The New Way To Buy A House In NZ?

Two of New Zealand's biggest property sites just launched AI search. Is this the new way to buy a house? We put them to the test to see if AI can actually find you a good investment. In this episode, Ed and Andrew try out the AI tools on TradeMe and realestate.co.nz http://realestate.co.nz, from yield hunting to image search. You'll learn: What the new AI searches can do that the old filters couldn'tWhether they can handle the numbers that matter to investors, like yieldWhich one actually worked, and which kept falling overAI can do the basics. But when it comes to the numbers that make a deal, there's still a big gap. Let us know your thoughts by leaving us a voice message on the Property Academy Hotline⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.speakpipe.com/PropertyAcademy For more from Opes Partners: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the weekly Private Property newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.opespartners.co.nz/newsletter-sign-up⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/opes_partners/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@opespartners

• 0:08Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome along to the Property Academy Podcast by Opes Partners. I'm your host, Stephen Knight.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  And I'm Andrew Nicoll.

• 0:13Speaker 00

  And this is the show that helps Kiwis go from zero to five investment property. So you can be financially free and stick around for the next 15 minutes because you're going to learn the new way to buy a house in New Zealand, the battle between Trademe and realestate.co.nz. That's heating up and what the two new AI property searches actually do and what brokered we tested them. Now, two of New Zealand's biggest property sites have launched AI search basically at the same time. And is this the new way to buy a house in New Zealand? Can you use AI to find the perfect rental property? Now, Andrew, let's try it out with Trademe first. So what do you want to try first?

• 0:55Speaker 00

  Because if you go to Trademe Property and you click AI search, we could literally type in anything. So what are we looking for?

• 1:02Speaker 01

  Okay, I try a three bedroom house in Papakura, under 800,000. And why don't you ask for it to be walking distance from a train station?

• 1:11Speaker 00

  Okay, I want it to be walking distance from a train station. Okay, search. Oh yeah, it's thinking.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  It's thinking.

• 1:21Speaker 00

  Thinking. Okay, so it says we're on the hunt. They're searching for three bed properties, 800K, walking distance to the train station.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  I wonder if someone's just sitting at the other end of Trademe answering this now.

• 1:35Speaker 00

  God, it's taken you a wee while, isn't it?

• 1:37Speaker 01

  It's taken you a long time.

• 1:42Speaker 00

  How long do you think this has been going for? I reckon this has been going for about a minute and a half. It would have been faster to just search for properties myself.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  I was just thinking that.

• 1:50Speaker 00

  Okay, here we go. It took about a minute and a half, but let's have a where he looks see. So it says it found 191 properties matching my criteria, standalone homes and some townhouses, pulled out 48 listings.

• 2:05Speaker 01

  Did I say standalone?

• 2:07Speaker 00

  No, you didn't say standalone. You said, I think, three bedroom house, maybe.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:12Speaker 00

  There's six homes. Okay, it found six homes that are within 1K. Let's take a look, see. Okay, do we like that first one? Okay, what about this one? Well, this one's been renovated.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, tell me about that one. Oh yeah, asking price 739.

• 2:29Speaker 00

  Oh, that's quite tidy, isn't it? Oh, I'd live there.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  It's not bad.

• 2:33Speaker 00

  Oh, I would live there, actually.

• 2:35Speaker 01

  That seems like pretty good value.

• 2:36Speaker 00

  739K and let's, let's just go look at the map and make sure that it really is close to the train station. Oh, there it is, right there.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah.

• 2:48Speaker 00

  It'd be two or three streets away. Oh, that's not bad, but must have been a recent flip. Look at that.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:55Speaker 00

  Sold, sold in April for 580. And so the renovation, God, that would have been a good flip. Look how they've tied, they've really tidied that up. So if they sell it for 700 and what did they want for it? 740?

• 3:09Speaker 01

  739.

• 3:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, 740, so about 160K extra.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Okay, so it's done a pretty good job. Can I also refine that search as well? So say I said, I only want to see something with a garage now. Can that carry on the conversation?

• 3:24Speaker 00

  Okay, it's thinking. We're going to be back in a minute. Well, wait a second. Now it's saying there are 21 properties that are three bedrooms, under 800K, walking distance to this train station and has a garage space. So we've gone from six to 21 properties. So how does?

