Auckland real estate - the value of lists #1, school zones

Now one thing you'll quickly learn in the property market is that everyone you deal with is nice but it's likely you'll be seen as a walking wallet.  The only thing distinguishing most companies from one another is their ability to keep the information from you and ration it out in exchange for either your custom or your cash.


So do it yourself, it's not hard...


First - a quick look at the market will show you a huge amount is based on school zones.  


Real estate agents crow that a particular house is within a certain school zone but why can't you do a search on their site or on any site for houses by school zone?  Because although that would benefit you as a buyer, it doesn't benefit the real estate agent (who wants you to rely on them for "keeping an eye out" in the right zones) and it doesn't really benefit the schools.  Yes you could check zoodle.co.nz for this information but only on a property-by-property basis.  


You could try http://nzschools.tki.org.nz/, the government site that shows online maps of school zones, but the information isn't downloadable and it's hard to print out the images.  And you'll need to manually search for each address.


Or try this site - http://koordinates.com/layer/743-nz-school-zones-sept-2010/.  Back in 2010 someone made an Official Information Act request to the Ministry of Education and now you can download a handy list of ALL school zones in NZ that you can open in Google Earth and play with.  Yes it's a single alphabetical list and yes school zones vary very slightly over time but hey, it's free.


So... download it (it's free), open in Google Earth and save the .kml in a new folder.


Next, go to this site - http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/directories/list-of-nz-schools - and download the schools directory.  Open in Excel and turn on autofilter, then sort schools by what's important to you (demographics, roll, level, decile, location, gender, etc etc).  Thin it down to a list of schools you like.


Next go to Google Maps and create some folders (e.g. "primary"/"intermediate"/"secondary") then just drop and drag the school .kml's into these folders which you can then turn on & off.


You can now surf and print satellite and street maps of anywhere in NZ, turn on and off different school zones and look at where the overlaps are.

Good thing for us is that many house prices are based on the decile rating of secondary schools, but the most important thing for us at the moment is a good primary school.  Have a think about what's important for you in terms of the school.

Auckland real estate - some tips and tricks I'm learning

Now we have started looking for a house.  There's nothing wrong with our one - it's a great house, a bit small but we'd stay if it was in the right area.  Yep, living practically next door to the official "best pie shop in Auckland" has its benefits, but we are about 50 metres out of zone for the good high schools and the only primary school we are zoned for is a Decile 2.  And yeah, it matters.  Hayley is 2 and a half, and if we've got the choice to send her to a better school we're going to go for it.

Problem is we've got to start dealing with real estate agents again.  I don't like to tar a whole profession but I'd like to know from someone what these agents do for their money.  That is, what justifies the percentage commission they charge for selling your house on top of making you pay for everything from the LIM to the advertising to the freaking board and flag they put up for an open home.

So I'm learning a few things from this experience that I want to pass on to the one or two people who may read this... from a complete non-expert... (take everything I say with a grain of salt and do your own research - I'm learning all this as I go...)

- First, banks are being held a lot more to account when it comes to leaky home sales.  That means they need to cover themselves and by extension you.  They may ask for the address of a home you want to bid for, and in some cases won't give prior approval for a loan if there are weathertightness issues.  This means use it.  Banks have access to information about residential buildings that you and I don't have.  Talk to the bank manager about a house you're looking at - they may come back with info for free that you would otherwise pay tens or hundreds of dollars for from QV or the council.

- "Is there anything else about this property I need to know?" is an important statement.  You'll find a lot of tips of questions to ask real estate agents on the internet.  Important thing to know is the agent has no incentive to tell you the truth (if they can get you to purcha$e before finding the problem what do they care?) but they can't knowingly withhold information.

We saw a house last week, nice old house, about 80yrs old, on top of a hill, but the downstairs had clearly been done illegally.  Also, the home advertisement didn't match the number of rooms that were in the house - shady.  I asked the agent at the open home about this and he gave me a copy of the LIM.  I asked him directly "what's the status of the renovations downstairs?".  He told me he hadn't read through the LIM so he didn't know.

That night I read through the LIM and sent a formal email through to him (if it isn't in writing it didn't happen), asking "what's the status of this bathroom, has the house had a code compliance certificate, council approvals, etc etc.  He emailed back to say "the information you have is the same information that I got from the vendor" and recommended I pay almost $100 to go to the council with the question.

