From Books to Property Ownership

Speaker 1 0:10

Hello and welcome to Anastasia Bennett . Hello , anastasia , hi , how are you ? I'm good , so good to have you today on my podcast . Thank you so much for coming in and we were going to talk about a few things . You are a good friend of mine , a client of mine , and we've known each other for many , many , many years .

Speaker 1 0:30

Funny enough , I remember actually how we first met and I'm not gonna , um , say that yet . I wonder if you remember how we first met . But no , you don't remember . Funny , funny , funny . You actually you were saved in my phone , uh , because when I meet people in a certain setting , I save them , like I save their name and I save the reason why , um , how I know them . So you saved in my phone as Anastasia books . It was a time when I , silly me , decided to have a business of bringing Russian books and selling them in New Zealand and I imported a whole container of books to sell . So , and I put it out through the community saying I've got books to sell , and then you reached out to me and you came and you bought some books from me for your daughter . That was like eight years ago Did .

Speaker 1 1:22

I actually physically come and meet you .

Speaker 1 1:23

Yes , that was eight years ago and we met in Titahi Bay . Seriously , I don't remember that at all . I know , I know how crazy , but yes , this is how you saved in my phone and this is how I knew you . But then , obviously , fast forward . A few years later . We've come across each other again , which is really cool , and you're absolutely fascinating person and I needed to have you on my podcast to share the message of hope , because to me , you just symbolize that and your journey . So let's go with your story and where you're from and where you're at right now , take it away .

Speaker 2 2:00

All right . So I'm Anastasia Bennett and I live in Wellington . Moved to Wellington from Auckland back in 2011 , but before that moved to New Zealand in 2003 . Moved to New Zealand in 2003 . That's where my parents decided to move , so I'm not an important wife ?

Speaker 1 2:20

I'm actually an important wife , did you just ?

Speaker 2 2:21

say that I'm not an important wife . I did . I did that's a joke between me and my husband when he introduced me to his friends . Still , 15 years later , russian bride , my important wife , russian bride yes , that's how I get introduced still .

Speaker 1 2:36

Okay , years later , yeah .

Speaker 2 2:38

So anyway , my parents decided to move back in whatever 2003 . And back then my dad got residency . So he got the job offer , he got residency , he done whatever needs to be done , you know , came , did study , passed exams , whatever . And so I was 19 and I was at uni . I had a full-time job back in Moscow . I did not want to move , I had friends and life and whatever . And my dad said , hey , come to New Zealand , I've got residency because you're under 21 . You can get residency automatically as a child .

Speaker 2 3:12

So come to New Zealand , do a little bit of English , then you can go back . I was like , sounds all right . Like how many months ? He's like three . I was like , okay , cool . So I said bye to uni . It was , I think , july or something . I was like I'll be back back to uni , you know , in whatever October or something . And that was fine . Until we came to New Zealand and they said , well , if you want to go home , you need to find a job , buy a ticket , and then you can . To go home , you need to find a job , buy a ticket , and then you can go back home . Wow , and I was like , oh , cool . So that was a little trap . He trapped you , I guess Trapped me . Yeah , that's right , and so I started working as a dishwasher Dishwasher what else can you do with ?

Speaker 1 3:57

no English . Yep , we had to do what we had to do .

Speaker 2 4:00

Yeah , exactly , exactly . I couldn't speak any English whatsoever , like zero . And I remember going to one of those you know coffee shop at the mall back in I think it was Mission Bay asking for a job Couldn't speak any English , and the guy who owned the thing I'm not going to say asking for a job couldn't speak in English , and the guy who owned the thing I'm not going to say nationality he couldn't speak English either . So that's the probably reason I got the job . We kind of managed to figure out how much I'm going to get paid and what I need to do , and that's where it all started and then kind of slowly moved on into , you know , doing waitressing and things like that . So that's how my journey in New Zealand started , and that was 2003, . So , like 21 years ago , fast forward . Now I own a couple of businesses , and me and my husband we own four properties as well , and that's why we're here , right , that's why we're here .

Speaker 1 4:54

That's why we're here to talk about it because obviously you know , I see some clients that have a helping hand from their parents . They get a gifted deposit or equity , et cetera . You didn't really have that advantage . You had to work hard and save money . So can you take me back to your first property ? And how did that happen and why did you even buy a property ? I mean , why would you even think about buying a property at that time ?

