Peter Crean

Richard Murchison engaged Peter to sell Weka Pass and Gowan Hill, a pair of neighbouring North Canterbury properties, farmed together and in the family since 1954 and 1999 respectively.
We discussed the options and agreed that a deadline sale was best. Peter received plenty of enquiries and brought several parties to view the farm, a process he co-ordinated effectively.
At the deadline we received multiple offers, including from neighbouring farmers. We needed to keep the process simple. Peter’s high-level negotiating skills came into play, ensuring the sale concluded satisfactorily.
Peter is easy to deal with, kept us well informed and dealt with queries promptly. I would recommend him.

We knew it would sell eventually, though also that it would probably take some time to find the right buyer, able to carry on with what we had started. While Peter was persistent in his search, he took care to ensure we only seriously dealt with those buyers who had genuine intent: no tyre kickers!

When he explained the market to us, Peter didn’t exaggerate, and didn’t paint a false picture about how this would go. He was professional and kept us in the loop. His methods and approach worked as predicted, and we duly sold the property satisfactorily.

Peter has been involved in farming for many years. His experience of the day-to-day needs of a farm, what it will be capable of, and his all-round knowledge of agriculture means that when he comes to sell a farm, he knows what he is talking about, which will always help finding a buyer.

His network and ability to work with other rural professionals was beneficial in helping to sell our farm.

Although the sale wasn’t easy, in a tough market, Peter advised us to be patient, and in the end we managed to achieve the result we all wanted. We were pleased with his service.

I want to extend my gratitude to Peter for being most helpful and professional in the quick sale of my farm.

I had to apply for grazing consent before the farm could be sold, so needed an environmental report. He put me onto a properly qualified person who assisted, which was a big help.

I’ve known Peter for some time. I knew he had a good name for selling properties in North Canterbury. He has a good reputation, which is entirely justified.

He is right up there. I have bought and sold farms over the years, and he is the best I've dealt with.

I highly recommend Peter as an agent. It has been a pleasure to do business with him throughout this process.

We first spoke to Peter early in 2025. Based on his professional advice about the market at the time, we decided to go ahead with the sale in spring rather than in autumn.

We spoke to other real estate companies as well, though felt that Peter was best able to achieve the outcome we sought.

Although the market was still slightly depressed, he managed to get several offers, then worked on our behalf, negotiating with the parties, to get the price to the level we wanted.

He did the due diligence, with great attention to detail, and in the end the sale went through flawlessly.

Peter is a down-to-earth, straightforward professional. When we first engaged him, we had a frank and honest conversation about the value of our farm in the current market. He was careful to set realistic expectations, which we appreciated, and which turned out to be accurate.

Our farm was in two blocks, and one sold well ahead of the other. That led to some negotiation and juggling, which he was comfortable to manage.

He is transparent to work with, kept us well informed, and was happy to work alongside our farming practices, with minimal disruption to the operation of the farm during the campaign and the sale.

We’ve known Peter for years, since he was a local stock agent. We noticed he was selling plenty of farms in the area.

Peter is a good communicator, keeping us informed with regular calls and emails.

With his understanding of the local market, he knew how to find a buyer for our farm. We sold by deadline private treaty, which brought in plenty of genuinely interested parties, and when the process closed off, we had more than one offer to consider.

He’s easy to relate to, good to deal with and knows what he is doing. We were pleased with the result.

We were happy with the way the sale went.

We nearly had it sold early on, then the people couldn’t sell their place, so they had to take their offer off the table. After they pulled out, we waited for a couple of months, rejigged the marketing campaign, then took it back to the market, and found another buyer. Actually, quite a few others really wanted the property.

Peter is very good. We couldn’t fault him. We had no problems. He kept us informed all the way through. He was good with the open homes, bringing buyers through.

He is honest, and easy to get on with. We trusted him, and he did a marvellous job.

We were trying to buy a property, and had to sell our farm in order to go through with the purchase of the next place, so there was a bit of time pressure on.

Peter was very helpful through the campaign, keeping us up to date with where things were at. Selling a farm is not something you do every day, and not something we knew too much about. You need someone you can rely on through that, and Peter is that person. He talked us through the whole way, so at every stage we knew what we needed to do and what was coming next.

Peter got a result. He found a buyer, which allowed us to move ahead with our plans.

Peter’s experience and confidence make him good at his job. He’s easy to work with, and doesn’t put anyone under pressure.

