Competing with First Time Home Buyers - What to do!
A great little read here of what its like out there buying your first home…perseverance always pays off…
Christchurch based IT professional, Pip has been looking to buy her first home for the best part of a year. She’s put seven tender bids on properties, with no luck so far.
After having to move four times in the last year due to landlords’ changed circumstances, the first home buyer in her mid-30s wants to own because renting feels so unstable.
She is also seriously concerned about her future if she doesn’t get to own her own house.
“There seems to be a massive and growing inequity gap in New Zealand and I feel it will have a very negative, detrimental effect on my future if I don’t own,” says Pip.
House hunting as a single woman vs a couple
As an IT professional, who came to Christchurch from Wanaka for a job she loves at an analytics firm, she is shopping for a house in the $500,000s.
She ticks all the boxes for lenders with her stable job as a data scientist and a 20 per cent deposit, thanks to help from family.
But for all this, Christchurch is not an easy place to be a first home buyer. After missing out on a three bedroom home recently a house in which the successful buyer bid $200,000 over Pips budget, she’s resolved not to go for houses that people are likely to fall in love with.
Pip finds as a single woman, she doesn’t always have the best treatment from agents. They seem to think couples are a better bet at times, giving them more attention at open homes.
“It happens quite a lot – I walk out and think, ‘I’ll take my money somewhere else.
Spreading the net wider
Since she started her search, Pip has amended what she’s looking for a number of times to give herself more options. She’s including apartments in her search now, after ruling them out initially.
Pip, who grew up in Auckland and has lived overseas in Vancouver, Canada, is looking all over Christchurch, and also further out.
“I went to open homes further out of town, to Ashburton and Rangiora she doesn’t have any set preconceptions on a suburb – although ideally she likes the idea of being able to cycle to work.
Her financial adviser Martin at Mortgage Group has helped her prioritise her must-haves, nice-to-haves and areas to compromise in a home. The company also has roofers, plumbers and builders in its network who Pip can ask questions of when looking at a home that needs work.
“This is so helpful to someone who has never owned a house before,” she says.
Just when you think it’s never going to happen
Christchurch buyer Emma has also had her share of disappointment over the last six months. She was finally successful in buying a home of her own in May, after miss out on 11 properties.
Emma, 34, a product designer at a tech start-up, bought a two-bedroom brick unit In Christchurch. She started looking in November, moving into a friend’s spare room in Christchurch from February to continue her search.
“The biggest limitation was the fact that I was competing with couples. A lot of the time I was competing with two incomes,” she says.
“I was so fed up, spending all my weekends looking at open homes. You have to do stuff during the week as well – it’s like a second job. I’ve always loved looking at houses, but it will be so nice to have my weekends back,” she says.
The designer, who used Martin at Mortgage Group, recommends using a mortgage adviser. Emma was lucky that she had a 20 per cent deposit, thanks to her KiwiSaver and savings.
One thing she learned was that the vestiges of her student loan, $5000, was reducing the amount she could borrow by $200,000, so she paid that off before getting her loan pre-approval.
Get Pre-Approved so that you can go shopping with confidence as you know what you can borrow so that when the right home comes along you can make an offer.
So give me a call 0275260007 or email me click and lets make a plan for you….its a free service…Mortgage Group, Simple Fast Approved.
THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO BUY YOUR FIRST HOME. WITH TODAY'S LOW INTEREST RATES, AND BANKS WILLINGNESS TO LEND.
So give me a call 0275260007 or email me click and lets make a plan for you….its a free service…Mortgage Group, Simple Fast Approved.
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