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Looking at property is something people do by visiting open homes. But that's not the method used by increasing numbers of internet users, as SHARON NEWEY reports.

"I'll often already know someone is going to buy a particular property before I've even sent the details."

When Gary Broom returned to live in Auckland, he and his England-based brother Michael decided to buy an investment property together, using the internet as their main research tool.

For Gary it was a three-month project, filling his time before he began working. On the one day he hadn't checked the usual websites, his brother spotted the house they would eventually buy - a large family home on a subdividable site in Mt Roskill.

The NZ Herald website's property section was the one that finally delivered the goods, although the brothers also used Realenz and Open to View extensively. Gary even preferred the website alternatives to local publications like the Central and North Shore Property Press because, although he and Michael had an extensive criteria list, that did not include a suburb, and most print advertisements are defined by location.

On the day Michael spotted the property, he also emailed Gary details of five others. Gary screened them all and narrowed his search down to three. The Mt Roskill property, being marketed by Angela Gray of Barfoot & Thompson's Mt Albert office, was the second he physically visited. "It was ideal as far as our criteria was concerned." Frustrated with the months of searching for a property, the brothers quickly put in an offer and bought the house.

His experience of using the internet as a research tool has left Gary with the firm opinion that the sites could be more user-friendly. "You would use the search functions like price range, floor area or number of bedrooms but instead of coming up with five to 10 properties, you would get about 150."

From Angela Gray's point of view, the internet was a great marketing tool for this particular property. The house had been in the same family for 62 years and the owners requested no open homes and a softer approach to marketing. "Because it was a subdividable site, we contacted the developers on our database, but beyond that there was limited opportunity for attracting buyers," says Gray.

A more classic case of buying over the internet was the one of Stephen Hopcroft, a Brit working in China but with the desire to spend half the year in New Zealand. Friends living in Hong Kong recommended the website of Premium Real Estate, a company which specialises in property from Takapuna and Milford's golden mile near the beach. After making contact with salesman Lewis Guy, vetting properties by internet and building up a knowledge base of what to expect of the local property market and how to go about buying, Hopcroft came to New Zealand for two days with the firm intention of buying.

Armed with a hit list of a dozen properties, Hopcroft soon realised that he was not going to get a property with the space and privacy he desired near the water. As an alternative, he was encouraged to consider Coatesville. One property of about 2ha appealed, he made an offer, the negotiations were kept short and by the time he flew out, he was the proud owner.

The two-month research and two-day visit scenario is fairly typical, says Guy, who becomes the prospective buyer's eyes and ears during the process. Aside from the vast amount of knowledge it imparts about the country and local market, an agency like Premium also collects buyers from the airport, arranges accommodation and will even arrange a meeting with an immigration consultant. An intense dialogue via email and telephone during the research period allows Guy to build up a very specific picture of what the buyer is looking for and to be able to easily pinpoint properties of interest. "I'll often already know someone is going to buy a particular property before I've even sent the details," he says.