That Home Loan Hub
Welcome to That Home Loan Hub, your ultimate guide to mastering the world of home loans and property. I'm Zebunisso Alimova, here to simplify the complexities of real estate and provide you with expert insights and the latest trends.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, an experienced investor, or simply curious about the property market, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we unlock the secrets to property success and help you make informed decisions. Let's dive into the world of property together!
That Home Loan Hub
Beyond Settlement: Navigating Your First Year as a Homeowner
What happens after you've settled on your dream home? The journey doesn't end when you get the keys - that's just the beginning of a whole new chapter in your homeowner story.
Most new homeowners don't realize that the cashback they received from their bank comes with strings attached. For typically three years after settlement, switching lenders means repaying that welcome bonus you received. We break down why hasty bank-hopping could cost you more than you think when weighing up lawyer fees against potential benefits.
Your mortgage advisor shouldn't disappear after settlement day. We recommend scheduling a check-in six to twelve months later to review your loan structure and ensure everything's working as planned. By this point, you've settled into your new normal - you understand your budget, council rates, insurance costs, and household expenses. This makes it the perfect time to develop strategies for paying down your loan faster and potentially exploring your next property move.
For new build owners, we highlight the importance of understanding your warranty coverage - usually a 10-year Master Build guarantee that can save you significant headache and expense when things go wrong. We share a cautionary tale about burst pipes, insurance excesses, and the stark difference between new builds with warranties versus older homes where you're on your own after purchase.
The relationship with your mortgage advisor should be ongoing rather than transactional. Though we try to maintain regular contact with all clients, we're honest about sometimes dropping the ball in follow-ups. Don't hesitate to reach out if you haven't heard from us - we're always here to help navigate your ongoing mortgage journey and remember your unique situation in ways that big banks simply can't.
Ready to revisit your mortgage structure or discuss your next property move? Get in touch today to ensure your homeownership journey stays on the optimal path for your financial future.
Hello and welcome back to the episode of KunjCase. Hello, kunj Kia ora. So we've been super busy the last few weeks. We've been talking about what happens when people want to buy a house. Yeah, we've talked about the first baby steps of getting pre-approval. We've talked about them finding a house yes, going conditionally approved. Yeah, we've talked about how we take the hand and get them from conditional to unconditional meaning they bought a house and then we talked about the step between unconditional to settlement. Now they've settled, they've got their keys, they moved their furniture. What happens then?
Speaker 2:Exactly what happens. So we call that post-settlement. So post-settlement, it's a good idea to catch up with your advisor six months to 12 months down the track to check in to see if everything's working okay in terms of their loans and things like that for you. Also, if you've structured your loan on a shorter term say the six month rate, because that's what your loan on a shorter term say, you know the six-month rate because that's what everyone's doing at the moment check in with them as well. It's a good time to check in and review those rates again, ensure the structure is working well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, because one thing that people don't realise is that when we give them that loan, right, we also give cash back, and we also give cash back. And we talked about the cash back in one of the episodes, so go back and listen to that. But people don't realize that cash back also comes with a clawback period. So sometimes six months later or 12 months later, people approach us and they want to change banks because they may not like a certain thing, something to be aware of. The bank will take away that cash back from you. You would have signed an agreement, your lawyer would have explained it to you, but sometimes people forget these things especially in the storm of trying to work out the whole moving utilities, you know, connections, et cetera.
Speaker 1:So what we highly recommend to do is look, don't change banks straight away in the first three years, because that cashback the bank will take back the money they gave you as a thank you for the first three years. However, if you really need to change, then we can get you new cashback from somewhere else. But when you change from bank to bank, there's usually a lawyer fee to do that. So you've got to weigh up your options of pros and cons, whether it's worth it or not. And the other thing that people also don't realize we do is it's not a goodbye, you know, when you get into your home. It's not a forever goodbye. We actually buy your side for the duration of your mortgage and, as you say, six months later they might come back to us. And this is where we sit down and we talk about further strategies of how to pay down your loan faster.
Speaker 1:And this is where people are already a little bit more settled. They understand that they've got you know the budget sorted. So they know the rates cost that's council rates. I'm talking about insurance cost across the house, life, et cetera. They understand how much it's costing them to run a house. So then they're actually in the mindset of okay, I figured out my budget expenses, you've done the adulting, now what's next? What's next? Yeah, so, um, so yeah, it's never a goodbye. If you had a good experience with your advisor, I would highly recommend go back, have a check up with them and look, sometimes we get busy as well as advisors so we sometimes don't have physically the time to follow up with every single client.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Unless, you know, some advisors have really cool automated bots that might send you an email. We like things personal here, but we might drop a ball somewhere. We might not be able to follow up with you in six months time. Don't be shy, reach out back. Yeah, reach out to us. Reach out to us and then we'll sit down with you and talk about it. We like to be honest and we like to keep it real, and this is why we're confessing. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That you know. We're all human, we're all human.
