Home Buyers

Why not look into using KiwiSaver and The First Home Grant to help you save for your deposit faster? You can phone your KiwiSaver provider any time on their 0800 number to learn how much your first home withdrawal balance is.

For First Home Grants see if your are eligible through the following link: Home Start Grant Eligibility Checklist

Have you spoken to your family about your home buying goals? – this might be a hard conversation to bring up talk to your family, however they may be able to provide a personal guarantee or a gift towards your first home purchase.

Tips for saving for your first home

• The more you save, the smaller mortgage you will have.
• Always be realistic with your budget if you make it too tight you may not be able to stick to it.
• Remember to allow for emergency savings to cover any urgent maintenance that may come up immediately after purchasing your first home such as plumbing for example as well as the first grocery shop including cleaning products and all the items that add up pretty quickly.
• Research KiwiSaver and First Home Grant to see how that may help you into your first home sooner.

The Mortgage Girls, established in 2015 with a vision to help make home buying dreams come true for everyday kiwis just like you.

We have a highly driven team with previous success in the finance industry with many years in the banking, insurance and finance history between us we know we have what it takes to keep our customers happy.

Contact us to arrange an appointment time on 0800 864 864 alternatively you can either book in with one of the team members here or send and email through the following link.

1. Make a bucket list of must haves and can live with outs, remember your first home especially may not tick every box but you may get closer than you realise. Things for your bucket list could include must have large wardrobes, must have public transport close, must have local shops, certain school zones may even be a must however a separate bathroom is optional.
2. Get a buyers Agent, especially if this is your first home purchase a buyers agent may be the way to go in order to help make the process smoother they can come to open homes with you as well as help with the negotiation process. We can refer you to a buyers agent if you like.
3. Take your time at open homes, turn up early and even go to the same house two or three times (you can ask the agent for private viewings). It pays to open and close cupboards to check storage space, look high and low, turn taps on and off to see pressure, lift and look under mats placed on the floor,  open and close windows. Take photos of the house (check with the agent first) – these are handy to refer back to later especially if you go to a number of open homes in one day. Take measurements of furniture at home, bring the tape measure to the open home and check that your furniture fits to the potential new space. Check the property out at a few different times of the day, peak hour, day and night in order to see the local atmosphere is it busy/noisy are there people sitting outside?
4. Ask plenty of questions regarding every property for example (how long has the property been on the market? What have near by properties sold for? Is there any damage from Earthquakes or another natural disaster and have they been repaired (they should be able to provide documents if there is)? Is there any outstanding maintenance? Is there any non consented work on the property? Are there any easements on the title (shared access/right of ways)? Are their any covenants for your area (terms and conditions in that area or subdivision for example  your fence height may be restricted to 1.2 metres)?
5. Most importantly ensure the property types you are shopping for are within the scope of your pre-approval for example there is often more deposit requirements for luxury properties or apartments give us a call or email any time and we can discuss this further.
   Click the following link for Canterbury Property Reports Open Home Master Guide.

There are a number of different ways to purchase a first home;

Tender (also known as multi offer – this is where the buyer accepts all offers on one day, they will choose the offer with the most appeal to them, decline all offers, or come back with  counter offer)

Negotiation (The most common type of property sales in the market, this is where you can negotiate directly with the vendor's agent (or vender directly in the case of a private sale) until you agree on the sale price and conditions.

Private Sale (Similar to negotiation with out the real estate agent involved, instead you will need to work closely with your lawyer to draw up an appropriate sale and purchase agreement.)

Auction (Before going to any auction all terms and conditions for the bank must be met, and your  offer must be unconditional including having the lawyer confirm the property and LIM prior to auction day. Remember when you bid and win at auction the sale is final, you must pay the non-refundable deposit on the day.)

How much should I offer, when purchasing a home?

Knowing what price a property is worth can be difficult, hence why getting a registered valuation report done can be pricey but useful to help decide the value of the property. A buyers agent can be very useful in helping to provide you with information as a guide to understand what the property is worth in the market also.

First things first, the advertised price usually indicates the vendors expectations, whether or not these match the market.

