First time home buyer
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Category: General Chat
Forum Name: General Chat
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URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=32858
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Topic: First time home buyer
Posted By: bun_in_the_oven
Subject: First time home buyer
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 3:08am
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So...
I am totally CLUELESS with all the jargon involved when buying a home... we have been given an opportunity to buy the property we are currently living in.. Is there any good WWW or info you can recommend i read as a good starting point ?? I have looked into the first time home owner grant and thats about it so far.. Any advice or tips appreciated. Many thanks 
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Replies:
Posted By: Zaylah
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 5:54am
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Hey. I see you are in Wellington too. We went to this http://www.pasefikapulse.co.nz/home.html - free workshop.
They have workshops in 4 areas of Wellington, and you don't let the name of them confuse you, it is for people from all ethnic groups. The information they give you start right at the basics, however they know enough that if you have any further questions they can help you. They also follow up with you afterwards. We ended up buying our home about a month after going to the workshop, we had no hassles and were a lot more confident in the whole process than what we were before. Definitely recommend as you have nothing to lose! ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 7:27am
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Biggest advice I can give is - make sure you know your budget, and don't go over it. Banks are usually willing to lend you more than you think, and it can tempt you!! We could have borrowed $300k when we bought our house 2 years ago, but I had done a realistic budget and knew that would be too much in weekly payments, when you took into consideration rates, insurance and life! We ended up with just over $200k.
There are a few of us on here who are experienced in the property industry (either in law, or in real estate) so if you have any questions at all, just ask! Someone will be bound to help! Are you looking at getting a Welcome Home Loan? |
Posted By: clover
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 8:31am
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sorted.org is great for figuring out the financial side & all of the banks (kiwibank and national are both good) have home buyer information.
It's not as confusing as you think once you get your head around it. Kate is right though, the main thing is knowing what you can afford and sticking to it. When you do your budget don't forget to include every little thing and factor in repairs & maintenance. |
Posted By: HuntersMama
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 9:26am
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I would also hold off as long as you can to get the biggest deposit possible. Over the last 3 years we have paid around $100,000 into our mortgage and only around $15,000 has come off the principal - the rest is interest!!! I now wish we had kept renting for a few more years and put the money we would have used for mortgage payments towards a bigger deposit. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: caliandjack
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 9:38am
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We went through a mortgage broker for finance, it was good to get unbiased advise on what was the best option for us. They were also able to recommend solicitors and a builder to do the inspection. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">   [/url] Angel June 2012 |
Posted By: Kellyfer
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 9:38am
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HuntersMama is right... difinitely go for a bigger deposit if possible. We have quite a small loan and in just over a year and $12,000 worth of payments, we have paid off just over $3000 principal. Even things like a small increase in your payments or paying weekly instead of montly can make a significant difference to how much interest you pay overall.
Don't forget to factor in rates, insurance and set money aside for maintenance every week as well. There is no landlord to ring if the roof starts leaking or if the hot water cylinder explodes. So like minik8e says, make sure you budget all that in when you are looking at how much you can afford all up. Remember the bank wants you to owe more, so they get more in interest. They don't really care if you can't afford the payments, because they can always just sell the house anyway. That sounds very doom and gloom... sorry!!! Also just a side note, if you are going thru a bank and not a mortgage broker, be wary of buying mortgage protection insurance. It's a good thing to have but we found the ones thru our bank were ridiculously expensive, and it was cheaper to do a combined policy thru our main insurance company (and the policy made a lot more sense as well). ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 10:03am
| Wow, some of these make for depressing reading!! With principal repayments, a lot depends on how you structure your loan....we make fortnightly payments which mean we make an extra 2 payments a year, because the amount we pay fortnightly is half the monthly payment, so we end up paying an extra "month" of payments off the principal each year. We pay approx $20,500 in mortgage payments a year, which pays off between $3k and $4k off the principal (we have paid off around $7k in 2 years). Of course, it also depends on the starting amount of the mortgage!! We had no deposit at all and used a Welcome Home Loan. |
Posted By: caliandjack
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 10:39am
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We don't have mortgage protection insurance, as DH is the main earner and the military isn't covered. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> [/url] Angel June 2012 |
Posted By: clover
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 10:55am
| We don't have mortgage protection insurance either, even though I work in the insurance/investment industry I deemed it not worthwhile when considering other insurance we have and savings. |
Posted By: kiwigal
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 11:00am
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Firstly do a budget! Can you afford the weekly payments, mortgage protection insurance, house insurance, contents insurance, interest when it goes up and mostly likely will and rates. I agree with the others the bigger deposit you have the better off you will be in the long run. |
Posted By: HuntersMama
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 12:23pm
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It is depressing - we just got our end of year figures and I couldn't believe it! Almost made me want to sell up and go back to renting for a while.
