) and the Manawatu (3% to 6%). With both Wellington and Canterbury reducing their dominance of mortgagee sales, it would appear that the provinces are suffering a higher degree of mortgagee sales this year than the metropolitan regions.