Speaker 2 5:22

Yeah , so my first property , my actual first property before my husband , was with my ex-husband , and so I walked out on that marriage with nothing . I left everything , absolutely everything , to my ex um . Then time went by . I met my husband , and so I didn't have any deposit . I didn't have nothing . I had my car , and my parents couldn't help either , because when we moved to New Zealand , we literally had $1,500 . That's it , and there was money to buy a car for that , to get to work , and we just had to figure out how to grow from there . So , anyway , but what I had is desire , desire to work hard . I still had a goal to buy a house . You know not to be statistics or anything like that .

Speaker 2 6:21

So when we moved to Wellington in 2011 , me and my husband , he actually already had a property in Auckland that he somehow scrambled to get . Again , he was very young when he got it . He got flatmates to help him to pay . I think he sold his car to scramble some money together for deposit and I was like we're talking back , it was just over 200 care for property or something like that . You know , these prices don't exist right now .

Speaker 2 6:51

So when we got together and we moved to Wellington . We actually were so broke . I remember our food budget was $150 a week , that's it . That's all we could afford . So we had to build ourselves up . He rented out that property in Auckland because he couldn't sell it . It was like in the bed , not great , um , it was like a block of units . So he kept it , let it sit there , rented it out , um , and we what we end up doing is we started a business at a gym in Wellington and Periroa from the scratch , had to borrow some money . I don't know how bank gave us any money because we didn't really have any assets or anything , but somehow we both had good full-time jobs , um , both working for government at that point , and so , yeah , we got a loan , opened up the business and then we decided to approach our landlord that we were renting house from for , like , rent was 270 dollars a week or something you know , back then ask her if she will sell it to us .

Speaker 2 8:04

And there was real small house to bedroom , tiny like kitchen , on the top of the lounge type thing scenario and she actually said yes and we managed to convince the bank . We went to so many different banks because they keep saying , oh , you're in the business , you won't be able to . You know it's too much risk , and had to jump through so many hoops to buy that small thing . I think we bought it back then for 275k or something in Whitby , in Priroya .

Speaker 1 8:38

You can't even buy land for this price .

Speaker 2 8:39

Now , I know right , that freaks me out , because all I can think about oh my God , when my kids are ready to buy , how yeah , and that's why we've got so many properties now that we go . Okay , well , this is how yeah , right , we're going to help somehow for them to get there . So anyway , we lived in that property until we had our daughter , which is nearly 10 years ago , and we realized that that little thing is not going to serve us free , and so we started looking for another place . We found another house , um , in preroy as well , which was way more in price . We managed to sell at that point house in auckland which made some money so we could use actual deposit , because when we bought our property in whitby we didn't have any deposit at all .

Speaker 1 9:35

So you used the equity of the Auckland property ? Equity in Auckland , yeah , so that property grew .

Speaker 2 9:42

So it grew over the years while we were renting it out , and the reason we were broke because we had to top it up that property in Auckland all this time . We had to renovate it constantly . There were tenants that wouldn't pay rent so we would have to cover it . It was it was nightmare like it was hard time to get through , but I think it was worth it . Looking back , because we wouldn't be where we are now if it didn't happen .

Speaker 2 10:06

Um , and so sold the property in oakland . Put that as a deposit wasn't much , but it was some deposit to get , uh , property in bigger property for us , for our family sold our house for the same price to what we bought in whitby . Um , so the house we got was 465 000 . I think back in 2016 or something . Um , and then in four or five years later I think it was more like four years later we decided to move my parents from Auckland to Wellington because they were renting in Auckland and they were going to demolish their house because they were building motorway or whatever in that area . So my parents had to look and we said , how about we'll move you to Wellington and we'll buy a house ?

Speaker 2 10:55

You know , that was kind of like a compromise , negotiable thing to buy a house . So we end up using the equity in our house to buy property in Paraparamo Beach again didn't use any deposits for it , just used equity . But our income wasn't enough to buy it . So we used my dad's income to buy property . So we went halves . So my parents own half of that property nice um and we own another half . Are they good tenants ?