• 3:42Speaker 01

  It's found some more.

• 3:43Speaker 00

  I don't know how that works. Oh yeah, so here's one with a garage. How close is it? Asking price 789. I want to know, where's the train station? No, the train station's there.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  That's miles away.

• 3:57Speaker 00

  That's miles away, no.

• 3:59Speaker 01

  And that's not a quick walk.

• 4:01Speaker 00

  Well, let's find out, shall we? Trademe lied to us. Okay, we're going to go Google Maps.

• 4:09Speaker 01

  Oh God, that's a long drive.

• 4:11Speaker 00

  Papakura train station. Well, this says it's a two and a half K walk.

• 4:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, that's too far.

• 4:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, or 2.1Ks. No, we ain't doing that. So what if I say to it, you lied to me?

• 4:25Speaker 01

  You idiot.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  Not all of these properties are within one kilometre of the train station.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  AI is going to turn us off as soon as it gets its ability. It's going to turn our life support off.

• 4:40Speaker 00

  How intelligent are you? That's what I'll ask it. What say you, Trademe? It says, I hear your frustration. It's annoying when search results don't hit the mark.

• 4:53Speaker 00

  Oh, he's doing his best. Okay, fine, okay, fine. You're doing your best.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  Oh, don't try and suck up to AI leaders now.

• 5:00Speaker 00

  Thank you, my friend.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  Please save me.

• 5:03Speaker 00

  Can you find properties under 800K, within 1K of the train station? The Papakura train station with a garage? Because actually something I'll tell you is we had to delay recording this episode multiple times because Trademe's AI search kept bugging out and it might work one day and then it wouldn't work the next. I know, really annoying, but here we go. No worries, I'm taking those 21 properties. Yes, good, thank you very much, my friend. Back in a moment.

• 5:34Speaker 01

  Five minutes later.

• 5:37Speaker 00

  Okay, we've got our results. Ah, let's look, my verification tool has had a snag. I'm sorry, let me try a fish. Oh no, I can't be bothered with you, Trademe. Let's go looking for rental properties, Andrew. What should we look for? We'll start a new chat.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  Let's ask for a rental property in a main centre for $600,000 with a 5% yield.

• 5:58Speaker 00

  A rental property in a main centre. And we won't even define that, that has a gross yield above 5%. Right, we'll be back in 20 minutes.

• 6:11Speaker 00

  Oh, here we go. If you're looking for a home to rent, we currently search for residential properties for sale. Oh, but it doesn't have access to rental yield calculations. So they can't filter it by yield.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 6:24Speaker 00

  So I can do budget, location, but then you can run the numbers yourself. No, no, no, no, no. No, so like $800,000 is my budget or $700,000 is my budget. But that's interesting to know. So you can't currently do rental properties.

• 6:38Speaker 01

  If I was buying as an investor then, the other thing I'd be quite keen to know about is whether or not there were some properties that maybe had been on the market for a long time. If I could maybe get a good deal for it on one.

• 6:48Speaker 00

  Okay, okay. So what about properties in Wellington that have been on the market for a long time? That are listed way below their CV and have been on the market for over six months. Let's try that. Okay, let's have a little look, see. Looking for listings, they've been quiet. Yes, ah, we don't have access to CV data, so we can't compare listings.

• 7:18Speaker 01

  I thought it had the CV data on the, on the actual property page.

• 7:22Speaker 00

  Yeah, but maybe the AI doesn't have access to it.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Ah, you idiot, AI.

• 7:27Speaker 00

  The other thing we could try though, is that Trademe is now available within ChatGPT. So you can plug it in as a.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  Is that just with, just with chat? So you can't use Claude or anything like that?

• 7:41Speaker 00

  My understanding is that I could only do it with ChatGPT. It didn't do it with Claude. I think it only let me do it with ChatGPT. It didn't let me do it with Trademe. So if I take that same query though, find me a rental property in a main centre that has a gross yield above 5%. Let's see whether ChatGPT could do it, whereas the one on Trademe wouldn't let me do it.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  So is this using Trademe then pulling any extra data from somewhere else?