Morals:

1. Nobody in the industry is employed to be on the side of the buyer.  Do your homework but this doesn't mean you have to fork out the money (which is limitless if you want to run QV and council reports, and builder inspections for every property you really like).

2. If a real estate agent says "I don't know" to a question, you should probably be wary.  "I don't know but I'll find out" is a good answer, but "I don't know I haven't bothered to ask my clients" isn't.

3. Don't be afraid to put the agent on the spot.  I was at an open home today, looking at a reasonably new house with obvious "leaky home" risks.  I asked the agent what the status was of the house weathertightness and he said he wasn't sure for certain but some recent clients had taken a builder round and the builder wasn't happy with the moisture readings on one or two of the rooms.  Thanks dude!  you've just saved us $400 on a building inspection unless we want to get someone new round to have another detailed look through.

4. Not all real estate agents are corrupt, but when you find a good one don't lose them!  We're still massively grateful to the agent who bent over backwards for us with our current house.

Tarawera eruption - phantom canoe? Part 2 of 2

A group of Maori, and two boatloads of European tourists see a mysterious canoe on Lake Tarawera.  Although the tourists think little of it, the local Maori see it as an omen of evil.  Around a week later, Mt Tarawera erupts, devastating the area and destroying the Pink and White Terraces.  Later reports talk in depth about the significance of the "Tarawera phantom canoe."


So what is the harm in a "very pretty and poetical conceit", or the "prodigies of fancy... to have seen this or any other portent that affords .. comfort in the retrospect", as the Otago Witness newspaper reported after the event? 

Everything in NZ - in centimetres

An incomplete (100 things) list of absolutely everything in NZ.... in descending order by centimetres.

