LookingUp: My wife and I once got what we considered a great deal when we were looking at moving. We found a house that we wanted to buy and made an offer contingent on the sale of our current property. We then offered our current property to the same agent (who was quite formidable), and stipulated a rather optimistic minimum price, under which we wouldn't go under any circumstances. That gave the agent incentive for two commissions, she worked very hard on the sale of our house, and actually got us quite a bit more than our preset minimum. I guess this approach only works if you're moving locally, but you may be able to swing something similar if you're moving inter-city.
The flaw in your theory is that a sale which has conditions like this will yield a higher selling price than one without. We got 30K off the price of our current house by removing stuff like and "taking a punt".
30K more than covered the agents fees :)
Would depend where you are selling. If it is in Auckland or Christchurch, or in the main centre of another city, then selling is relatively easy, as there is a lot of competition for a small pool of properties. The agents hourly rate on those properties would be massive, compared to many small town NZ agents. But if buyers are having to pay another 30-40k to buy a house over the RV (which is the indicative market price), then agent fees are essentially a major cause of house price inflation. If someone is selling privately, the the buyer often expects a discount. This is why I would suggest using an agent, but it need not be a full service one which charges a percentage commission no matter what the house sells for. There are quite a few different fixed fee ones around.
The thing about private sellers, is that the are usually easy prey for speculators and developers, who will offer than a low figure. The property game in NZ is a very tough game.
I know someone who recently tried to buy a higher value house in a small NZ town, and it has a GV of over a million. This probably isn't that high in Auckland, but is high in small NZ towns. They put in a final offer of about 5% over the GV, which was about what other properties in the area were selling for (around GV or slightly more). Although only 2 or 3 properties of that sort of value had sold in the area over last 3 or so years, and this house had already been on the market for a number of months. The offer also wasn't conditional on selling another property, which is a big bonus for any seller, as there is no chain involved.. But the seller countersigned at about 35% over the GV, even though this was the only offer they had had. The sellers had had an indepandant valuation valuing it for about what they wanted. The potential buyers however couldn't see where the 35% extra value in it was. Valuers also will never put their money where their mouth is, and it is only their opinion. The number of potential buyers in NZ who could afford to pay over the 1 million mark , and without a property to sell, would be very small, unless you market overseas. They were also using an agent, and had done a lot of probably expensive marketing, which the buyer would ultimately be paying for in a higher selling price. Needless to say the house is still on the market, and the potential buyers did the right thing by walking away from it.
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