• 8:06Speaker 00

  Well, let's find out and then we'll know. I couldn't tell you right now. So what it started by doing is doing what a lot of us would do, which is go to Trademe and start searching for things like yield. Okay, cool. So I've got a bit of a map here. Okay, and it's found me a property that's being listed for 330K. It's already tenanted at 480 bucks a week. So that's a seven point 6% gross yield, give or take. Though it's good, it's saying, check the body corp cost. I know I have one investor who listens to the show, who's currently selling a property in Wellington because their body corp cost, it's a 450K property. The body corp cost just hit nine, $9,000 a year.

• 8:50Speaker 00

  Oh, did that person get in touch with you as well?

• 8:52Speaker 01

  No, no, I just, that was my guess.

• 8:55Speaker 00

  Okay, so that could be a high yielding property. They'd definitely check the cost. And because it's a one bedroom, what looks to be an apartment, it likely wouldn't increase in value as fast in the future. Having said that, this could be a really good yield property if somebody is looking for yield right now. Okay, what does Trademe's one do that the old search couldn't really?

• 9:17Speaker 01

  So whilst there's limitations around the yield question at the moment, you could use something like chat to be able to do that. But I think it's really handy for kind of those search criterias like, you know, being close to the train station or being close to a primary school or whatever.

• 9:32Speaker 00

  Well, the other thing that you just have to consider about the limitation, right? Is you've just got to also remember that not all properties are listed online. So this obviously would never get you any off market deals, which obviously we tend to specialise in. So you've just got to be aware that not every property is then going to be available through your AI search. But I think this is useful if you're saying, hey, I really want to be close to, or this is my criteria. I think the challenge for people will just be coming up with what their criteria actually is first. Because sometimes people go straight to Trademe and scroll through listings because they don't really know. And they're, they're waiting for a property to jump out at them. Now, how does that compare to realestate.co.nz?

• 10:14Speaker 01

  Okay, so this one's only available through an app and there are actually two AI searches in the app, not just one. And that's through typing or you can actually do it through speaking. Because I know you quite like to chat to your AI on your drives. It's also got an image search, which I know is really useful as well. So you can go into filters and it's at the very top.

• 10:34Speaker 00

  Well, one of the things that I was speaking to my good friends at realestate.co.nz and they said that they've been tracking what people are uploading into the image search. And one of the things, naughty, naughty New Zealanders, that they've been putting in are red room dungeons. Now, I know some of you will be listening in the car with your children, so I won't explain what that is.

• 10:59Speaker 01

  I also like that you've brought this up on your screen. So now the tech team will be in C on Monday.

• 11:04Speaker 00

  Oh my God, there are eight properties in New Zealand. There's one in Hamilton. Shall we look for it?

• 11:11Speaker 01

  Of course there is.

• 11:12Speaker 00

  There can't be one, there can't be.

• 11:14Speaker 01

  That's a regular looking house. You can't tell me.

• 11:17Speaker 00

  Well, let's go, let's see.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  I bet you it's someone's horrible red bathroom or something.

• 11:22Speaker 00

  That looks normal. Maybe they wouldn't put the dungeon in there.

• 11:27Speaker 01

  No, there ain't no dungeon there. See, what's in the description?

• 11:31Speaker 00

  Where's the dungeon?

• 11:34Speaker 01

  False advertising.

• 11:36Speaker 00

  Oh geez, I'm very sad about that. What about this one?

• 11:38Speaker 01

  I wonder whether or not any clever agents figured out a way of if someone uploads a picture of a dungeon, they end up getting, uh, coming across the listing. Oh, there's a red carpet.

• 11:48Speaker 00

  Well, so there was a red rug. Oh, there was a red door, but not a red room. To be fair, I mean, who's actually got dungeons? People are going to message in, I've got a dungeon. He's a 70 year old.

• 12:02Speaker 01

  Steve, Steve from Modern Aker.

• 12:05Speaker 00

  Jesus, Jesus. Sorry, Steve.

• 12:10Speaker 00

  So what else do you want to search for?

• 12:13Speaker 01

  What about something like a renovated bathroom or a, or a, um, a carport or off-street parking? I know those are things that people often want to find.

• 12:21Speaker 00

  Well, I am, as I said before, I'm recording this in Stratford, so I'm looking for a property in Stratford, Taranaki, with a renovated bathroom, four bedrooms, and a garage slash carport, let's say. Oh, well, that's given me properties all over Taranaki, not just Stratford. But let's look at Stratford and let's see if we can find something. Okay. So did you know that basically every street in Stratford is named after a William Shakespeare character?

