Situation: Fantastic house, ticks all the boxes and also solves my current office crisis as it has a separate office. Honestly, best house we have seen in 12 months.
Problem: I do security and intelligence related work. My research has thrown up a gang HQ about 300m away at the top of my private driveway. They are quite quiet just now because they are making lots of $ selling plenty of drugs sweeties to children however theres no mistaking its there confirmed by my midnight scout around last night. House is on the edge of a small industrial area and if push came to shove you could easily be boxed into the property with no escape. It has high walls, electric gates and alarms for africa inc IR cameras (jesus – sounds like russia but its NZ honestly)
Torn between the best house for our needs vs potentially dodgy location. What would you do ? fwiw its an expensive house for the area.

Buy the house cheap with this in mind, and then use your intelligence connections to schedule raids? 🙂

Where is it? 300m is very close if you live in the countryside, and a long way away if you live in a city.

what would Walter Mitty do?

If this is a genuine question why ask it somewhere like this?

why not ask it here ?
Its on the edge of a city

you claim to be a security expert? But ask this of random forum dwellers?

I can’t see where i professed to be a security expert – can you point that out to me ? All i said was that was a related field …..Should I stick to asking about what tyres I should use ?

I’m asking because its personal conundrum and as an anonymous cross section of society that STW is I felt that maybe i would get some opinions based on the information.

Its of absolutely no security risk whatsoever, but then i would know as an expert…..

col you know the answer your self.

Nz gangs hold no prisoners …certainly seemd to be alot more gang violence and turf wars in the news when i was over there ….

http://static.stuff.co.nz/1233108507/189/401189.jpg

can i borrow some sugar?

Do you intend to go walking about in the neighbourhood? Are there other people (kids?) in your household?

I gotta say if it was me I’d probably leave it. I’ve never had the frustrating experience of looking for a house but I don’t think I could feel safe living there. (I might be overreacting a bit but I’m a bit cautious with stuff like that; I’m forever looking over my shoulder to make sure no strange men are following me!)

Can’t you just get the place raided?

I wouldn’t buy it. *If* you decide to move on in the future it is going to be an absolute nightmare to sell on. Bought a house in a not ideal area once myself, and would never do so again.

grumm – no, not an option.

If the house was cheap then maybe – otherwise no. A potential whole world of pain.

[cliché]Location Location Location[/cliché] dude! Sounds like the right house in the wrong place and as such, if there are other options, take those instead. Hope you make the right decision though.

[cliché]Location Location Location[/cliché] dude! Sounds like the right house in the wrong place and as such, if there are other options, take those instead. Hope you make the right decision though.

Yep – on balance its a bad idea so have canned the idea. Now back to looking for a house and new offices – grrrr

I’m guessing the gang are renting – very few would own thier own house – also whilst they are there they are unlikely to draw attention to their activities and keep quiet but i’m guessing you don’t really want this on your doorstep, but also if you didn’t know it was going on, are they doing anything else that would bother you.

chances are that if you know it’s going on the police do also and they will be raided soon – nothing puts off other potential purchasers like a bunch of guys in white suits decontaminating a clandestine P lap. So you could get a bargain and then a lovely young couple will move into the house and invite you round to throw your car keys into a big bowel on their glass coffee table!

a big bowel on their glass coffee table

The mind boggles 😯

I was amazed at how the gangs of NZ are so intergrated into society. Every town has its gang which will be affiliated to either Mongrel Mob or Black power. People just accept it, we went to a country fair in Otago and the local gang was doing the security.

The Magogs in Taranaki, there clubhouse looked like some kind of fort.

If there is a meth kitchen in there, highly unlikely it is just to obvious the cops will turn it over pretty quick. Always seems that the gangs mostly left civilians alone and just chopped each other up.

What city are you in?

Being old bill if that was my situation I’d stay away. It’s just going to make things uncomfortable and you’ll always be looking out. you’ll find another house just as nice if not nicer, it’s worth holding out for that better location. Don’t do it!!

Well its funny you shoudl say that. So after about 12+ months of looking at wholly unsatisfactory houses we upped our budget a bit and saw a pearler last night that meets the criteria and is in a right good spot so we’ll pursue that one and leave the P lab alone 😉

Location is everything.
You can always alter a house to suit your needs.
Being a Woman I would need to feel secure in my own home. There’s too much at stake.

Are prices in New Zealand comming down to the same extent as in the UK Col? Might be worth waiting a bit maybe?

shoefti – yes and no. The mentalness of prices has disappeared in the last year for sure. Most property now is selling at its valuation (GV or CV) rather than +25% as it was then. Will it drop more ? Yes and no, given the interest rates are rising again and the OCR is low I think the current spike of property interest will wane slightly. Estimates are that prices will possbily go down another 10% across the board. We’re offering 10% below its actual valuation and its a ‘stay for 10 years’ house so we’re not too worried about it tbh. Its interesting though, nice property in good locations still attracts high prices – i know of one property thats got 9 offers on it, all of them +20% on its valuation and rising as they all fight.

cynic-al – Member

what would Walter Mitty do?

If this is a genuine question why ask it somewhere like this?

Conker that.