If you talked only to Real Estate Agents you would be under the impression that the property market only goes up in price, that house prices never go down, and that "now is THE TIME to buy". The reality is quite different.

The real estate market, like all markets, has boom and bust cycles with periods of price increases and also price slumps. Watching the market and knowing its current position on the boom/bust cycle can indicate when you should buy and how much you should be paying for a property.

If you buy at the top of the cycle, and if you have to sell as the market descends into the "bust" part of the cycle, you could lose a considerable amount of money. When buying, you need to know your chances of getting a capital gain if you had to sell within two years. If you plan to stay with your purchase over a number of years, any short term dips in the market will be made up by long term capital gains. Ideally, buyers need to hold off buying real estate at the top of the boom/bust cycle while trying to buy at the bottom of the cycle. This, however, is seldom possible.

There are a number of online resources that give up to date information on the real estate market as well as commentary and predictions about the future. To get a better cross section of opinions about New Zealand, check out these of online property resources:

Reserve Bank of New Zealand:
http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/keygraphs/Fig4.html

Interest.co.nz:
This is the easy place to find who is offering the best interest rates on mortgages in New Zealand and also a useful compendium of nearly all of New Zealand's Lending Institutions http://www.interest.co.nz/mortgages.html.

Monitoring recent sales in your city/area:
Keep an eye on recent sales in the city or suburb(s) that you are targeting for your new home. Take a note of:

• How much is the Registered or Government Valuation?
• How much did the vendor ask for the property?
• What did the property finally sell for?

Some of this information can be obtained from real estate agents, newspaper advertising and real estate databases such as the QV database ( https://www.qv.co.nz).

There are four main ways to find houses that are up for sale:

• Searches on the Internet
• Listings held at Real Estate Agencies
• Reading metropolitan and suburban newspapers
• Cruising an area at the weekend for "For Sale Signs" and "Open Houses"

The Internet:
The Internet is a huge time saver and an important research tool. Search though any of the online listings posted by Real Estate Agencies, or private sellers, for the city or suburb that interests you. A search in a generic search engine like http://www.google.com, or a New Zealand search engine such as http://www.aorata.com, or http://www.nzs.com/, or http://www.searchnz.co.nz for, say "real estate wellington", will locate will most of the available sites with information on Wellington real estate.

View as many of the online properties as possible to see if any are worthy of an inspection. Be careful not to discount properties too quickly because sometimes an agent (or owner) will take poor pictures of the property or there may be a lack of pictures or information listed.

If the online listing is missing critical information such as pictures or comprehensive descriptions of a feature that is important to you (for example, garaging) telephone the agent/owner and check that the house has your "must have" features before visiting and wasting your time.

On any weekend there may be 10 potential properties with an open home. Visiting them all in one day can be impossible. You can cut this down to manageable five properties by doing online research to discount those with lowest appeal.

The Internet is usually more up to date with new listings than newspapers. "New listings" in newspapers can be one and a half weeks old.

Many of the larger Internet sites also have notification services that will Email you when a house comes on the market that fits your search criteria. Sign up for these notification services to avoid missing out on a hot property that may sell quickly.

Real Estate Agency Listings:
Real Estate Agents act as the intermediaries that bring buyer and seller together. Some work hard for both parties and really do earn their commission. If you can find an agent with ethics, one who you can trust to find you the best property for your money, seriously consider using them.

However, be prepared for real estate agents who do not provide you with help in finding a suitable property. In times of strong demand for property and in periods where there are more buyers than sellers, you will be lucky to get your phone calls returned by a real estate agent. It doesn’t even matter if you have a guaranteed bank loan - they just can't be bothered.

You know when the real estate market is slowing and houses are getting harder to sell because some of the smarter real estate agents will start to return your phone calls.

Newspapers - general listings:
The real estate section of local and suburban newspapers can be good source of houses for sale. Be aware that "new listings" for houses for sale in newspapers or in specialist real estate newspapers or magazines can be 1-2 weeks old.

Also, if there is a lot of demand for houses and little supply, newspapers may be outdated with good properties being snapped up before they get to the newspaper. Often, listings on Real Estate Agency web sites on the Internet are more up to date than newspaper advertisements and listings from the same Agencies.

Newspapers - open homes:
The real estate section of local and suburban newspapers usually has a listing for open homes to be held the following weekend.

The current trend of house selling by Open Home inspection seems destined to continue in New Zealand. Open Homes are a very convenient tool for the Real Estate Agent to obtain a database of prospective buyers. Sometimes, selling the house seems to be an irrelevance.

In addition you can find private sellers from personal contacts, or from advertisements placed in newspapers or from "for sale signs" displayed outside of properties.

Letterbox flyer when house inventory is low:
If you are having difficultly finding a selection of houses to view you may want to consider delivering a letterbox flyer to homes in your target suburb(s) or street(s).

The flyer should say that you are a private cash buyer looking for a property to purchase. Using this technique you may find a private seller or somebody who is about to list with a real estate agent.