With our sale, the location was a challenge. It’s a distinctive property, at high altitude, which would only appeal to a limited number of people. We went with him because he has a rural understanding and background, and knows the people most likely to be interested in that sort of property.

Although I was always confident it would sell, he managed to create a bit of competition, which gave us a better price, and the sale was achieved more quickly than I expected, so a good result.

Selling with Peter was a thoroughly enjoyable process, easy and free of stress.

I knew the property was likely to come on the market a couple of years beforehand, and invited Peter for an initial visit. He came around and gave me his suggestions on how best to present the place: little tweaks and details to create a strong first impression.

That was a sensible strategy, and when it came time to sell, guided by Peter on the best timing, the campaign went well. We ended up with a choice of offers on the property, which was pleasing in a challenging market.

He is very professional. You know he is working in your best interests, with proficient preparation and a strong team behind him to ensure all the background details are attended to, you can confidently take his advice.

Peter is excellent. With seven of us involved, he regularly emailed everybody, including a brother and sister in Canada. We were all kept completely in the loop. He had the time for us and we could phone him at any time.

He told us honestly what he thought it was worth, which was in the ballpark we had in mind, and we were more than pleased with the result.

He was always great at the open homes, and always honest with the people who came through.

There were some problems with my mother’s estate. Probate took ages. Peter was able to communicate with the solicitors, and had to wait a long time after the house was sold for his commission. He was patient about that.

He is approachable, professional, and I would most certainly recommend Peter to anyone wishing to sell.

With Peter the whole process of selling the farm was a pleasure. He is honest, positive and so easy to communicate with.

Even though we sold during a difficult time, with rising interest rates and low commodity prices, his expertise and honest, direct approach to people clinched the deal, and achieved a good end result.

We presented the farm well, he enjoyed marketing it, so it was good teamwork and we ended up with multiple offers and a good result at the end of it.

You can see how he clicks with people, being honest and being himself, sincere and polite to all parties.

We couldn’t recommend a better real estate agent.

Peter is well known in the area, with a strong rural background, and popular with everyone.

Before selling our farm he did plenty of homework behind the scenes, contacting all the potential purchasers before it hit the market. Once he had identified the most likely buyers, he worked hard on negotiations, going about that in a thorough and professional way, which gave us the result we wanted.

Peter is honest and reliable. He kept us up to date all the time. You know where you are with him.

We would definitely use Peter again for any real estate business. We wouldn’t go anywhere else.

We’ve known Peter since before he was in real estate, back to his days as a stock agent. He is well known throughout Canterbury for his professionalism, expertise and local knowledge.

Times are tough in farming at the moment, and Peter went to great lengths to find an interested party from the North Island. He described the property to them, sent them all the details, and they were so impressed when they came to look at it in person that they ended up buying it.

As the campaign and sale progressed, Peter kept us up to date with everything, staying in touch all the way. He has a calm and diplomatic approach, which makes the process easy and stress free.

"Peter was very helpful in selling our property at Waikari. He kept us fully informed every step of the way and we were very pleased with the outcome. As we are novices in this business, the advice we had to approach Peter Crean for the selling of our farm was a first rate choice. From our experience we would certainly recommend Peter Crean to anyone else."

"Peter has excellent communication skills and a totally professional approach. Although the property had been on the market with other agencies previously, once Peter listed it, he stuck to the task, keeping me in touch throughout the whole process, with a clear focus on selling. Everything in the marketing plan was carried out promptly and he delivered on all commitments made, which resulted in the outcome we wanted, and a highly satisfactory sale price. I would confidently recommend Peter to look after any real estate needs, which he does with professionalism, good judgement and skill."

"As a salesperson Peter is extremely informative and respectful. With the sale, when there was progress to report, without fail he would catch up with me at the end of each day. I came into the process quite determined on several issues to do with the sale. On some of those, Peter very tactfully steered me in a different direction, which proved to be the right option to achieve the best result. He knew how to put his point across, in spite of me being fairly obstinate, and we had plenty of laughs about that in the end. Peter is a good person to have around: someone you would trust. Nothing was too much trouble for him. I would recommend Peter to anyone wanting to sell a farm, and I already have, several times."

“Our professional advisors recommended we engage Peter’s services because he has a reputation for integrity and competence. We told him he is the expert and we were happy to follow his recommendations. This was done professionally, by communicating regular updates. Peter found a buyer and completed a successful sale. We could not have wished for a better result.”

