Far out Friday: $1 house for sale just got cheaper

Think a house can’t sell for less than $1? Think again.

When Hayley and Shannon Tawhiti, owners of Relocate Homes NZ, bought a $1 Mt Roskill house listed on TradeMe, they thought they couldn’t get a better deal, according to the NZ Herald. 

That was until the transaction was set to take place and they ended up getting the house for nothing as owner Iliyas Adam did not accept the $1 coin offered to him.

"It was a win-win, he was going to have to pay for it to be demolished, and it was good for us because we got a cheap house," said Mrs Tawhiti. 

If the Tawhitis hadn't bought the house Mr Adam could have paid $3300 to have the house removed and demolished.

The house was sold on the condition that it would be moved from the site by its new owner, which is exactly what the Tawhiti’s do for a living and the house was moved quickly after the acquired it.

"It was a brick home so we stripped the bricks, took the roof down, and moved it to the yard in Takanini", Mrs Tawhiti said.

"Once the consent popped through down here we moved it".

The house now sits at its new site on Wavell St in Hastings and the Tawhiti’s hope the house will become one of the many in the their rental portfolio in six weeks time. 

"We'll be insulating it fully, giving it some new paint and carpet, plus a new kitchen and bathroom.

The site will be subdivided, with an additional three houses on that plot and another five on an adjacent property.

Mr Tawhiti's company SHT Holdings was fined $14,000 in May last year, after earlier pleading guilty to moving six houses on to Hastings properties without the required resource consent.

According to the NZ Herald, SHT Holdings, trading as Relocate Homes NZ, moved three houses on to a section in Totara St, Mahora, without the required consent.

Two other houses were illegally moved on to two adjoining Williams St sections in Mahora, while a sixth house was moved on to a section in Flaxmere without consent.