- Steve Goodey bought a $350,000 house in Wellington despite its proximity to two shootings.
- Goodey has dealt with properties involving methamphetamine discoveries and homes with gruesome histories.
- Nathan Broughton and Tom Rawson shared experiences with hoarder homes and a burnt rental property.
Steve Goodey has made some savvy investments in his long career in real estate. And that includes the homes with less-than-savoury histories.
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The established Wellington property investor and property coach told OneRoof he recently paid $350,000 for a four-bedroom house that was close to not one but two shootings.
The selling agent told him that a resident had been critically injured in an incident some 200m from the property in August. That followed another shooting on the street in 2024.
Goodey, who has bought hundreds of properties, said the shootings had to be declared to prospective purchasers because they materially affected the value of the property.
Property coach Steve Goodey: “I don’t believe in God, I don’t believe in bad juju, I don’t believe in any of that s***.” Photo / Supplied
However, the shootings didn’t put him off. He already knew he was buying on one of Wellington's worst streets.
In the $300,000s, Goodey's Healthy Homes compliant purchase is the cheapest in Stokes Valley this year. And he has already found another property investor who'll buy it off him to add to their rental portfolio.
Goodey told OneRoof that the property is by no means the worst he's encountered. “I’ve got a list,” he said.
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His tradies found 12kg of methamphetamine hidden in the range hood of another Stokes Valley house he bought a few years ago. The first Goodey heard about the discovery was when the plasterer tried to on-sell it at the local pub.
One of his colleagues had a rental in Te Atatu Peninsula that had been turned into a methamphetamine enterprise. The tenant had set up a P-lab under a tarp in the swimming pool and spent three years cooking up a storm until he was busted by police.
The property was toxic from top to bottom. Even after cleaning, the house, drainage system, septic tank and soil were still tainted. The property was handed over to the council, which put a fence around it with no gate, Goodey said.
Goodey said he's also bought homes in which people have died. Even the gruesome deaths haven't stopped him. “I don’t believe in God, I don’t believe in bad juju, I don’t believe in any of that s***,” he said, noting that most problem homes can be cleaned up and made habitable again.
About 13 truckloads of junk had to be removed from a hoarder's home in Saint Martins, Christchurch, before a renovation could begin. Photo / Nathan Broughton, Facebook
However, he does worry about the health of the people who have been living in these nightmare homes. “The worst thing I’ve ever seen in a house in Stokes Valley or Taita or South Auckland is the condition that some kids live in," he said.
“There are no beds, no clothing, no blankets, no pillows – just people lying on the floors. That’s the worst s*** I’ve ever seen in a house by far.”
Christchurch property investor and coach Nathan Broughton once had to start renovating a property while the previous owner was still living there.
Broughton bought the house in Upper Riccarton, in Christchurch, to convert into student flats and was working to a tight deadline so the new tenants could move in. "He [the elderly owner] couldn't get his act together, and we started demolishing the kitchen before he moved out," he told OneRoof.
Broughton also relayed the experiences of a client who bought a hoarder's home in Saint Martins, in Christchurch, to renovate and flip. "The house wasn't liveable, it was just full of crap. I think we did 13 truckloads out of there."
Broughton said a property like that didn't worry him. The "smell and putridness" of such homes tended to deter buyers, thereby lessening the competition.
"A lot of hoarders' houses, you don't really know the true condition of it, because they are so full of crap. You are taking a punt you can fix it up essentially."
Broughton also had no qualms buying properties where someone had died, but tended to avoid homes with dodgy cladding. "But anything where you're just cleaning up someone's mess and putting in a new kitchen and all that, I'd buy those any day," he said.
Ray White Manukau co-owner Tom Rawson has also had close encounters with the awful kind. His Papakura rental property was a beautifully renovated home, which had been relocated to the site until it was deliberately burnt down last year.
Rawson was left with an asbestos-contaminated controlled demolition after the "tenant from hell" struck. "It became my worst investment after it was levelled," he told OneRoof.
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