Speaker 1 11:26

and then the payment oh , that's a bonus , okay , and then from that one from that one , um , in 2020 , uh , I don't know .

Speaker 2 11:42

My husband's like oh , let's just have a look if we can borrow my money and see what we can do with it . So we did . We got pre-approval and then I was driving I think I was dropping our op to airport or something like that I got phone call from him saying we bought a house . I was like what ? I was like what kind of house , what is it ? And it was a very unlivable property , but with big land , it was that unlivable that we couldn't get proper insurance . We had to get a builder's insurance because it had to be fully renovated , had to change the roof , all the walls , new kitchen flooring , absolutely everything you know it was . It was rotten . Um , the old owner was living . It was cooking on like a not barbecue , but the other stuff , not like a normal stove inside , so the walls were black . Wow , it was great . It was great . It was unlivable .

Speaker 2 12:37

So my husband and my dad renovated that house fully and then we've subdivided that land . It took us , uh , two years or something , if not longer , to subdivide it , then build another house . So we bought it at the end of 2020 , took us about a year , maybe nine months to renovate tenanted front house and then um in 2023 , september , so , like three years later , that's the second tenant that went into back the back house that you know the new build . So that was a really long and painful process . But now we have four properties , so we have house , we live in um and that and the thing is like our house , our personal house , is not massive , it's just normal small . You know , three bedroom plus office house , like nothing fancy on the on the main road , not the main road , but , but you know it's not like mentioned or anything like that .

Investment Strategies and Entrepreneurial Ventures

Speaker 2 13:39

But that's the choices that you make , right , like we could have gone for huge houses , beautiful home , but then potentially we wouldn't be able to buy to have all the other properties . Yeah , and we still top up our rentals , definitely because of the high mortgages and everything so . But I look at it this way I could be topping it up two thousand dollars a month or I could be putting it aside as a savings , but in 10 , 20 years , will my savings grow or will my assets grow , because we know property double in 10 years ? Such a good way to look at it . Such a good way to look at it . And then in 10 years , if our assets doubled in value , then we have that extra equity that we can use to get more properties . Yeah Right , and the reason we kind of looked at it and went that way is so then when our kids old enough , yeah , we're not going to say here's your property , enjoy it . No , we might say you can rent it , you can buy them and get flatmates .

Speaker 1 14:46

You can buy them one-way ticket to Russia .

Speaker 2 14:47

Imagine that that would be-way ticket to Russia . Imagine that that would be funny . Go learn .

Speaker 1 14:54

And they'll have to learn how to survive , yeah yeah , yeah , they'll have to learn how to survive in Russia and come back to New Zealand , but that's the best way . I mean you've been strong in the deep end at a very young age . Funny enough , I came to New Zealand in 2003 as well , so very similar in that sense Must be the year yeah , it must be the year of change . And for you to come here there's no English and been told that if you want to go back , earn money and then go back , Perseverance that you had to put through , but I mean through your whole journey . As I'm listening to you , I'm like , holy heck . I mean a lot of investors .

Speaker 1 15:34

When they have bad experience with their first rental property , like you guys had in Auckland , they usually would walk away . They would sell the property and say we're done , we're not doing this again . Like usually people have this romantic idea of I'll be an investor , I'll have an investment property , the tenant will pay my mortgage and we'll be fine , and they're not prepared for the worst case scenarios . They're not prepared for the bad outcomes and if that happens , if those bad scenarios happen , they usually walk away and say never again . But for you guys to turn around and be like well , stuff happened , it was a bad experience , but let's just keep going . What are you on ?

Speaker 2 16:12

that's incredible it's like , it's like having , it's like having babies , right , yeah , yeah . After the first one , you're like , oh , no , no , no , I'm not doing this again . And then you forget you forget . I mean same thing four kids later yeah , and then the same thing when that happened in Auckland and you know we had so much issues with the tenants and how much damage they made to the house as well .

Speaker 2 16:41

Yeah , yeah , yeah , I was just like they're not paying rent . Not paying rent damaged the house , damaged to the point where I had to replace the whole wall and then repaint the whole house . Yeah , yeah , like lots of issues . And at that point we're like , oh , we're not doing this again , f that no . But then you know , and then somehow you forget and you're like , okay , let's do this again , because you know we just got money grows on the tree and you know we can just keep topping .