“We choose to entrust the property to Peter because of his knowledge and affiliation with farming. He doesn’t exaggerate, keeps it truthful, and knows how to work with both buyer and seller.

Lees Valley is remote, with one 34 kilometre shingle road in and out of the property. That could have been the biggest perceived stumbling block to selling our farm: access, and it’s not somewhere you pass through. On the plus side, it’s a high country station though with similar stocking rates to properties on the plains and producing low country levels of productivity. Peter took all that in his stride and focused on presenting the property in its best form, while being extremely honest about it.

“Peter is a really nice guy: honest, and open. He was realistic with us, making sure we were realistic in our own expectations.”

“We dealt with Peter previously when buying another property, though we also interviewed another salesperson, which helped confirm that Peter was the right person. We felt comfortable with him.

Selling 18 years of hard work is daunting. I expected gathering farm consents and other information for the sale would be a mountain to climb. Peter said ‘Don’t stress, just get what you can,’ then he did quite a bit of that himself, taking the workload off me. I appreciated that hugely.

The photographer he employed did an outstanding job.

Peter kept us in the loop with on farm visits regarding days and times, and communicated well with me if further information was required. Inniskillen Dairy also engaged PGG Wrightson for the farm clearing sale.

We appreciated the work that Peter put into the sale process and we are more than happy with the final outcome of the sale for both properties. He guided us through it, and took the anxiety out of the process. I’d give him ten out of ten for service.”

“We have known Peter for 35 years. He is straight up, down to earth and known for his great ability to get on with people. He has an excellent reputation and we had no hesitation asking him to sell our property.

As it is larger than an average lifestyle block, though too small for a farm, our property wasn’t that easy to sell, particularly in difficult economic times. However, Peter found us a buyer who came in with a cash offer that exceeded our expectations, so we had no hesitation to accept.

He gave us excellent service. What a lovely person to have on your side. He did a great job, and we have nothing but praise for the guy. We were absolutely thrilled with what he did for us.”

“When we bought a farm a few years ago, Peter was acting for the vendor. We found him good to deal with, which is why we sought him out to sell these blocks. You can trust him, he is a down to earth person that you can talk sense to, and he knows what he is talking about.

As the sale progressed, transferring our irrigation consents and the consent to farm to the purchaser was less straightforward than we expected. This is a potentially problematic part of the process and could have stopped the sale. Fortunately, Peter navigated that with ease, doing a really good job on our behalf.

His service is excellent. If I rang him at any stage, he was always there or would call back in a timely manner.

If we need to sell other property, I’ll certainly call him.

"He is a nice friendly guy: easy to deal with, considerate, prompt and on time with all his visits. He made it cruisy for us.

Good communication is one of Peter’s particular strengths.

We knew there would be a fair bit of interest, on the back of a good season, with the farm presenting itself well, and he knew how to turn that into an excellent sale.

He gave us guidelines on what he thought it would sell for, and the result was at the high end of his estimation. You can only sell it once, and Peter achieved a good result, which we were very satisfied with."

"In the past we had looked at other farms that Peter was selling. He was always well-informed and knowledgeable about those properties, so who better than him to sell mine?

We didn’t think it would sell as well as it did. There was uncertainty around the proposed local irrigation scheme, and we thought we wouldn’t find a buyer. We were all set to take it off the market and offer it again in the spring. However, Peter overcame that, finding a buyer who offered well above what we anticipated.

We were very happy with how it went, and could not have expected a better result."

"Peter provides good, sound service, without being over enthusiastic or pushy.

We interviewed several sales people before deciding who we wanted to market our farm. His approach convinced us that this was the guy we needed.

Although he was confident about what he thought he could achieve, he was also realistic and didn’t promise the world. He worked hard to achieve what we wanted.

In the middle of a dairy region, though not a dairy farm, and with nutrient limits to consider, ours was not an easy sale. Peter was tenacious and on the job the whole time. His reputation preceded him and his experience showed through.

We were thrilled with the result he achieved for us: more than happy, and would recommend Peter to anyone who wants to sell a farm."

"As trustees, we were not experienced in selling a farm. However, with Peter we were in capable hands. He and the team looked after us, making us feel comfortable. Meetings were always relaxed and on point, with no stress involved.

This was a one-off property: a good size, within the city limits, but with challenging issues due to lack of maintenance and poor management over several years.  Peter was very patient. He was knowledgeable about what the land could or could not be used for and the sort of person who would likely be interested in a property such as this. 

