01-01-2013
Jan 2013 President's Report
Brian Hancock
The Waikato Property Investors’ Association and indeed the New Zealand rental industry lost a real asset with the passing of Brian Hancock shortly after the Waikato Conference last year.
Brian was a life member of the WPIA, which was a recognition richly deserved having spent more than 10 years as the Associations’ President. In closing the Waikato Conference I congratulated the Association for putting on such a wonderful event and commented that Waikato had always been a strong, sound and successful association. It is no coincidence that these same attributes apply to Brian, as his personality and influence was clearly reflected in how the Waikato Association operated.
Brian was a great businessman who brought his business skills to the Association, while at the same time realising that it wasn’t a business. He was always there for his members and did everything he could to help them raise their professionalism. Many Waikato Property Investors’ owe a great deal of their success to Brian. One of the WPIA Committee members said at Conference that a key reason for joining the committee was to have more time with and learn more from Brian.
I have been in many meetings with Brian over the years, including association meetings, regional meetings and NZPIF communication meetings. Brian was extremely generous with his time and there were very few of these meetings that Brian did not attend. Brian was not overly vocal at these meetings, but when he spoke he did so with clarity, experience and wisdom. When Brian spoke everyone listened.
Brian also served nationally on the NZPIF and was the Northern Regional Rep for many years while also being WPIA President. He was clearly devoted to our industry.
Thanks for all you did Brian and on behalf of all Associations’ I would like to express our condolences to Gaye and the Waikato Association members.
Save money with NZPIF Sponsors
At the end of last year I replaced the kitchen in a flat. I checked out prices from a few outlets and decided that Bunnings had the best products and prices at around $3,900. By presenting my NZPIF discount card at the checkout I was extremely pleased to have this cost reduced by a further $430.
Another $100 was saved through buying paint and other accessories from Dulux, which is my preferred paint anyway.
These discounts are amazing and it really doesn’t take many renovations or maintenance issues to save your entire years PIA membership fee.
When you add in the massive savings that can be obtained through mortgage discounts with ANZ (At least $250 per year for each $100,000 borrowed) then you are actually losing money by not being a member of your local Property Investors Association.
Our latest discounter/sponsor is Property Genie, a new online business directory specifically for property. If you have a product or service aimed at the property market, then you can list your Business free of charge as the Basic package or save a massive 25% when upgrading to a Premium listing. Packages for NZPIF members start as low as $11.21 per month.
With the property market starting to heat up, an increasing number of PIA members are buying more rental property. Real Estate Investar helps out by providing amazing information to guage the value of properties and the market, while also providing an excellent tool for finding exactly the right property to buy.
With all the discount schemes in place, it literally does pay to be a member of your local PIA. Happy New Year everyone.