Hey, my name is Andrew Duncan.
On my blog, you will find real estate tips, advice and market commentary, with some off-topic ranting occasionally thrown in for good measure. I love working with nice people, enjoying plant-based food, CrossFit, NFL and living in Wellington, where I run Relatable, an independent real estate agency where we help buyers and sellers make smart property decisions.
After more than a decade in real estate. I have seen the value that a really good salesperson can add to the process. I have seen houses sell for prices that blew me away – because the salesperson running the marketing campaign knew how to position the property. They knew how to attract the right buyers and how to create competition. At the same time,…
In this article, you will find straight-forward tips and advice on what to do if you have a home that is taking a long time to sell. If a house stays on the market a long time, does that mean there is something wrong with it? Not always. It is true that some properties are harder to sell. If there is unconsented building work that…
Every millennial real estate buyer wants to be in charge of their transaction from start to finish. We want to do as much research as possible before speaking to a real estate salesperson. 5 dos and 5 don’ts for marketing properties to first home buyers. Please don’t! 1. Don’t limit the number of photos on trademe to ‘make the phone ring’. If we can’t see a photo…
A new report has been released by the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor which questions all our assumptions around ‘safe’ meth contamination levels in residential houses. The report essentially says the old trigger level of 1.5 mcg per 100 sq cm was way too over-zealous and contamination levels would have to be many, many times higher to even have the possibility of causing negative effects….
In this article, I’m tackling an age-old real estate belief that a fast sale = a good sale. To work out whether that’s true, I’ve analysed the most impressive sales in Wellington City over the past 12 months, to see if I could answer the following questions… What goes into a great result? Are there similarities among the best property sales that we can learn…
This article explains why you need to think long and hard before you choose an agent and before you sign their listing agreement. What is a listing agreement or ‘agency agreement’? It is the contract you sign when you hire a real estate salesperson to market your home. Find out more on the REA website. The standard duration is 90 days and therein lies the problem….
Please note: Figures below are generated from REINZ stats and ‘Wellington City’ covers Tawa to Seatoun and everything in between… The big talking point this month… The median sale price for non-apartment properties (houses, townhouses and units) in Wellington increased to $744,373 in February 2018. That’s the highest median every recorded for that segment of the market. Just beating out November 2017’s high of $744k,…
When it’s time to sell your home, you will find there are basically two types of real estate salespeople out there. The first type will chuck a sign outside, take a few photos, put it up on trademe with a few bullet points in the advert and wait for the phone to ring. The second type will pro-actively go out in search of the perfect…
It often comes as a complete surprise to owners, that a real estate salesperson will ask them to pay not only their commission but a separate advertising bill on top (and up front). This advertising program usually comes to thousands of dollars. Which begs the one question that nearly every owner ponders at some point in the home selling process: “If I am paying my…
An extreme shortage of properties caused the Wellington median sale price to jump 8.7% in September. Read on to find out how this came about. But first… Uber sees 100% increase in new driver applications! An underwhelming 181 properties changed hands in Wellington City in September (based on REINZ stats). To put this in perspective, nearly twice as many properties (334) sold in September last…
