Archive for June, 2007
What a great yet busy week it has been! There have been some fantastic results achieved for Fuzo with Ammon weaving some magic with council to get some tricky consent planning issues through council, I am settling on a new home on Friday, researching an investment property with a twist, had an “interesting” APIA Board Meeting, and of course watched our mighty All Blacks triumph over South Africa.
Don’t Stop Never Give Up
Apart from being an S Club 7 song title (my nieces loved their music) it also a memorable phrase to me. Whether unfortunate or not it is human nature to take the path of least resistance. We get so conditioned to doing things that are easy that when something gets tough we turn off, or think it is too hard and accept a poor effort (justifying it as good because it was hard work) or do nothing.
I admit that I am not perfect at this, but think I am better than most at totally committing myself to something I want to achieve. I have this from a very young age – my parents and long time friends will tell you how much I hate losing. In tennis at school and interclub I would dive on the court, drawing blood just to return the ball. My heroes Stefan Edberg, Michael Chang and Andre Agassi did just the same thing. Studying for school and University exams in subject I liked I would spend massive hours on, totally commitment myself to not just a pass, but an excellent result.
I have seen this week an architect gave up as it was “too hard” and “can’t be done”. Our client thought their building project could not go ahead. But luckily they called Fuzo and after a consultation with us, we took the issue to council and through sheer desire and raw ability we overturned the outcome the architect had, by some lateral thinking and sublime negotiation skills. Our clients was absolutely stoked by the service we could give him (but so impressed with that architect).
So don’t stop never give up. When you have a desired result in mind – commit absolutely to it. For example if you are finding a renovation or development project – take a moment to brainstorm what you can do, remember that sometimes you just are not best placed to do it yourself, so it is ok to seek professional help to get the same desired outcome.
The All Blacks dug deep despite being down with 15 minutes to go in their rugby test overnight versus South Africa. However they did not stop, and showed superior fitness to have tries to Richie McCaw and the magic Josevata Rokocoko in the last 15 minutes to win the game 26 – 21 in Durban, South Africa.
I am sure Team New Zealand will dig deep to win the Americas Cup. A loss to begin with, but their steely resolve will surely help them. All the best wishes to them.
Sun and views
Bridget and my family trust has purchased our own home in central auckland with views of Rangitoto Island and our marvellous CBD. It is a Massive 2 storey, 5 bedroom 2 and a half bathroom brick and tile home featuring a spa pool, billiard table and Massive garage. It is a big do up to bring it to our high standards. Fortunately it is what we do, so Bridget will project manage the renovation to getting this done within 4 weeks. I will post up some pictures in future blogs.
The renovation work in our house done this weekend includes stripping all wallpaper in the house, lifting all carpets and trim, taking out all fitted furniture, removing a pergola, handrails and planning the renovation. Knowing my wife it will be perfect and done to within our budget.
So here it is from the street:
Here’s the carpets on Friday looking rather threadbare in our study:
This do-up project is a special one as it is our own home, so can carry top end finishing, and this time we get to enjoy it. We have had some trials from lifting carpets to hearing squeaky floors, finding gaps between the windows and bricks – but these are mere obstacles. By having the eye on the end finish, visualising the perfectly finished walls, plush wool carpets, comfortable bathrooms. elegant kitchen and smart light fittings the journey becomes far more pleasurable and the hard work required becomes worth it. This week sees the electricians do a prewire and rewire, some gibbing and plastering beginning. I can’t wait to share some more photos with you – this will be a very impressive do-up, that I will truly reap the benefits of.
After another busy and fantastic day, and the adrenalin rush of a new megadeal, I was pleased to get home, log onto TV3 news online to learn about Michael Hill’s latest exciting development. Also I have finally learned how to use the insert photo feature in the blogs – so I will provide you with some more visual content from now on.
Michael Hill is planning to construct 17 underground houses on his golf course (“The Hills”) in Arrowtown. I think this is a very clever development that deserves a mention for some quality thinking.
Think of the pristine landscapes around Arrowtown, the snow capped mountains, lakes, rivers, streams and beautiful environment. So often an intensive housing development in a rural setting would detract from this. Here’s some scenery of the Queenstown Lakes District – not an ugly place. In fact it was the place I got engaged, and here is the view from the precise spot (Bennetts Bluff, Lake Wakatipu) where I went down on one knee to propose to my fiancee Bridget:
The Hills
Here’s a picture of Michael Hill’s stunning golf course in Arrowtown:
Normally houses would harm a magic landscape like this, however Michael Hill and his Auckland architect (Andrew Patterson who designed the cutting edge Clubhouse there) have today lodged building consent for 17 subterrean houses.
Around 80% of the houses will be underground and have few doors, which will help with heating. The rooves will be grass or pebble and finished to a top executive standard. The sizes of these houses will be 350 – 700sqm in size. The excavation and retaining work needed, schist exteriors in above ground parts and top quality finish desired means these houses will be very expensive to built and therefore also demand a top quality price.
The proposal is to develop these over ten years. Click Here to see more on this fascinating development.
We need more lateral thinkers like Michael Hill in New Zealand. He has a magnificent environment in The Hills. And he is allowing more people to share in it, without detracting from the environment with underground housing.
I hope the building consents go through smoothly and quickly so this staged development project can begin – I can’t wait to see it.
Hope everyone has a great weekend. I’m off to my sister-in-law’s birthday party tomorrow, featuring virtual ten pin bowling on Ninentdo Wii as her girls are to sick to go out with us. Then my Club soccer game. It will be fun.
