- A flood-damaged Waikato house sold for $186,000 in a $1 reserve auction, exceeding expectations.
- The auction attracted 36 bidders, with a Hamilton buyer planning to renovate and rent it out.
- The owners were relieved, as the sale and insurance payout nearly matched their original $330,000 deal.
The owners of a Waikato house that flooded just weeks before the new purchasers were due to settle burst into tears after learning their luck had changed and it had sold for $186,000 in a $1 reserve auction.
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Harcourts agent and auctioneer Steven Bridson said Thursday’s auction result was a better outcome than the vendors had expected and meant they could now finally move on from the flood-damaged two-bedroom riverside cottage on State Highway 2, in Karangahake, near Paeroa,
The auction for the ‘as is, where is’ property, which comprised 1.3ha of land, a character villa and a shed, attracted 31 registered bidders including about a handful from Australia.
The house was stripped of almost everything after flood waters caused serious damage to the property. Photo / Supplied
Bridson said he had a flurry of last-minute registrations with some people only deciding to bid hours before the auction started.
Just before it kicked off, Bridson told the bidders on the phone, online and in the room that the property was one person’s problem and someone else’s opportunity.
“You are not buying perfection,” he said.
The auction opened at $500 spurring on a flurry of different bids, ranging from $500 to tens of thousands of dollars, as people tried to grab a bargain.
However, the real battle began once the auction surpassed $125,000 leaving just two bidders – online bidders’ number 26 and 29 - fighting it out.
The sparring continued between the two parties and eventually sold for $186,000. “Lucky bidder number 29” secured it with a $500 bid after a total of 56 bids, Bridson.
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It was his understanding that the new owner was from Hamilton and planned to renovate the property, which needed a new kitchen and bathroom, before renting it out. The cottage had been stripped bare after the neighbouring river overflowed in the January storms and damaged the home.
Bridson said there had been all sorts of ideas about what to the property, but for some it came down to what they could get it for.
"I was joking that you could have a billboard out the front and wouldn't it be cool to have a dirt go-kart track or something there. There were heaps of options - there were people thinking about mooring their boat off the river, there were people wanting to look at options of living in it themselves - a step into the market."
Bridson spoke with the vendors immediately after the auction and said they were "absolutely pleased" with the result, which also meant they could now move on.
“There were instant tears of joy that it's all over.”
The house and garage sit on a 1.34ha riverside section. Photo / Supplied
They told him that with the insurance payout and the money they had got from the auction, they were almost in a similar if not better position to what they would have been in if the sale for $330,000 had gone ahead at the start of the year.
The journey to selling the property had been a long and - until now – unlucky one for the owners.
The owners had sold the cottage in November last year for $330,000 – almost $100,000 below the asking price – but the deal was cancelled after severe storms in January caused a nearby river to overflow.
With their buyers triggering a get-out clause in the contract and the council deeming the property a hazard, the owners were forced to pick up the pieces.
Hauraki District Council deemed the property safe in May, but the owners, having decided that there was a risk of the house flooding again, decided to keep the insurance money and sell it “as is, where is”.
The owners had already remediated the property once after it flooded several years ago and did not want to go through it again. They paid $182,000 for the house in January 2011 and lived in it before turning it into a rental.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Hauraki, in Waikato
