Presentation key for buyers who don't want a do-up

The property market has slumped, but people trying to sell their houses can maximise their chances by following some sound advice.
Oamaru-based registered valuer Hugh Perkins says a couple of years ago, people were paying high prices for 1970s houses with "good bones" but "everything still to do".
You know the sort - thick lino on the floor, loudly patterned carpets and wallpapers, dingy shower cubicles with clingy curtains ... They'd hardly been touched since they were built, but were well designed and constructed, and were converted into comfortable modern homes with new decor and fittings.
"That's really changed in the last 12 months," Hugh says.
Houses with really good bones are going cheaply, as buyers with money are becoming more choosy.
"My impression is that the majority of buyers are reasonably lazy," he says.
If they find a selection of properties that meet their criteria - a certain number of bedrooms, room for a certain number of cars, etc - they'll pick the one that needs the least work put in.
Therefore sellers should make sure they present their homes as immaculately as possible.
Hugh doesn't necessarily recommend spending a lot of money on major refits, but he says it's "definitely worth doing up" a place so it appears at its best.
A weatherboard house with chipped paint will remind prospective buyers about the maintenance burden that goes with this cladding.
They'll also start looking for rotting boards, and are likely to move away to where such problems are not evident.
"If it's all well painted, they'll switch across the thought of high maintenance," Hugh says.
Presentation applies equally to the section and the buildings on it, he says.
Buyers want to move in and not have to spend time on top of the money they've just parted with.
At the bottom end of the market it's not such a factor, as buyers don't have the same choices. They're usually inexperienced in the property sector, and have a narrow range of prices they can consider.
And although well-known property investor Olly Newland says there's never been a better time to buy property, anyone without the money to play the market is not going to find it easy.
Hugh says banks "fluffed up the boom with generous lending" in the recent past, and were still approving 100 per cent mortgage loans when the market was easing.
"That's almost criminal," he says.
The banks have now "backed off" and are "playing pretty hard ball", he says. And
"the poor old homeowner stands the loss".
Nobody in their right mind would go unconditional on a property purchase these days, Hugh says.
But although mortgagee sales have been on the rise in parts of New Zealand, he has found they're not common in the lower South Island.
"We're more conservative down south.
"There's a less mobile population, and it's harder to start again."
In the rural sector, buyers - and real estate agents - are becoming frustrated, Hugh says.
The agents have buyers eager to make a commitment, but the financiers are holding back.
The commercial market, on the other hand, is "really quite positive", Hugh says.
"Business people are generally quite optimistic."