What	Centimetres
NZ coastline	1513400000
Distance travelled (straight line) by Dr Ropata from La Aurora International Airport (Guatamala) to Auckland International Airport	1138395000
Distance of Chatham Islands from South Island	80000000
Coast to Coast race	24300000
Furthest distance from the sea at any point in NZ	13000000
Running - 2:08:59.00 (Rod Dixon, 23 October 1983)	4219500
Halfway down Dominion Road (before extension) – intersection of Peary and Dominion Road	3100000
Mt Cook (highest mountain in NZ)	375400
Buildings & infrastructure within 3km of new vent in Auckland Volcanic field destroyed by initial surge of hot gas, steam and rocks	300000
Mt Ruapehu (highest mountain in North Is)	279700
North Island snow field – permanent snowfield	250000
Martin Jetpack – estimated hover above ground limit	244000
Estimated distance into Pike River mine of 29 miners' bodies from November 2010 explosion	230000
South Island snow field – lower range of permanent snowfield	200000
Running – 3:49.08 (John Walker, 7 July 1982) (mile)	160934
Martin Jetpack – 29 May 2011 – unmanned test flight	150000
Distance the Manukau bar moved from where it was recorded on the nautical map used by the captain of HMS Orpheus (wrecked 7 Feb. 1863)	120700
<1km - crater that could be caused by explosive Auckland Volcanic Field eruption	100000
Mt Erebus crash site (above sea level)	76000
Height from sea floor of White Island	75000
North Island snow field – low point	60000
Sky Tower	32800
Running – 4:53 (Thomas Dold – Germany), fastest time up Sky Tower – 1,267 steps (2009)	32800
South Island snow field – low point	30000
Height of Chunuk Bair, Gallipoli	26212
Rangitoto	26000
Mt Eden	19600
One Tree Hill	18200
Vero Centre (Auckland) NZ tallest skyscraper from 2000	17200
Metropolis (Auckland) NZ tallest skyscraper 1999 to 2000	15500
Eyewitness accounts of distance of first powered flight by Richard Pearse’s bamboo monoplane … in a barely controlled straight line, before crashing into a gorse bush (31 March 1903, 9 months before Wright brothers)	15000
ANZ Centre (Auckland) NZ tallest skyscraper 1991 to 1999	14300
Crowne Plaza (Auckland) NZ tallest skyscraper 1990 to 1991	11000
BNZ Tower (Auckland) NZ tallest skyscraper 1982 to 1990	10600
Running – 10.11secs (Augustine Nketia, 22 Aug. 1994)	10000
AMP Tower (Quay Tower)(Auckland) NZ tallest skyscraper 1980 to 1982	8700
Copthorne Plimmer Tower (Wellington) NZ tallest skyscraper 1975 to 1980	8500
HSBC Building (Auckland) NZ tallest skyscraper 1973 to 1975	8100
NZ Parliament House (The Beehive)	7200
Civic Building (Auckland) NZ tallest skyscraper 1966 to 1973	7100
Spire of Christchurch Cathedral - till 2011	6300
geological evidence of maximum height of run-ups from tsunamis that have affected NZ coastline over last 6000 years	6000
Tane Mahuta (NZ largest living Kauri) – Total Height	5120
Auckland Harbour bridge	4327
Obelisk on top of One Tree Hill	3000
Cave Creek viewing platform	3000
Rubber domes covering ‘Echelon’ satellite interception dishes in Waihopai - deflated by sickle attack in 2008	3000
Tane Mahuta (NZ largest living Kauri) – Trunk Height	1768
Amount Mt Cook shrunk after 1991 avalanche	1050
Height of lahar that destroyed Tangiwai bridge (1953 rail disaster)	600
amount of uplift (below surface) caused by magnitude 8+ 1855 Wairarapa earthquake	600
Distance New Zealander Jonathan Macfarlane threw Andrew Rainford to beat Guinness World Record for throwing a person (2009)	487
Yards of space between Maori chiefs and British platform at Waitangi during Treaty negotiations (5 Feb 1840), to allow orators to stand and move during their presentations	457
Maximum height of tsunami run-up affecting NZ in 1960 from magnitude 9.5 earthquake near Chile	450
Kawerau Bridge Bungy	430
Largest moa (Dinornis novaezelandiae) (neck outstretched)	370
Horizontal distance per 100cm rise of Baldwin Street, Dunedin (world's steepest street)	286
highest amount of land slip (below surface) as a result of Christchurch Earthquake 2011 - near Avon-Heathcote estuary.	250
NZ average rainfall – max	200
height of tsunami in Wellington Harbour from 1855 Wairarapa earthquake	200
Average male New Zealander	177
Average female New Zealander	165
Britten V1000 motorcycle - wheelbase	142
Width of yellow 1978 Morris Mini 1000 in Goodbye Pork Pie	141
Ketland & Company flintlock musket captured during British storming of Ruapekapeka (during Northern War), 11 January 1846	138.5
Americas Cup (Auld Mug) – as at 2010	111
Americas Cup (Auld Mug) – original size (1848)	68
Monadnock PR 24 baton used by riot police during NZ Springbok Tour 1981	60
NZ average rainfall – min	60
Width of standard NZ coffin at the shoulder (increased from 51cm in 2000s as a result of growing obesity issues & wider average shoulder width)	58
Height difference between Elijah Wood (168cm tall) and Frodo Baggins (approx. 114cm tall)	54
Male Great Spotted Kiwi	45
Christchurch Earthquake 2011 - rise in ground level around western side of Avon-Heathcote estuary	40
Rugby World Cup – Webb Ellis Cup	38
Reach difference between David Tua (178cm) and Lennox Lewis (213cm) in 2005 WBC, IBF & IBO Heavyweight title fight	35
Oscar statuette (Academy award)	34
Annual rainfall in Central Otago	30
Minimum size of bloodstained sock prints found in Bain household (compared with David Bain's foot length of 30cm)	28
Approx. diameter of largest of >40 'One Ring''s used during filming of Fellowship of the Ring - steel (gold plated), used for prologue	20.3
Buzzy bee – wing-span	17.5
Height of 'V' 250ml slimline can	13.3
Minimum legal size for amateur harvest of blackfoot paua (Haliotis iris)	12.5
estimated amount of ash fall over most of Auckland area during volcanic field eruption	10
Standard diameter of beer can	6.5
Distance NZ and Australia move together per year	4.5
Coin - 50 cent coin – 1967 to 2006	3.17
Coin - Twenty cent coin – 1967 to 2006	2.85
Coin - Two dollar coin - from 1991	2.65
Con - 50 cent coin - from 2006	2.47
Coin - Ten cent coin – 1967 to 2006	2.36
Coin - Dollar coin - from 1991	2.3
Coin - Twenty cent coin - from 2006	2.17
Coin - Two cent coin - 1967 to 1990	2.1
Coin - Ten cent coin – from 2006	2
Coin - Five cent coin - 1967 to 2006	1.9
Coin - One cent coin - 1967 to 1990	1.75
Amount of microfoam on a good flat white coffee	0.6
Draught of Container Ship Rena (fully laden)	-120
Depth of Rainbow Warrior under ocean surface - Cavalli Islands	-2600
Depth under water of lower tier of Pink & White Terraces	-6000