It’s been a great last couple of days. Had a great dinner and leaving party for a friend I have known all my life (since our parents are great friends). The All Blacks won convincingly vs France 61-10 (although superstar Ali Williams’ jaw may not agree quite so much). And Rafael Nadal one of the greatest ever tennis players on clay beat world #1 Roger Federer in the French Open Final ==> what a game.
We are closing in on a mega trade deal at the moment. You will know my belief that in todays market to thrive that you need to create the deal. So we are seeking to solve another person’s problems.
DIY Superstar wannabes
The problem the vendors have is that they wanted to improve their home, but didn’t want to follow the rules, or know the rules. You need a building consent under the Building Act 2004 whenever you do structural work to a house.
They have put in some extra windows, stairs, ranchslider and a kids playhouse high up off the ground with no handrails. Sadly for them their jealous neighbour dobbed them into the council and the council investigated and found the work required a permit and they have therefore done illegal building work. They then got a letter from the council giving them 6 weeks to remedy this (ie restore it to what it was permitted to be). They did not oblige and even told the inspectors that they have improved it so much any council would be foolish to prosecute, or they will call Fair Go. Well they did this and Fair Go was not interested funnily enough. Unfortunately for them they have been issued a notice to fix giving them 4 week to remedy this or else – be forced to (by a court order). Don’t comply, then the house may be shutdown.
So since they spent their money on an illegal thing (unpermitted reno) they have run out of money to restore it. So these DIY wannabes have failed and because they did not know the rules they are sacrificing many tens of thousands of equity to us (the highest offerers on their property). It needs to be sold before it becomes a big problem, we will simply spend the $7-8k to get it fixed, then build a minor dwelling there too.
So the house goes to auction. We like auctions for non-standard properties as the fact it is different scares most people. There is far less competition and seldom a decent bid.
Also on Saturday you will recall in Auckland that we had some tremendous downpours in the afternoon, and the cold southerly didn’t help bring the punters along to the open home.
So we were the only bidders and true to form were below the vendors. So our agents are in the final stages of crunching a mega deal at the moment.
Most prospective buyers don’t like things with a twist. It is “too hard”, “too cold”, “too wet”, or “too scary” or insert any other excuse why not to buy a property to make you $100K in 9 months.
The morals of the story are:
1) Don’t brag too much to your neighbours
2) Knowledge is power – if doing structural or any building work, speak to a qualified builder or architect
3) Go to auctions when it is a miserable day or the property is not a standard one
There are some great deals out there if you persist and know what you are looking for.
Post-Script:
Auckland based property developer/investor Sean Wood got fined $30,000 in June 2008 for unconsented building works. His company City Link Properties was granted a building consent based on plans to extend an existing house. The company submitted a plan to build an upstairs bedroom with ensuite and a four car garage. Instead five rooms were built upstairs and part of the garage was turned into a living area – leaving room for only two cars. Manukau City Council Compliance and Enforcement Manager Kevin Jackson says he is pleased with the sentencing as the building work was over and above what was originally submitted: “People can’t put in one set of plans to the council then do something completely different and hope to get away with it. I am disappointed that this was an experienced property developer who knew the rules but chose to break them.”
Source: Manukau City Council website and New Zealand Herald
- wouldn’t it have been easier for Sean Wood just to follow the law?
While there has been some fuss made over TV3s Deal or No deal show lately, I think there is a mountain being made out of a molehill. If you don’t like how some models cleavage is showing don’t watch it. If you don’t like your kids watching the show as they may get wrong ideas, since they are your kids don’t let them watch it. The same goes for if you are at the beach and men and women are wearing little if nothing and that offends you, or you are repulsed by a 75 year old plus man wearing speedos, exercise your freedom of choice to not look. So quit complaining, out your energy to constructive things and don’t look at Deal or no deal if you don’t like it.
OCR rise to 8.00%
In a similar vein some people are stressing majorly over the fact the OCR has been raised. Some investors and home owners are panicking thinking how are they going to pay their home loans now, will be get foreclosed on, how am I going to retire rich now, what if Interest rates go up to 13%!
Guys it is time to take stock of what happened. I know may be news to some people, but the sun will still rise tomorrow. Team New Zealand will still win the Americas Cup again (if not now soon enough), the All Blacks will still demolish all in front of them. Firstly remember that only your loans on floating/variable Interest rates are effected. Even if you have an average $300,000 of borrowings on floating, the latest 0.25% Interest rate rise will be $750 on your pocket. Not that big a deal.
Improving your return
However if you are more exposed and have fixed debt that will shortly be off the ‘cheap rates’ then you may have an issue. Maybe you need to renovate and add value to your rentals (do up properties to make them desirable to attract good tenants and get better rental returns), consider putting on a minor dwelling, sleepout or subdividing and selling your property. Can you fix your floating debt to get better Interest rates and loan terms. Can you use Lease Options to get some more cashflow. Can you adopt some propertytrading in this changing market.
The answer is: you can do all these things. The real question is what is holding you back right now?
In life sometimes it is like playing a game of deal or No deal. Because it is easy you just say No deal all the time. Why not be positive and looking at your situation – if you can do a deal that will get you ahead – do it…
PS: Grats Team New Zealand on annihilating Prada 5 – 0 to win the Louis Vuitton Cup and right to challenge Alinghi on June 23 – this was a thrashing that every Kiwi enjoyed