KEY POINTS:
Homeowners who are struggling to sell their properties in this saturated market have a new tool to attract the diminished buyer pool.
Stephen Hart, author of home-buying guide Where to Live in Auckland, has launched the Value Verified Service, which independently confirms that a seller's asking price falls
within an estimated range of market value for a property.
The service uses an automated valuation model developed with Terranet, using comparative sales and other statistical measures to give a value range.
If the stated price is within the range, the home can use the Value Verified logo and certificate on its advertising.
Lawrence von Sturmer, of Professionals real estate in Pt Chevalier, says: "There are so many houses on the market at the moment, when buyers see Value Verified, they'll know the price is realistic and it's worth coming to look at."
In this slump market, the "bizarre practice" of listing homes for sale with no price helps neither buyer nor seller, Hart says.
Buyers are worried that if they overpay for a home, they could end up with negative equity. That's leading to them staying away from auctions, making derisory offers or procrastinating about buying in general.
Harcourts' chief executive Bryan Thomson says stat- istics con- firm that there's a "stalemate" in the property market, with many buyers holding out for the significant price reductions some have predicted while some potential sellers are delaying taking action by refus-ing to accept today's prices.
Sales across Harcourts' regions in May were down by between 33 and 58 per cent when compared with the same month last year, and its northern region recorded an 11 per cent drop in average price.
While buyers are thin on the ground, sellers should be able to validate their asking price by showing it has been checked and found to be in a reasonable range, Hart says. "It's not as accurate as if a registered valuer were to appraise the property, but it's not as expensive either."
The service is available to all real estate agents and private sellers, but Hart says less than 40 per cent of homes for sale with listing prices currently qualify for the tick.
"The more agents who use it the better," says von Sturmer.
"Hopefully it'll stop some of these vendors pricing their properties $100,000 over value.
"There's definitely a few trying it and they've been sitting on the market for months - they're obviously priced too high."
Thomson says: "Those sellers coming to the market with realistic expectations are finding good demand from genuine buyers at today's levels."