nzstato

Hopefully get another good push on the site this week. External is ready for final clad, all of the batts/jib has arrived to line out the internal. Builders got caught on another job so asking them to play catchup.

Cheers, I still have quite a roll of marine carpet I was looking to use. So even close cell foam I'm going to get into trouble?

Is there is a foam underlay you would reccomend? I want to put something in the landrover but at the risk of doing a deep water crossing and underfelt would have to be removed entirely to dry...

It is.... the previous owners didnt ensure the strainer post was vertical as the concrete dried..... That gate is probably going to go, just not sure where yet....

Fixed, must have gone dud last night

Time to go fishing....

Spam away... You're right, in many cases, the agents work to their incentive scheme rather than maximising the situation for the seller - who said a quick sale is a good sale? potentially leaving $$$ on the table there. With what I do for a living I could look to do this myself, in all honesty its the hassle factor with everything else I have going on in life. With a well trained agent they will do your bidding... I feel the commissions should look like investment funds...... you have a super low base rate, then a large performance fee i.e. achieve x% above the average price/GV for the area... that'll sort the wheat from the chaff.

For alot of them, playing the game of FOMO is all they have got....

So here’s my big on selecting an agent, and a bit on our strategy for selling this thing. First disclosure, I don’t have a background in RE but my day job is in corporate sales and know a fair bit about the area (various programs, training ppl etc). Also, salespeople are people too mmmmkay. Knowing what I know, I’m able to engineer the following process to the outcome I want. Quick tip, sales is 100% built on information, be transparent with information and sharp with questioning and you can have them eating out of your hand (or visa versa…) I don’t really know any agents personally, so I decided to go to a few open homes ran by local agents who look to be successful. Posing as a buyer I was able to get a bit of an understanding on how they operate from the other side. Honestly a lot acted as professional clip board monitors, because the market is so hot right now, they’re sitting back and waiting for the deals to come to them – we want someone proactive but not pushy. It was a pretty easy shortlist (3) to make, the ones that bothered to call me back and ask some questions….. I asked these ones to come to a visit of our place, and provide an appraisal on potential value and marketing strategy, at this point I’m letting them to try and ‘sell’ to me All agents will give a market appraisal where they show comparable sales in the area and how they see that reflected in your property, they aren’t doing a favour here, they have to do that… Be wary of agents who will look to ‘buy the listing’ by appraising your place super high as an attempt to wow you with greed. At this stage I noticed already differences in offering, Agent #1 was very bubbly and talking a lot about how strong the market was, how well it would sell and how good they were at negotiating. Agent #2 was more casual, walking through the different ways in which we could look to sell and asking questions about what’s important to us. For me, this meeting had nothing to do with getting an appraisal (just say “yes, ok, that’s great” a lot), it was a case of gathering information about who they were, what drivers they looked to use so I could use that again in the next discussion. I left each of these meetings outlining that I would be calling them on when we would speak next, but being clear that I would speak to them before making a decision. (if you are clear on YOUR actions and YOUR timeframe, you wont have them badgering you with calls). Next meeting I’m flipping the script, I’m the one in control and asking all of the questions, the reasoning being that previously the agents are excited about the opportunity and this puts them on edge and more easily persuaded. I’ve defined that the strategy will be to do a quiet listing on the house before it is finished – purpose to capture buyers now and when they might be thinking in a few months, also to do so during winter when new build listings (competition) are low. If we don’t get an offer of something we like then we can pause to finish it complete and try again…. In any RE deal you’ve got 3 levers to pull in the negotiation – price, timing, and conditions. In our situation, the second two are easy for us to be flexible in order to achieve the best possible $$$. So here, I’m very much in control of the convo and the agent is the one saying yes to me, with their ability to manage the buying process being the key feature. It then gets onto commissions…. They both start that the standard rates are 4.5/2.5% but for me selling 2 houses they will get me a ‘deal’…. During this step, it is key to shut up, have long pauses before answering and show zero emotion (Chris Voss styles). Agent #1 did start with “what do you think a fair rate”? after which there was some fumbling to do some quick math that their offer was 2%, but that I should indicate what I thought was appropriate. For all the banter about being trained negotiators it didn’t take long for them to drop their rates with little encouragement. Agent #2 was a bit cooler about the whole thing, straight up a fixed cash price for a sale followed with some questions on if there was anything presented up until that point that we were unhappy with or needed more questions answered. I have picked Agent #2, namely because he listened to understand what was important to us, what we feel the strategy should be and what expectations should be. I have also said to him that I’d like to add to his commission, whereby as well as the fixed rate, if he gets over a certain $X then will receive an additional % - key is to align the incentive schemes of you and your agent…. Agent #1 by accounts is good at what they do, they were top in sales in their office and has lots of listings. I feel that is due to be a hard hustler rather than an active negotiator, so the skills fit really wasn’t there. Lots more I could go into the theories behind this process, but it’ll end up getting into sales101…

Windows are now in. Picked an agent, negotiated <2% commission. Post to follow on how to do that. A few articles coming our how commission fees are obscene considering $ and the hot market, I agree but main reason is we sellers accept that without negotiation...

