Auckland property has $1 reserve

The house is 160sqm and sits on land which is 622sqm. Photo / Supplied

A family of Auckland investors has decided to have some fun while selling their latest home - by putting it up for sale for a $1 reserve at auction.

Barfoot & Thompson agent Paresh Parshotam suggested the idea because the family - who own several properties - weren't too bothered about making large amounts of money off the sale, rather just getting back at least what they paid for it.

The living room. Photo / Supplied

After getting advice from their lawyer and discussing it with the wider family, they gave Parshotam the go-ahead.

"It will sell and will sell at a good price ... the owners will be happy because what they paid and what they will get, they will take their chance on the property basically, that's the story. They're not in a hurry, it's just one of those things they've got quite a few properties, they're not desperate vendors, they are just doing it for the fun of it."

The kitchen. Photo / Supplied

The split-level, 1970s weatherboard home on Magellan Place in Papatoetoe has plenty of space and potential, Parshotam said.

Downstairs it has a bedroom, bathroom, laundry and living area, while upstairs - via an internal staircase - there are another three bedrooms with dining, lounge and kitchen areas.

One of the bedrooms. Photo / Supplied

The owner also has resource consent to transform the property into a 'home and minor dwelling, or granny flat'.

"With the resource consent now approved someone could legally convert it into a home and income and fetch more income, so there's a family upstairs and family upstairs so becomes like a good investment property."

However, if they did that, downstairs "needed a bit of work" including installing a kitchen and firewall, removing the staircase along with other works.

The house is 160sqm and sits on land which is 622sqm.

The view from the property. Photo / Supplied

Despite announcing the home's $1 reserve last week, Parshotam said he has been a bit disappointed with the response.

"We have got some interested buyers, but the rush that I was expecting hasn't happened to date. I'm surprised. I think people don't understand what $1 reserve means, so we have changed our marketing and have said 'come to the auction, be it $100k or $200k, wherever the bidding stops, the property is yours', so we are putting it in a different marketing manner now. We are literally telling people what this means."

Parshotam said a $1 reserve auction was "very rare" but it was definitely going ahead on-site on August 29.

"They're thinking this is a marketing gimmick but the fact is, it's selling. It will be sold on the day and the reserve is $1."

The owners could get up to $100,000 more than the CV of $510,000 but they weren't greedy, he said.

The owners wanted to remain anonymous but Parshotam said one of the family members was another agent with Barfoot & Thompson, something he wanted buyers to know for the sake of transparency.