Speaker 1 17:11

Keep got money grows on the tree and you know we can just keep topping , keep topping it up . I love that because , like , let's say , it was the one that you guys bought and you had to renovate it extensively and then you had to subdivide it and put another property at the back . I mean , other people might listen to this and go why , why are you doing it the hard way ? I mean , surely with the same amount of money , you could have bought few properties and not gone down the subdivision route , because that would have cost you money as well . Right , what's the logic behind that ?

Speaker 2 17:35

Or there was no logic and you were just in a moment and you were doing it . There was no logic . Yeah , there was no logic . My husband just likes looking for properties and go to open homes and auctions , and you know and before you know it , there was no logic behind it Before I knew it . Yep , I got a phone call . We bought a property . I was like cool , well , I guess my name was on pre-approval .

Speaker 1 18:01

You can't believe the cutoff ? I didn't know . This is really cool and I mean , the other thing that stood out to me is topping up the rentals because obviously , now that the interest rates are high , a lot of landlords I mean me including we are pouring money , right , we're hemorrhaging money . And it's really interesting because , you know , you look at the media and they're like oh , the landlords are the bad ones , you know , and the poor tenants and blah , blah , blah .

Speaker 1 18:22

But actually it's the mom and dad investors like you and I that are the most suffering . It investors like you and I that are the most suffering . It's not investors that have hundreds of properties or 20 properties plus , Like they're relatively okay , but I think it's people like you and I that only have few properties and we have to top them up significantly , where we can't just sell one quickly to make up for the other ones , Like it's really hard to sell one without affecting the rest . So it's really cool that you're not put off by being an investor , that even though you have to top it up , yeah , well , that's why .

Speaker 2 18:55

I have two jobs right , so I can top it up .

Speaker 1 18:58

Yeah , and that's another thing . Like again , I don't think people realize that us , as landlords , when we have to top it up , we're actually the ones working two , three jobs as well and running several businesses to stay afloat Not because we choose to , but because we have to . So it's a really interesting balance .

Speaker 2 19:18

A lot of people just say , oh , I can't afford it , and that's all understandable , but I do work a lot . You know like , yes , I choose my own hours when I work , but at the same time I don't get paid if I don't work lot . You know like , yes , I choose my own hours when I work , but at the same time I don't get paid if I don't work . Exactly , you know I don't have sick days , I don't have holidays . I had a joke .

Speaker 1 19:36

When I work at night I've clicked kids and been yeah , when COVID , when COVID hit , um , I had a joke where people would say oh , you know , have you got COVID ? And I'm like no , self-employed people don't get COVID . What are you talking about ? I couldn't have . Covid , I couldn't afford to have COVID .

Speaker 2 19:54

Yeah , exactly .

Speaker 1 19:56

Exactly .

Speaker 2 19:57

That's what I always say , like I can't afford to get sick . I can't . That's why I take all my freaking vitamins and eat healthy and exercise when I can , because I don't have time to be sick .

Speaker 1 20:10

Do you want to tell us a little bit about a couple of businesses that you've got going ?

Speaker 2 20:14

Yeah , so I've got two . One is I do contracting work for the company overseas . I've been working for them for the last seven years . I do business coaching for gyms and fitness industry businesses , yoga studios , PT's , martial arts and things like that . So I've been doing it for the last seven , eight , now eight years working for them Flexible hours because it's just whenever clients are available . Most of them are overseas , so I work either late at night or early morning or whenever I can find time to work . Um . I also do audit for the company so I um review other mentors calls and give feedback and help to improve . So I've been doing a bit of that . And then I've got my own business , which is um just gone through the branding used to call Life Hair Coaching and now it's Pyramid of Paws Wellness and Weight Loss , working specifically with women , helping them to balance their hormones , boost metabolism , lose weight sustainably , educating about nutrition and healthy lifestyle and the habits and stuff like that , which I've been in that industry for the last 15 years .

Navigating Family Life and Property Investment

Speaker 1 21:35

That's incredible , and I know a lot of women . I've met a lot of women that you've changed their lives , so I think what you're doing is incredible , given that you are a busy mom yourself . You've got a couple of kiddos there Two , two , yeah , a boy and a girl . A girl and a boy . I should say um , because how old is your daughter now ?