Looking more 'house-like' now, glad they have it covered in to store materials, there is minimal room left in my shed. Likely to pick an RE agent tomorrow, will post up my process to do so.

Builders weren't going to wait on the roofer so got the sheet delivered and started on it themselves. My spare shed is brimming with building materials so with the roof on they can plow on with the rest now that the weather has turned here is the south. 3 waters contractor was round to put in the new water connections, cant recall what the cost was for this (was in the total contract) but shouldnt be too much with such a short run. New power connections due in a few weeks also. Had a brief chat with my lawyer this morning, just to sign an easement to the council over their sewer main, and a private one for the sewer connections into the new lots. Title should be easy (and apparently not too much of a wait at the moment). We are also having thoughts on just selling up the whole lot and just buying or building somewhere else, I have the pricing to do the relocate (60k+) but the hassle/financing factor plus the residual value of the bare sections, added to the fact availability of lifestyle blocks is getting harder means we are weighing up our options. Watch this space, happy to receive questions also, I've had a few PMs along the way.

Being that I dont have too much time to keep my shed I went ahead and sprayed the front. I bashed out the main dents where there the best I could but realistically the whole front end needs alot of panel work at some point in the future - probably worthwhile to get a whole new clip. Ive got new bits on the way to rebuild the front axle so that's the next job on the list....

I spent 4yr in a chem dept of a major uni. Lots of H&S yarns....

Not sure, but better luck there than the other chem companies I know, there is an old guy (Neal) there who I used to work with. OG chem sales rep was on the road in an hq back in the day. failng that, try an online order at Sigma Aldrich

If you still want to homebrew, find a chromate salt you can buy (sodium chromate?), and a zinc salt which is benign (zinc chloride?) and mix. Don't drink it. https://www.ecplabchem.co.nz/sodium-dichromate-ar-500g-see-view-product-details-for-specification-xidp1417552.html https://www.ecplabchem.co.nz/zinc-chloride-100g-lr-anhydrous-see-view-product-details-for-xidp1416386.html

Cant get a roofer till the 27th, apparently these guys are super busy. Going through the process on selecting a RE agent. Might make a post on that if anyone interested?

A bit more progress (but not too much pics). I must have melted the main fuel line shut when I welded the firewall and after attempting to turn it around in my street it ran out of diesel 100m from my house after sucking what was there in the filter. Got a new line made up but the cartridge filter that is in it is unobtainium at the local BNT and the existing sediment bowl is leaking air through one of the passages so will run one of the generic setups. An ongoing problem for this has been it popping out of the gearbox selector from the janky DIY shifter. The alignment pin on the shifter ball (a ground down bolt) had worn which was causing the shifter to move sideways and cause the problem. I ground down a new bolt and gave it some heat treatment so hopefully that solves the problem for another 20 years. I still have my timeline of months before I loose this shed so trying to work on the big stuff while interior/tyres etc can be sorted if its moved to my warehouse. I knew the front diff was going to need some work (as they all do at this age/wear), and the front shaft definately needs new UJs. Not my first rodeo in one of these so I know what I'm up against... Brakes look ok (which I dont want to touch now, as have intentions for a disc break conversion in the future), shafts in ok nick, but these intermediate bearings need replaced (and are a little $$$), looks like there has been a bit of moisture in there and the oil that came out was sludgey brown.... Yep, need a few front diff (anyone got one?), there are some chips (old ones) out of the crown wheel and there is corrosion pitting. Annoyed at myself as I had spares of these from my 88 from 8yrs ago and gave them away. Lesson learned, always horde, never sell....

Carjam only shows 1x other 1100 for '61 and nothing else for 60-64 (unless they screwed up the model). Be an interesting story how it ever came into the country....

Milton.... former small industrial town... yep You said it would be yours....

These guys are tidy and I'm impressed, I've passed that on.

Again, I like the pace these guys move.

Wall framing was up yesterday, I like the builders, unlike other crews on site they dont work government hours.

Not my best painting in the world, nor the best photos in the light but I got the roof done and back onto where it is suppose to be. Looking alot more like a truck now...