Peter’s experience in the agriculture sector quickly became apparent. He really understands farming.

Our price expectations were less than the  farm realised. At the auction there was plenty of interest from several committed bidders, and we were most satisfied with the outcome, for which Peter deserves a good deal of credit."

"When you are handling a substantial transaction with complex regulatory issues, you need accuracy. That attention to detail is very important with rural property.

Peter calmly does the job, with no pretence. He doesn’t tell you anything he can’t carry through with, and his knowledge of the market is excellent. 

Peter advised us to state the price when we offered the farm for sale as he believed the price was the right one, and this gave us the confidence to sell this way because we had his support on that valuation. We achieved that price, so it was the correct option.

We appreciated the expertise and accurate service that we received. You know professionalism when you see it, and that is what Peter brings. 

Peter sold our farm that had been in our family for four generations. He handled the sale with skill and empathy, and that was greatly appreciated."

Peter is a good bloke: easy to deal with, plenty of integrity, and made the process straightforward to understand.

His communication was excellent and to the point: when potential buyers were coming, he gave me plenty of notice, so I was able to make things spick and span.

Peter was regularly in contact, updating us with developments.

When he brought us a deal to consider, it exceeded our expectations, so we were happy to accept. It was all pretty seamless really.

"What you get with Peter is old school honesty. He is straight up. Although he doesn’t push it too hard, you can rely on him to get things done.

Selling our property had some challenges. Although it had been farmed as a single unit, when it was offered to the market, the best option was to split it three ways. Peter therefore had three different parties to work with, all needing to agree on various details, which was not straightforward. However, he got it done and it all worked out perfectly. We couldn’t have been happier.

He is a top notch communicator and easy to deal with: an all-round good guy. We would definitely sell another farm through him."

Peter Crean delivered the result we wanted. He communicates extremely well, he is up front, genuine and honest about everything, and there are no surprises. We found the team behind Peter was excellent: great to deal with and always available. This was the first time we had been involved in a big sale. Peter explained the process so we completely understood each step. He simplified everything. I have been recommending Peter and the rest of the PGG Wrightson Real Estate team to people I know who are thinking about selling rural property. I do not hesitate to sing their praises. We initially went with Peter because we knew he was tenacious. He is there for the long haul, and will stick with you to the finish, making sure that you sell successfully. That was one of the reasons we went with him, and he certainly delivered.

Peter Crean is knowledgeable and approachable. He has everything you could look for in a rural professional. When you take him on, you can be sure he will do the job. We are really happy with the deal he achieved for us. He handled everything efficiently, with minimum hassle on the way through. I’ve always been aligned with PGG Wrightson and done plenty of business with the company, so I’ve known Peter, and others in the team, for many years. You just know: Peter is the right man to assist you with a rural property deal.

We have used Peter Crean as both a purchaser and vendor, we were really impressed with his professional and genuine service. Peter operates from a position of integrity, always putting his customers’ needs first and he really understand each individual property he markets. Peter is knowledgeable and transparent; he goes the extra mile to answer all questions. Everything he completed for us was thorough and efficient. We would highly recommend him.

We chose Peter Crean because he is a local rural property salesperson, and works for PGG Wrightson, who we do a lot of business with. Mark knows Peter from attending primary school together. We found Peter very professional. He has a sound knowledge of our district. He has a good manner with people and we did not encounter any problems with the sale of our property. We would certainly recommend Peter Crean to other people for real estate issues.

Our family has known Peter’s family for many decades. They have always been fine hard-working people, with good ethics and values. That is the foundation of Peter Crean. He is a product of his environment, background and upbringing. Peter has enormous integrity, is a perceptive communicator, and very respectful. In North Canterbury he is well known as an able, astute professional: his reputation precedes him. He is fun to work with, kind, and sensitive to the needs of others. He took it as his mission to achieve the best possible result with our sale. We were delighted with the outcome, and pleased to have been able to work with Peter.

Peter Crean knows his business, has plenty of experience in the farming sector and understands people well. He has a wealth of knowledge about rural property, particularly in the local area, and is an easy person to do business with. Although our sale took a long time, it could have been longer, and in the end came to a quick conclusion. Peter never tried to talk the sale down. He was realistic, understood my position, and never pushed to do anything we didn’t want. It is a long game in rural real estate. Persistence and patience are important qualities, and Peter has plenty of those. He is a genuine bloke and I would recommend him to anyone.