Here’s some tips to help you when making an offer;

• Try talking to the agent they should be more than happy to discuss the sale price verbally.
• Do your market research for example: drive around the local area in the day and at night, check the local council’s website to find out what the rate-able value is.
• Request a transcript of local area sales from the agent it may help to show why its valued at that amount.
• Drive past the properties listed on the recent sales transcript, this can sometimes help to show differences between the houses as to location, street appeal, presentation and the type of building. The report also provides some basic information about the property including the floor area, age and number of bedrooms/bathrooms.
• homes.co.nz often lists estimated values of properties in New Zealand, otherwise there are other options for example: making your written offer subject to a registered valuation (this may cost you anywhere between $600-$800, however its done by a registered valuer whom walks right through the property in order to write a report which determines and explains their reasoning behind the property’s value).
• Remember to take into account any outstanding maintenance or maintenance to be completed into your offer.
• If you believe the house is worth 20k less, tell the agent and your reasons behind it.
• Check out the real estate agent’s authority page for more helpful guides and information.
• Remember if you are using KiwiSaver &/or First Home Grant, allow at least 10 clear working days in order to compete finance conditions.

You are now in 10 days (or alternative by negotiation) to confirm finance. At This stage you’ll need to:

1. Get a signed copy of your sale and purchase agreement sent direct to your lawyer and The Mortgage Girls.
2. Contact your lawyer they will start working through the process of getting a LIM report (this is a report of history of the property and land) on the property and checking the sale and purchase agreement is all ok. They will also start prepping the Memorandum of transfer in order to have the title of the land transferred into your name.
3. All conditions for your bank pre-approval must be meet, this includes getting the property signed off as acceptable to the bank, it may also include providing a registered valuers report and/or builders report it pays to get these booked in straight away – we can provide you with contacts to get these done. Once everything is satisfied at the banks end we forward their email to your lawyer confirming finance.
4. KiwiSaver & First Home Grant. Both have separate paper work that need to be completed and submitted ASAP as this can take up to 10 clear working days to confirm they are satisfied with the property.
5. You will need to arrange deposit to be paid to the lawyers trust account this can either be paid through internet banking or by visiting a branch – note if an overdraft is being used to cover this until settlement date there will be monthly interest costs you will need to cover.  Do not pay the deposit until you have met all the conditions and your lawyer has confirmed to do so.
6. Once all conditions are meet and deposit is paid the property becomes unconditional!

The Mortgage Girls also supply you with our detailed Home Buyers or Finance for Builds guide which includes all the steps along the way.

Lending & Budget
It’s now time to sit down and work out how you would like to structure your lending. Your adviser will work with you to look at suitable options to best match your lending requirements.

The Mortgage Girls Helpful Mortgage Guide is a great tool to read through to understand things to think about when determining your lending structure, the diffrent mortgage options avalible and different interest rate types. There is also tools and information in the guide to help you understand your new budget.

In the meantime a really handy calculator for working out your potential repayments;
Sorted Calculator

Insurance
Remember to phone through to organise a direct debit for this to come out of a nominated account.

Rates
A bill is automatically mailed from the council every 3 months, however you can set up a direct debit with the council over the phone or automatic payment at any time to have this paid on a regular basis if you prefer.

Accounts
The bank will be in touch at some point to discuss opening new or sorting existing accounts in order to ensure they match your new requirements and setting up account mandates. If it is more convenient pop into your local branch and arrange an appointment to go through requirements, if you are new to this bank you will need to bring in two forms of I.D and confirmation of address.

Solicitor
Make an appointment with your lawyer prior to settlement and advise us the date of this appointment – this way we can ensure you have structured your lending and given time for the bank to process everything in order to send to your loan agreements to your lawyer prior to your appointment. Remember to organise a will whilst you are there!

Phone / Internet
Pays to get the ball rolling and make contact with your preferred providers now as sometimes there can be a wait until they can set these up.

Start packing!! Ready waiting for settlement!!

Your lawyer will be working through this with the bank involved to have the mortgage put in place and final payment made to purchase the property.

Note: it can often be after lunchtime that you receive a key to move in.

• Cash Back:If there is a cash back this will be paid to the nominated account after settlement.
• Deposit:If this was via a temporary overdraft this limit will drop off today, remember the interest for use of this overdraft will either be charged upon settlement date or with your following monthly bank fees.
• Rates: A bill is automatically mailed from the council every 3 months; however, you can set up a direct debit with the council over the phone or automatic payment at any time to have this paid on a regular basis if you prefer.

Now everything has settled down and your all moved in, congratulations on owning your new home!

A few things that are good to know;

• Your mortgage repayments will be deducted automatically from your account.
• If you have not set up a direct debit for your rates, it would not hurt to give the council a call or wait for your first bill to arrive.
• Update your address. Now is the time to update your postal address if required on items such as your driver’s licence, electoral roll and bank statements.
• Moved to a new bank? Once settlement occurs a reminder if you wish to close the accounts with the bank you shifted from you may need to go in and organise this as they will not automatically close off.

From here The Mortgage Girls will be back in touch when your fixed rate is up for expiry.

Other then that we are here to help with any questions you have, do not hesitate to get in touch anytime.