Speaker 2 21:56

yep , she'll be 10 in april and , uh , my son just turned five , so just started school . New challenges , yeah , especially boys . I think boys are very different . Yeah , interesting .

Speaker 2 22:10

I was talking to someone and we're talking about having boys and how busy they are and she is . She was older woman and she just said you gotta run them like dogs . And I agree , stop for a second . I thought I was like run them like a dogs got it . You gotta take them out like in the morning and at night for walks and bike rides and , you know , get them busy . So they're on two things like dogs . I was like that makes so much sense . And since she said that , I was like to my husband , we're gonna get him out of house . And so he's been taking him out for bike rides after dinner or for walks or whatever , just before bit to calm him down because he's got so much energy . It's crazy . Yeah , boys are like that . And yeah , and my husband's like , oh , my god , you're so busy , why is he like this ? And then mother-in-law comes in and goes . He just , he was just like him . Yeah , don't blame me , don't blame me for his craziness . It's you , it's all you .

Speaker 1 23:09

I love it because obviously , you know , I've got three boys as well and , um , yeah , and I could never stay home . I remember , even with my one , I was always out . And then I had two and I was always out . And when I had three and I remember taking them to the swimming pool and my friend was mortified . She's like how could you take three boys on your own ? You know they were five age and under , um , I was like it was easier for me to take them to the swimming pool and hang out at the swimming pool than being at home , because at home they're just in the destructive mode of either eating everything or just constantly , you know , wanting to play with things that they shouldn't be playing with and destroying things . So , yeah , no , that's a really solid advice there . I think Run them like a dog . I'm going to knock that down and use it in the future .

Speaker 1 23:57

I've never heard that one before , but definitely makes a lot of sense . I've never heard that one before , but definitely makes a lot of sense . So , anastasia , if someone was in your shoes , you know , back when you were , let's say , 15 years ago , thinking should they buy , you know , have they already missed the opportunity because you no longer can buy a property at 270k , you know , and the prices are much , much higher . What would you give them as a piece of wisdom ?

Speaker 2 24:24

as a piece of advice right now .

Speaker 2 24:25

You know like , looking back , if I didn't meet my husband , when I met my husband and I was single , I would probably would recommend to myself the young myself is to potentially go into partnership with someone to buy a house and treat it because you know like a lot of people go well as a single is so hard because there's not enough income or whatever .

Speaker 2 24:49

I would probably explore that option . Um , to go and treat it like a business . Buy a house , yes , you can live in it , but treat it like a business and get flatmates so you can get a hit , because it's really hard right now as a single person to buy a house on one income like I . It freaks me out to think how my kids are going to do it and for them , like , even even when they get older , if they're in a similar position , I'll be saying like buy house together , buy house together , you two get flatmates for the rest of the rooms . Leave while you're young , get your flatmates to pay your mortgage and then just suck it up for a while and then , once you have equity , you're going to buy another house and then you buy each other out of those properties .

Speaker 1 25:36

Then you have house each yeah , yeah , exactly , I have a lot of siblings actually buying together , so , um , so it's really good , but the key is obviously , you know , not giving advice here , but the key is to get proper legal advice in the setup , um that it works for all parties because the last thing you want to do is to go into partnership with your sibling , and then your sibling gets a r bride a girl or a boy or whatever you know , and then they suddenly want out of that partnership and want to go and buy something with the new partner .

Speaker 1 26:10

And that's when things get a little bit messy , especially if the market is not performing where you want it . Like , for instance , I had lots of siblings buying in COVID times when the boom was happening . And then you know , fast forward , two years later they're like cool , we're ready to now go separate ways . And then they realize they can't go separate ways because the equity has gone down , but one party is forcing the other . So it's just things like this that you've got to think through . You know , right now it may sound amazing , but there are lots of other elements , but it's definitely a great advice in terms of partnering up with someone if you are a single person .