We dont have payment insurance, but do have life insurance policies that would pay off the mortgage. ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: TheKelly
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 1:37pm
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Heres depressing, we rented a place for only 7 months, when we got our statement after we moved out , we had paid in total $25,000.
$25,000 for a house that wasn't ours . ------------- 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: mumzrule
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 2:51pm
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We had a financial advisor come and talk to DH and I about our mortgage. He is going to restruture the way we pay our loan and live daytoday. We will be going from 22years to pay off down to 9years? If anyones interested in how this works I will try to explain it -------------  
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Posted By: caliandjack
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 3:01pm
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We've managed to pay over 30K off our mortgage in 4 years - there is no way we could have saved that amount of money in that time. Our mortgage is now less than 180K on a house worth at least 350K, its nice to know we own it as much as the bank does. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> [/url] Angel June 2012 |
Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 3:13pm
| mumzrule - are you going to be doing the revolving credit kind of thing? Live off the credit card, while all your wages go onto the mortgage, then pay the credit card once a month, therefore reducing the amount of interest you pay, while earning bonus bits from the credit card?? |
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 15 April 2010 at 3:18pm
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Do your research about who you go with for a mortgage. Dh had his mortgage through BNZ for his property he had prior to us getting together so automatically we just went with them for the house we brought together. I didn't know much about it so just said ok.
In hindsight it was stupid. BNZ never have the lowest interest rates and we should have shopped around. We are now looking at switching to kiwibank when our mortgage comes up for renewel at the end of next month. Its amazing how much better off we will be once we switch. |
Posted By: bun_in_the_oven
Date Posted: 16 April 2010 at 11:15am
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thanks for all the advice...
off to see kiwibank today. |
Posted By: mumzrule
Date Posted: 16 April 2010 at 11:24am
Yep, we only just found out about it. Do you know much about it?? Wether it is as good as it sounds?? -------------
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minik8e wrote:Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 16 April 2010 at 11:26am
| How does that work. All our bills, food, everything gets paid on the credit card so we can get airpoints but we dont end up better off for it like that |
Posted By: clover
Date Posted: 16 April 2010 at 12:01pm
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Your mortgage is essentially revolving credit, all your income gets paid into your mortgage and then you pay everything on your credit card and use your mortgage to pay your credit card. This saves you interest on your mortgage and so long as you don't spend more than you should be repaying you can pay it off much faster.
They require a lot of discipline though! |
Posted By: EmDee
Date Posted: 16 April 2010 at 12:49pm
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This definitely takes ALOT of discipline. DH had a small part of our first mortgage on revolving credit and we weren't disciplined enough so ended up pretty much in the same situation as we started.
If you can remain disclipined, then it could be a good option. ------------- DS 8 DD 6 DS 4 DD 2 |
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 16 April 2010 at 1:13pm
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Hmmm bugger that! lol
I just cant wait to get away from bnz, I have a kiwibank mortgage manager coming over next week to discuss it all |
Posted By: clover
Date Posted: 16 April 2010 at 1:46pm
| Ours is with kiwibank, I couldn't fault them. |
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 16 April 2010 at 2:29pm
| Yeah they have been really good so far in talking to them, much more helpful than BNZ and its wicked that we aren't going to have any fees in setting it up, they do the legal side so the only cost is going to be breaking from BNZ but will be worth it with the differing interest rates. Should have gone with them in the first place. But hey live and learn. |
Posted By: clover
Date Posted: 16 April 2010 at 2:36pm
| Exactly, no point stressing over it now aye. |