There are some great websites that can make home buying and selling easier, and these are my pick of the bunch.
This website has an excellent free information section providing market value and sales data by suburb, rental prices, schools and demographic information. Just enter your suburb or city in the search box and press enter.
A great resource to help buyers and sellers estimate values and how their neighbourhood is performing.
The big daddy of real estate search engines featuring agent and private listings, it attracts nearly 600,000 visitors each month. It has a user friendly interface and some practically helpful new functions for each listing, like Street View, Boundary View and Schools Nearby - as well as saved searches and emailed property alerts.
You probably already know about it, but the website is continually improving to help buyers so it’s definitely worth a mention.
A free online resource centre for home buyers and sellers. Features include:
- Video tips on auction bidding and negotiating
- Links to mortgage brokers, building inspectors, valuers, etc, by city
- Daily property news feed from New Zealand and around the world
- Link access to council websites for rating and valuation information for your home
I’m a director of Hometopia, so I may be a little biased – but it really is a great companion for anyone looking to buy or sell.
Once you’ve discovered which schools are nearby your new dream home it’s a good idea to check them out at the Education Review Office’s website. Here you can read reviews for any school or early childhood centre and view student numbers and profiles.
Whether you have a requirement for good schools or not, they are increasingly a factor in determining house prices – so it pays to know the reputations and facilities of the ones in your area.
Type any area into the search box to instantly find local schools, enrolment zones, bus routes, decile ratings, roll and contact details.
A very handy website for checking out schools and their zones.
Get instant online estimates for all of your renovation projects, from wallpapering to creating a waterfall and everything else in between. Then sit back and invite tradespeople to quote for the job.
Great for back-of-an-envelope calculations about how much it will cost to transform that tired bungalow to the home that you want.
So, bookmark these and other helpful websites you discover to help you with all aspects of buying and selling.
We want to hear from you
GoodHome should be an enjoyable and worthwhile place to visit filled with information that helps you to be the smartest homeowner you can be. We want to hear about anything you found useful or anything you didn’t, and anything you want to see more of that would help make this the perfect site for you - email us at goodhome@bnz.co.nz
This article is intended as a general discussion only. BNZ recommends the recipient get independent advice. The views expressed are the writer’s own and do not necessarily represent those of BNZ or its related entities.