| The total
cost for the solicitor and property inspector was less than NZ$1,000. A
good deal less than we’ve sometimes paid for a plumber to replace a leaky
faucet in the U.S.! Other than that, you really don’t have to give anyone
else your annual salary to move in.
Once you’ve
found your dream home, or at least one you can live with until your ship
arrives, you can close on the deal in days, not weeks. We could have closed
on the home we bought in about 48 hours if we had wanted to. So that
part of it is quite nice. On the other hand, finding your dream home is
a little more complicated.
Don’t expect
a multiple listing service. What Americans take for granted just doesn’t
exist in New Zealand or for that matter most of the rest of the world.
Here there is no grand computer housing all of the data about all of the
properties that are for sale. No sir. Each and every real estate company
does their level best to protect all of their own listings on their Dell
8200 under Bob’s desk. And the real estate agents sell only their own company’s
listings. On top of that they only represent the seller. There are
no real estate agents looking to cart you around in their car to show you
all of the houses on the market in the area you’ve fallen in love with.
They will gladly cart you around to look at the properties they are selling,
but you’ll have to jump out and catch a ride with another agent to see
that house across the street from the one you’ve just looked at because
it’s not your current driver’s listing.
Instead of
multiple listings, you will quickly become acquainted with multiple agents!
You will also become very familiar with all of the newspaper real estate
sections and the inside of your own car to a greater extent than you’d
probably like. We spent numerous weekends in search of what we were looking
for and it turned out to be if somewhat stressful; a good learning experience.
We were forced to spend a lot of time looking for areas that we were comfortable
in and weren’t swayed by the fast talk of someone intent on getting us
to buy a house, any house, from them. So be prepared to hunt down your
next abode pretty much on your own.
Another thing
to be prepared for in New Zealand are auctions. A majority of houses here
are sold by auction. Most listings don’t even have a price on them.
If you contact the selling agent – who’s name and often smiling face adorn
enormous signs in front of the house you’re interested in – and press them
very hard, they may give you an “estimated” selling price. Rest assured
it will be at the high end of what they’d like to get so don’t be put off
if it’s somewhere near your price range.
My wife Sandy
and I attended several auctions when we were looking for investment property
and they are to say the least interesting. Some are held at a real estate
office and some are held at hotel meeting rooms depending on how much interest
they think there is in a particular location. But most auctions are held
at the property itself. The auction date and time is announced in the papers
and by direct mail and there’s usually an open house an hour or so ahead
of time. If it’s a nice day as it often is, after the prospective buyers
and looky-looes (and there are a lot of them) have toured the house and
pointed out all of its faults to anyone that will listen, everyone gathers
together on the driveway or on the lawn and mingles until auction time.
It’s a very social event.
At the prescribed
time one of the several real estate agents present will make an official
announcement that the auction is about to commence. In town crier fashion
they will shout out the rules and regulations regarding the auction and
often playfully suggest that scratching your head or wiping your nose could
cost you $300,000 if you aren’t careful. They all seem to enjoy this part
of their job and have a good time with it as do the crowd of onlookers.
The bidding
is usually opened with a call for…you guessed it…a bid! This is the time
where everyone takes a break to inspect their shoes for the odd bit of
dust that might have recently settled. The extroverts in the crowd go so
far as to look at someone else’s shoes, but no further. There is a short
instance of silence during which time the poor auctioneer tries to make
the best of things by pointing out all of the positive qualities of the
surrounding garden. Seeing that no one is going to offer up a bid, and
they never do, a number is thrown out. It’s often an unrealistic
number and the corresponding short gasp from the masses goes out. And when
I say “unrealistic” I mean something on the order of maybe half again as
much as anyone might have expected the property to sell for. The first
time Sandy and I experienced that we were ready to turn on our heels and
head out. But we soon found that after more silence and the pointing out
of how really nice a garden it is, the price begins to fall.
The auctioneer
works the price down until someone is merciful enough to raise their hand
and the auction gets into full swing. Sometimes. We went to one auction
where there were no bids what-so-ever. The price was too high and the owners
were obviously not in a hurry to sell. But usually someone will bid and
then there are usually a few more interested parties or at least someone
that had a runny nose. Once the bidding slows the agent will usually state
that the reserve price has not been met and that if anyone present wants
to buy this house that they’ll have to do better. Sometimes they do and
it gets down to two bidders and one finally gives up. Sometimes it
doesn’t happen and then the agents either take the house back off of the
market or will consult with the owners (usually not present by close enough
to call) and see if they’ll negotiate with the highest bidder.
