Property Stories

Commercial / Community Property

The Kaukapakapa Hotel had long been a hub for the local community. Like many small rural hotels, however, it faced the challenge of changing social habits, greater awareness of drink-driving and the difficulty of maintaining patronage in a rural location. The COVID-19 pandemic and periods of lockdown added further pressure, and the hotel ultimately closed.

Dave felt strongly that the loss of the hotel was detrimental to the community. Over a number of years, he worked with a developer client to find a way forward and ultimately helped achieve a successful sale of the property.

The new owners, together with the partners and operators they brought into the project, had the foresight, commitment and resources to undertake a substantial redevelopment. The former hotel was transformed into Shed 16, creating a new hospitality venue and giving the property a renewed role within the community.

Dave is proud to have played a part in helping make that transition possible. What began as the sale of a closed rural hotel ultimately contributed to the revival of an important local property and the creation of something the community could once again enjoy.

Complex Residential / Estate Sale

This property formed part of a deceased estate, with Rik working closely with the executors throughout the sale process. It presented considerably more complexity than a conventional residential property.

The home had significant weathertightness issues. Remedial work had been started, but the repairs were far from complete, meaning prospective purchasers needed to understand both the condition of the property and the work that remained to be done. Rik worked carefully through the disclosure requirements, ensuring the known issues and available information were appropriately communicated to buyers.

The role also extended beyond simply marketing and negotiating the sale. Once the property had sold, Crow Realty assisted with clearing the remaining contents from the property, helping reduce some of the practical burden on the executors at what was already a difficult time.

It was a sale that required careful communication, transparency and a realistic approach to presenting a property with known problems, while also recognising the circumstances of the people responsible for dealing with the estate.

Residential / Working Further Afield

This property was being sold as part of a deceased estate. Dave had a longstanding connection with the family and, given the distance involved, initially suggested that they might be better served by engaging a local agency. The family, however, were adamant that they wanted Dave to handle the sale for them.

Working at that distance required more planning than a typical local campaign. Open homes and appointments had to be coordinated carefully around Dave’s other commitments, with trips to New Plymouth often involving an overnight stay. It was not the first property Crow Realty had handled well outside its core market, but it was another example of the additional effort sometimes required when clients want to work with someone they already know and trust.

The property was successfully marketed and sold for the family, demonstrating that distance need not prevent Crow Realty from taking on the right property wwhere the circumstances support it.

For Crow Realty, the sale was also a reminder that long-standing relationships can matter just as much as geography. Sometimes clients value continuity, trust and knowing exactly who will be representing them more than having an agency office around the corner.

Lifestyle Property / Client Circumstances

The property itself was not particularly difficult to market, but the vendor’s circumstances made the sale considerably more challenging.

The home had been built and developed by a couple, with the vendor’s late wife playing a major role in its design and construction. Following her death, the property carried a great deal of emotional significance, and the memories associated with it had become increasingly difficult for her surviving husband. His goal was to sell and return to the United Kingdom, where he had originally lived.

Rik worked primarily with the vendor throughout the sale, with Dave also involved where needed. Both were very conscious that this was not simply a property transaction. The vendor was elderly, emotionally invested in the home and understandably found aspects of the process difficult, so considerable patience and care were required throughout.

A sale was ultimately achieved in what was a very depressed market. While the price was lower than Rik and Dave would ideally have liked to achieve, the vendor’s circumstances meant that securing a dependable sale and allowing him to move forward was more important than holding out indefinitely in the hope of a higher price.

As soon as the sale became unconditional, the vendor returned to the United Kingdom.

For Crow Realty, the experience was a reminder that the best outcome for a client is not always defined solely by the highest possible sale price. Sometimes timing, certainty and the client’s personal circumstances matter just as much.

Commercial / Development

The Kaukapakapa Village Centre was owned by two partners whose working relationship had broken down. Dave was initially engaged to sell one partner’s interest in the development. That interest was successfully sold despite the added complication of Dave acting as an intermediary between two owners who were no longer prepared to communicate directly.

Crow Realty’s involvement then extended well beyond that initial transaction. We assisted with leasing the service station and liquor store, put in place an Agreement to Lease for a proposed medical centre and pharmacy, and generated serious interest from a supermarket operator and a number of other prospective retail tenants. We were also involved in the subsequent sale of the leased liquor store and an apartment within the development. Crow Realty itself leased office premises in a completed part of the development for a period, giving us first-hand experience of the centre as both an agent and an occupier before we later moved away from maintaining a bricks-and-mortar office.

What began as a client relationship with the remaining owner developed into a long-term working relationship, with Dave later assisting him with other construction-related matters and the two becoming friends.

When the development later went into receivership, Dave identified a party interested in purchasing the stalled project and continuing the development, and negotiated with the receiver on their behalf. That proposed transaction ultimately did not proceed.

The challenge throughout was not simply selling or leasing property. It was creating commercial interest in a development in a fringe Auckland location while navigating complicated ownership circumstances and helping move the project forward where the parties themselves could no longer work directly together.

Lifestyle / Subdivision Potential

Dave was initially approached by a young couple to market a lifestyle property that the husband had purchased before their marriage and which was then tenanted.

In assessing the property, Dave quickly identified that it had subdivision potential. As always, and in keeping with Crow Realty’s approach of putting the client’s interests first, he recommended that rather than simply selling the property as it stood, they first investigate subdividing it so they could maximise their overall return.

That advice proved well founded. While the subdivision process required additional time and effort, it ultimately allowed the clients to unlock substantially greater value from the property — close to double the return that might otherwise have been achieved from a straightforward sale of the original holding.

Around a year later, Crow Realty was engaged to market and sell both the property with the cottage and the newly created bare lifestyle lot.

This was a good example of the value of looking beyond the obvious sale process. Sometimes the best result for a client comes not from getting a property to market quickly, but from first recognising and acting on its wider potential.