We interviewed recent clients who chose to build new for their first home rather than buy an existing home. We asked them to share their budgeting tips with you.
Connor Rensford: "My advice is ask the question early, “Can I buy my first home?”. Because even if the answer is “No”, it doesn’t end there. Hopefully with the right advice you’ll understand your shortfalls and then can create a plan to fill the holes to achieve that goal of home ownership."
"My biggest regret is not asking the question earlier, because I could have potentially become a homeowner sooner. Even if you think you are a long way away from buying a home, you may be surprised once you hear the right advise."
"Another thing I’d recommend is educate yourself, buying a home is a massive undertaking and has potential to change your life forever. If homeownership was an exam, wouldn’t you want to study to put your best foot forward to pass the test? When I say educate yourself, I mean understand all things houses, as well as the financial side, what are the pro’s and con’s, i.e. different home loan types, managing risk, house location, how the home is built/materials involved etc. There is so much free information out there for anyone to up-skill. It definitely will help when the time comes!"
Connor Rensford, Auckland North
Bryce Imms: "Find a good mortgage broker who knows what they are doing. I was recommended one by family. The broker told me about using my KiwiSaver first home drawdown. I was able to sign the fixed price contract and put the deposit down on my house and land package to hold the land before the titles were out. You don’t have to wait for the titles."
Bryce Imms, Northland
Ian Burger: "Getting the house and land package finalised involved a combination of things. We’d been saving towards a deposit. Our mobile mortgage manager essentially switched us to another bank, which was a little bit more favourable in terms of the amount that we would qualify for."
"The fixed price was quite an attractive feature for us. A mortgage manager at the bank, who does a lot of work with Generation Homes and understands exactly how they do things, was very open about how the banks like working with the company because it’s a true fixed price. A lot of other companies claim to have fixed pricing, but it’s not really.
"Automated saving is the easiest way to save in my view. As soon as your salary gets paid into your account, you already have automatic payments set up into separate accounts for your specific goals. That’s what we’ve been doing and it restricts you from spending money that you no longer have in the account."
Ian Burger & family, Auckland North
Read next: Why building new might be the smartest way to go
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