In the end
we’ve seen some houses sell for much more than we thought they should and
others seem to be about right. But we’ve yet to see any real bargains slip
by. Auctions are usually good for the seller but not so good for the buyer,
especially if you’re not familiar with the local market. So we always
recommend that you not buy anything right away if you can avoid it. Rent
for at least three if not six months or more and get as much information
about the area you’re interested in as possible. It may save you a lot
of grief and money later.
Don’t get me
wrong, buying property in New Zealand is not as bad as it might sound,
but by comparison; the real estate world in U.S. is one of the best and
most efficient when it comes to finding houses. However as I mentioned,
it’s offset here by how simple it is to finally buy your little slice of
heaven once you’ve found it.
The second
thing I wanted to cover and the reason I missed publishing an article in
the last issue was that we’re in the middle of acquiring a business. Woo
hoo! For those of you that haven’t followed our year’s worth of stories
here, Sandy and I moved to New Zealand about 15 months ago. We have
Permanent Residence status and are happily settled in on the east coast
of the North Island just outside of the city of Tauranga. I’m a partner
in a business software development company called Worklinx and Sandy is
the Project Development Manager.
When we moved
here we (and when I say “we” I mean I) had grand visions of not only working
at and growing a business, but to be a property investment tycoon. Well,
maybe not a tycoon, but I had plans to purchase and lease a couple houses
a year until we had a dozen or two and could use them as a nice retirement
vehicle. When we first started on our adventure about three years
ago the numbers for such a grand scheme worked. Property prices were
more than reasonable and we had enough money saved to get started and then
use the initial properties to finance the rest. Since that time property
prices have risen markedly here. Some areas saw a 300% increase in less
than five years! Most areas experienced 15% to 25%, each year but that’s
still a healthy rise. On top of that the value of the U.S. dollar
hit an all-time low while the Kiwi dollar reached a record high.
Interest rates here didn’t help either as they’ve continued to climb.
Given all of
that, buying our own home still made sense, but we couldn’t command the
rental rates that would have made buying investment properties sensible.
What
was I thinking? All of that will change one day and we’ll probably still
pursue that dream, but for now we (again, meaning I) decided opening our
own business was a better idea. We did that a little while back and were
amazed at how easy forming a company was.
We’d had a
small company in the U.S., a limited liability company or LLC. It took
us a good six weeks and a chunk of money to set it up and then some more
to dissolve it when we moved. When we decided to do the same thing here
we contacted a local accountant and they said they’d handle all of the
paperwork and interaction with the New Zealand government. Of course they
would! For a price. But it turned out to be the easiest and least
expensive thing we’ve done in this continuing saga of ours.
Once we set
the wheels in motion the account filed the required paperwork…all on the
Internet. The next day he faxed us four sheets of paperwork to sign and
fax directly back to the government agency. That same day (I’m not making
this up) we had ourselves an officially recognized limited liability company.
About 48 hours later we had all of our tax identification numbers and that
was that! The total cost…$500, no kidding.
The account
told us that it didn’t used to be that simple or fast. He said it used
to take weeks and lots of paperwork had to be mailed back and forth and
there were always some glitches in the system. A few years ago New Zealand
saw fit to overhaul everything and put it all on line. Now it’s a well-oiled
machine that doesn’t get in the way nor cost an arm and a leg to deal with.
Like buying a house and a number of other easy to deal with bits of official
things to do here, we have really enjoyed our experiences and can highly
recommend it to our friends and neighbours.
I bring this
up for a couple of reasons. One to illustrate how, with some perseverance
and fortitude, you can set up housekeeping in a new country. We’re not
rocket scientists…well, Sandy has a degree in Chemical Engineering…but
you know what I mean. And we’re as unaccustomed to starting out in a new
land as most anyone. But the fact of the matter is we did it and you
might be able to do it too. Don’t get ahead of yourself though. Immigrating
to New Zealand is still quite restricted and just not easy to do. If
you’re planning on buying a local business to get here, it’s even harder.
But it can be done. Make sure you start out by visiting the New Zealand
Immigration Service website before making any other plans. (Their website
link is at the bottom of this article.)
The second
reason is that as I mentioned we’re in the middle of acquiring our first
company. It’s a small, local I.T. firm with about 200 customers and (thankfully)
no employees. Like the little business we started it specialises in Internet
marketing and web development, a still somewhat untapped market here. It
also has its own server meaning we can now not only offer website design
and development, but host the sites ourselves. After calculating
how long it would take us to build up our own business to that size and
beyond, we (I) thought buying a base clientele to work from made more sense.
