Sometimes a change of direction is the best way to achieve the desired result.
Transferring within the Police from Te Anau to Fairlie in 2020, Stu Wright and wife Fiona built what they thought would be their forever home on a 1.3-hectare property on the northwest side of the South Canterbury town, overlooking the snow-capped Mt Dobson.
Five years later an unexpected opportunity arose for Stu’s career, this time in North Canterbury, requiring another shift for the couple.
They engaged a real estate agent to sell their beloved home. Looking for a new place, they found and agreed a contract on a North Canterbury property listed by Maria Rickerby of PGG Wrightson Real Estate, Amberley. However, with the Fairlie market apparently flat, they eventually had to forego the property Maria was selling, at which point she gave them some frank advice, as Fiona explains.
“She said we should seek a second opinion in South Canterbury. Since our initial marketing agreement was coming to an end, with no sign of a result, we took up Maria’s suggestion and called her colleague Lyz Palmer.”
When Timaru-based Lyz offered some innovative recommendations, Stu and Fiona decided to switch the agency.
“Lyz is a good listener, straight up and forthright. She was clearly motivated to do the best job possible to sell our property,” says Fiona.
Lyz takes up the story.
“While Fiona and Stu’s home was being marketed as residential, to me it was in the lifestyle category. Changing that gained us extra enquiry,” she says.
On two titles, the Wrights were told that the rear of the property, an approximately 0.5-hectare bareland block, was landlocked, requiring them to offer it to the market as a single property. Lyz sought advice from a surveyor, who suggested an easy solution, therefore opening up the option to subdivide.Alongside a 3D walk through, this change of emphasis helped uncover enthusiastic buyers previously unaware of the property.
“Such a recent build, with impeccable presentation and immaculate attention to detail made the home essentially flawless,” says Lyz.
Well designed, finished to a high standard and with nothing out of place, it offered an inviting lifestyle at a value a purchaser wouldn’t match if building again from scratch.
In due course the interest transformed into multiple offers, with a couple returning to the district from the West Coast tabling the one that Fiona and Stu accepted. Meanwhile TVNZ show ‘Find My Country House New Zealand’ had come across the purchasers’ story, and decided to tell it in their next series, set for broadcast in January 2026, which is helping Fiona farewell the property she and Stu had put so much of themselves into.
“This was our dream house, where we planned to start our retirement, so we were sorry to leave, though it is a big compliment to see it now on TV, and a fitting way to say goodbye,” says Fiona.
After this story was prepared, PGG Wrightson Real Estate was saddened to hear of Stu Wright’s passing. Our thoughts are with Fiona and the family, and this story is published with their blessing.
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