Speaker 2 26:45

Well , that's what actually happened to us as well . The property we bought in 2020 was just out of COVID when the market was super high . So we're 100% overpaid on the current market to what we paid for that non-livable house . Of course , like , if we're looking at it now , yeah , like what we've done is literally just covering the things . We haven't made any money on this as of now because value has gone down , right , but if we'll sit tight and wait it out for the next 10 years , that's when we'll see . That's when we'll see actual outcome the growth , more equity , whatever . But in the current state , yeah , we're just covering for someone to live in our house . Pretty much , yeah , just charity work .

Speaker 1 27:34

Charity work . I love it . Well , hey look what goes around comes around . That brings me to the close of this interview , and my final question that I usually ask of people is um , what's your motto in life ? What do you live by , what are your values and things that you can ?

Speaker 2 27:53

well , normally what I say , normally what I say , the more you give , the more you get back . And this is um . I guess the same principle applies to I'll change your work to um having properties . Now , the more you give , the more you get back . You know , like we , right now we're not getting anything back . It's all give , give , give , give , give and then hopefully later in life it's when we get back right , that's when hopefully it's paid off . It's um a long game , but I've always been like this the more you give , the more you get back . So I remember even when I was in the gym and we had lots of products selling at the counter where it was like you just take what you want , you pay yourself for EF , post right down when you've taken , and people are like why are you doing this ? You know people can steal .

Speaker 1 28:47

And I'm like , if they're stealing , they need it more than I do yeah , that's it .

Speaker 2 28:49

That's a really good way to look at it and that's kind of helped me not to get disappointed or upset . Or when you know , like when I don't know you lose money or whatever , I don't get upset about it as much because it will come back . It will come back in other ways yeah , now that's good .

Speaker 1 29:05

And what are your ?

Speaker 2 29:06

goals . The more you give , the more you get back the more you get back .

Speaker 1 29:08

And so what are your goals in terms of property ? Where do you see yourself heading ?

Speaker 2 29:15

I don't know . We kind of uh juggling right now , our thinking we don't . We don't know if we want to go lifestyle block . We don't know if we want to get a land and then we don't know if we want to go lifestyle block . We don't know if we want to get a land and then build , I don't know if we want to stay where we are and get another property . We're kind of like sitting like a duck and don't know , can't decide what we want to do , because our daughter is going to go to another school next year . So we need to decide and see which school she's going to get into , if it going to be um , semi-private , private or whatever . Just , yeah , lots of thoughts here , but , um , whatever we're thinking , we're always thinking . We've thought , like , how is it going to benefit us in the future and how is it going to set us up um for future ?

Speaker 2 30:01

Because even the house we bought in , like we live in now , when we bought it it was in such a state we had to do so much to it as well . So I know a lot of people looking for the houses that are already made , already ready . Just move in . And it was even more expensive Buy the crappiest house on the B Street and renovate it it . It took us 10 years to get it to where it is now . It didn't happen overnight . So whatever we decide to do in the future , it potentially might be a rundown lifestyle block house that we have to renovate , live in it , improve . I think that's kind of a long term . So we can open the door and say to our son just go go , run , run , there's a panic , go run .

Navigating Mortgage Advice and Goals

Speaker 1 30:45

Well , I guess your mortgage advisor has a work cut out for herself , trying to keep up with all your goals and ideas .

Speaker 2 30:56

Yeah , still waiting for my email from my mortgage advisor . Oh , that's terrible . On pre-approval , I know , I know For . On pre-approval , I know , I know . For the next pre-approval .

Speaker 1 31:04

I know terrible . Anastasia , thank you so much for talking to me today and sharing your journey . I think that really hopefully shows people that , regardless of where you're from or what background you have , if you've got the perseverance and if you can have that positive outlook onto life , the rest will just happen , hopefully , yeah .

Speaker 2 31:29

Hopefully happen . Oh well , oh well oh well , thank you . Sometimes , yeah , it's about finding the right mortgage advisor that can help you to jump through the hopes to get where you want to be .

Speaker 1 31:43

It's the team . Right , you've got to build a team , but it goes both ways . I mean , look , as a mortgage advisor , I can only do as much as I can . If my clients are not willing to work with me or listen to my advice or see the direction where I'm trying to send them on , it's really hard for me to do my job as well . So , um , it goes both ways . So you know you're an amazing human and amazing client . So thank you for sticking around with me and , um , I wish you the good day ahead and the rest of the week .