• 12:53Speaker 01

  Really?

• 12:54Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah. Stratford upon Taranaki. So I'm currently on Montague Grove, which is Romeo's last name, and Capulet Street or whatever's just over there, which is Juliet's last name. So I've been looking for properties in Stratford, four bedrooms, which I've got, garage, which I've got, renovated bathroom. Looking at the property, I don't think this, this bathroom's going to be too renovated, to be honest with you, Andrew. Well, tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I'm lying.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  The poor owner's listening to this.

• 13:23Speaker 00

  I don't tell, I didn't say, I didn't say that it was at Rhodes Stratford, but if I did, then, um,

• 13:30Speaker 01

  You're going to be run out of town.

• 13:32Speaker 00

  Oh, it wouldn't be the first time. Let's take a look. Does that property look, does that?

• 13:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, that looks, that looks. Well, I mean, it was renovated once upon a time.

• 13:41Speaker 00

  Oh God, don't tell me that, Andrew. Now you sound like a real estate agent.

• 13:46Speaker 00

  Okay, let's take a look at one other one. Oh, actually, yeah, this is, this is a, this is a pretty new house.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's nice.

• 13:51Speaker 00

  Look at that. Oh, look.

• 13:53Speaker 01

  Is that in Stratford?

• 13:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, look, they've got a war hog taxi to me.

• 13:57Speaker 01

  That's quite a nice house. How much is it? I can't see.

• 13:59Speaker 00

  Oh, $1.9 million in Stratford.

• 14:03Speaker 01

  No, I'm spending that in Stratford. You'd buy the whole town for that, wouldn't you?

• 14:06Speaker 00

  I mean, it's actually a really nice house, though.

• 14:08Speaker 01

  It is a really nice house.

• 14:11Speaker 00

  Oh, it's got a library.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  Oh, that's nice. I really like that library.

• 14:13Speaker 00

  Is that, oh wow. Is that a, um, tanning bed there?

• 14:17Speaker 01

  It's a, it's a red light bed, I think. Um, but it might be a tanning bed.

• 14:20Speaker 00

  These people are well-to-do in Stratford. I was also talking to Hannah Franklin. She is the head of communications at realestate.co.nz. And I was saying to her, well, could I do rental yield? Cause I, I'd actually tried it a few days ago and I couldn't like try and find properties with a certain rental yield, which might be quite useful for us as property investors, right? But she said that's something that they might look to, to add it in later on. But look, if you compare the two and you think like, would you actually use this, Andrew? Would you find this useful or is it just a bit of a gimmick?

• 14:53Speaker 01

  I mean, I'm, I'm probably, I wouldn't use it a whole, uh, lot, but I think for people that are buying their own house, it's probably a useful tool to play around with.

• 15:02Speaker 00

  Look, do you know what I would actually do? If I'm being really honest with you. If I was a property investor and I, you know, was convinced that I was going to do this myself, what I'd probably do is I would get Claude to write me some code to then scrape, homes.co.nz or Trade Me for the rental estimates. And then I would try and match it up myself and do it all that way. So I mean, if you're really technically minded, I think that's how you do it. Of course, uh, you just need to check Trade Me's terms and conditions before you start scraping them. That'd be very important to do. So we don't get in trouble with Trade Me. But I'd possibly do it that way because sometimes these AI tools are only giving you access to the information that they want you to have access to. Whereas if you, if you know that data exists online,

• 15:45Speaker 00

  you might be able to create it yourself. But over the last 15 minutes, you've learned, is this the new way to buy a house in New Zealand? The battle between Trade Me and realestate.co.nz that's heating up. And what the two new AI property search is actually doing, what broke when we tested them. Right, let's wrap it up there, but please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast. Really does help us get the message out to more people.

• 16:12Speaker 00

  Thanks for listening to the Property Academy Podcast. I'm your host, Tim McKnight.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  And I'm Andrew Lekon.

• 16:16Speaker 00

  We're going to be back here tomorrow with even more daily strategies, tactics and insights to help you get the most out of the news on property market. Until next time.