Gail5

Hey,

We're renting in Tauranga at the moment and are ready to buy now. We are tirelessly viewing various houses I have seen a nice house in the Judea/Brookfield area - anyone own/rent there, with any opinions/help on the place?

Thanks Gay x

pintaguiness-pickledegg

Hello Gay, We're in Tauranga also and apart from one or two areas here, you can't really go wrong with buying a place under $400,000 as you'll be able to re sell due to high demand. It's hard to say as regards the Judea/Brookfield area as there are some lovely roads and some not as good, the same as anywhere really. Try doing a couple of drive bys at different times of the day(we did) to see who's around etc. Don't know if you saw it but the council recently dropped leaflets regarding Tsunami flooding risks and there were one or two places in Judea that were at risk. There's also a low lying area in Brookfield to be aware of.
We rented first and then got caught up in the excitement of buying a place only to realise that when my husband wasn't working we really couldn't afford it and had to sell it. We did ok buying next time but still couldn't resist paying $15,000 more over our budget than we wanted to just because the house was as big as the one we were selling! Be warned, for NZ to be comfortable you can't overstretch yourself otherwise it affects your outlook on life and things that were previously positive then become headaches. Well that's what happened with us anyway.
Good luck with your search and let me know if you need anything. Been here 5 years and although NZ is less 'shiny' now, I still love Tauranga as a place to live. Husband wants to be retired here, hahaha!