And this time Sandy even agreed with me. Things just keep getting better
and better!
So we’re moving
on to bigger and hopefully healthier things here in New Zealand. Do we
miss our old lives in the United States? Sometimes. We still miss our friends
and family and are planning to spend a couple of weeks visiting them in
the next few months. But overall, we’re still very pleased with our move
and think others might be too. We always tell everyone that asks though;
it’s not for everyone.
There are a
lot of things about New Zealand that wouldn’t sit well with some Americans.
Those that have come to enjoy and expect a lot of convenience in 24 hour
a day Home Depots or other giant superstores full of things they’ll never
need being sold by minimum wage employees with bad attitudes would be lost
here. Gun-toting “Christians” probably wouldn’t be happy in our little
church. House alarm installers would have a tough time finding work here.
Others that think their Humvee is the only thing to drive would be hard
pressed to find soul mates nor would they appreciate paying US$3.50 a gallon
for gas to keep them going! If you’re experience is in the nuclear power
industry, you’ll need to learn to lay bricks or frame houses as New Zealand
is a nuclear-free country. People that like to secret themselves away in
their homes and ignore their neighbours would really be put off by the
way everyone seems to know everyone else in New Zealand. If you like speeding
along six-lane highways at 75 mph you’ll be disappointed to say the least.
(Even four-lane highways are rare and the top speed limit is 100 kilometres
per hour or a little over 60 mph.) Kids that would rather stay indoors
and play Nintendo than go out and play soccer or rugby wouldn’t find too
many friends here either. And for those that think clean air and water,
organic vegetables and free range cattle and chickens and for tree huggers
I just can’t recommend the place.
The best thing
to do if you’re considering moving to New Zealand is visit first. It’s
a terrific place to “holiday” as they say here. Our summer is your winter
so it’s a nice time to get out of the snow and play in the sand at some
of the hundreds of quiet, pristine beaches. Or hike through the emerald
forests featured in the Lord of the Rings movies. You can bungee jump to
your heart’s content and enjoy some wonderful Kiwi cuisine afterwards.
You’ll be greeted by friendly strangers and see some incredible wildlife
that can’t be found anywhere else. Mind you, you won’t run into even one
snake or other creatures much bigger than a possum.
But all things
wonderful about New Zealand aside, you really need to look at the place
with a view to a long-term future. It’s not perfect. They do have their
share of crime and violence but it usually involves fists or at worst knives.
A convenience store robbery at knife-point isn’t uncommon in the larger
cities, but robberies of anything more than a lawn mower are rare in most
of the rural areas. There are lots of things you’ll miss because they simply
aren’t here yet or never will be because the locals see no reason to mess
up their country with them. It’s a heck of a long plane ride back to the
U.S. and it’s not cheap for your family and friends to visit. You likely
won’t earn nearly as much money here and you’ll have to celebrate Christmas
at the beach with barbequed chicken and burgers instead of a turkey.
If you can
handle it (including driving on the other side of the road), it can be
a marvellous and even magical place to live. There are only about four
million people in the entire country so there’s still plenty of wide-open
space. However it’s not a mini United States…and hopefully it never will
be.
With that I
must say a fond farewell for now as our work is starting to keep us quite
occupied leaving little time to write my fanciful articles here. And on
top of that, I think I’ve covered a great deal of what I would have wanted
to know about moving to New Zealand in my previous year’s worth of articles.
I’ve
really enjoyed writing them, but even more relished all of the unexpected
but welcome e-mails I’ve received from (mostly) like-minded folks. In all,
and I lost exact count a while back so forgive me, but I think I’ve received
about 400 e-mails by now! I’ve read and responded to all but one. Three
(and I’m not making this up) didn’t like something I had to say and I was
able to resolve our differences with two. (The other one wasn’t really
worth a reply.) I feel like I’ve made a lot of new “friends” around the
world and thank you for reaching out. It’s meant the world to me and Sandy
and we wish you all the best…even the one I didn’t reply to!
As time
goes along and I feel like I have something worthwhile to contribute, I’ll
see if they’ll allow me to publish another article or two. In the meantime
I know a number of other Americans are planning on or have moved here and
hopefully with me out of the way, they’ll share their experiences as they’ll
be as unique as ours I’m sure.
Bless us each
and everyone and best wishes on your adventures and journeys; here to Aotearoa
(Maori for New Zealand) or wherever your heart leads you. Be not afraid
to travel and see the world, you’ll be a much better person for it!
Cheerz until
next time mate!
The following
are Rick's previous articles for the magazine:
Information
On Emigrating To New Zealand
To contact Rick
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