Speaker 1:We're not always good at that chase, so chase us, yeah, yeah chase us because, especially if you had that good experience, you know you might as well go back and um. In the last seven years of being a franchise owner, you know I've I've seen same people come back over and over again you know every time they need to get a top up, every time they need to upgrade the house or buy more houses.
Speaker 1:It's awesome to be dealing with the same people, because what happens is when you deal with us, we remember you, you, we know who you are, we know your situation. You're not just a number to us, like back in the you know, like at the bank, the bank. I didn't want to say that, but, yeah, we remember who you are and that's the point of difference when you're dealing with the advisor good advisor versus you know just anybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's always a good time to check in. Chase us Also. You know, you might be in a position to go to the next property, or you might want to just see where you're at. You might want to upgrade your property I mean not in six months time or 12 months, but who knows or you might want to invest in property and your advisor is the best person to catch up with for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. And I think the other thing as well that we usually look with clients is you know, if it was a new build, for instance, that they purchased, right that it actually has warranties. If you did take over those warranties, it comes with 10 years master build normally master build warranty or whatever other companies that you normally use. So if something is breaking down in your property, you know contact back your master build. Yeah, contact the builder and they should be able to come back and fix it. And this is an advantage of buying a new build. Usually, yeah, and I've experienced it at first hand in my current home you know there've been few things that needed to be fixing and, yeah, master build have been fantastic. They've come around, they did a report and you, they've had the painters and plasterers back and they've fixed it all. So I highly recommend, you know, not to shy away from it.
Speaker 1:And I guess this is the con for buying an existing property. If it's an older property, you don't have those warranties with it. You know if something happens to the property, you can't go back to the previous vendors and say, oh, you know it's broken down, you gotta pay for this. Yeah, you're buying your house. You're buying an older house. You understand what you're buying. So, um, you can't really ask the vendors to come back and check no not for an older house, no, fix anything for you.
Speaker 1:And um, and I'll tell you a story, I'm not sure if I've shared that before, but one of the properties we bought. We moved in and literally like a week later I come home and there was a waterfall coming out of the properties we bought. We moved in and literally like a week later I come home and there was a waterfall coming out of the lighting and I was like whoa, what's that? So apparently the water pipes have burst.
Speaker 1:We bought a house and it had ducks quest piping in it and I had like a newborn baby. You know, I was trying to deal with this waterfall coming, had to call the plumbers and I tried to reach out back to the builder that did our builders inspection. Yeah, okay, and um, to see whether he's picked up that it had dark squished piping, because nobody brought it to our attention. Yeah, and I knew a little bit about dark squished piping at that time. I I just didn't know how bad it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but apparently, yeah, they have this bad reputation in new zealand about yeah, you Zealand, about bursting all of a sudden, and it can happen anyway.
Speaker 1:So the builder's report actually never mentioned that the property had dark squares piping.
Speaker 1:And my insurance said look, we can go after the builders. You know public liability insurance, da, da da. Unfortunately, the builder passed away. So that was very sad. And, yeah, when I tried ringing the builder and the wife answered and she said that he died. So between doing our report and us settling and then the pipes boosting, it was only literally a couple of months. So that was very, very sad. And just again, a reality check for those listeners out there that you know you're looking to buy a home, you've got to accept the cost. Yes, and the sad part again was that I've just increased my insurance excess because we had insurance for a house for the last, you know, five, six years. We never made a claim. Yeah, and I was like, oh, you know why? Why am I paying excess of 500? Um, if we're not going to make any claims? It's a house, you know, let's just increase it. And I increased the excess to like two thousand dollars to keep my premiums down?
Speaker 2:yeah, because I was just increased there. Now you got to make a claim yeah, it was terrible timing.
Speaker 1:it was just terrible timing because I was on maternity leave, I was trying to save money and I was trying to see where in our budget I could pull back a little bit. And there was one of the obvious things you know, if you, if you don't climb on insurance and the excess is a bit higher, then your insurance premium is a bit lower. So I thought cool, makes sense, let's do that. And I've done that. And, sure enough, a week later the pipes burst. We have to pay this massive access, but it was worth it, because the damage was down to three different rooms and the hallway and they had to come in dry all the carpets.
Speaker 1:you know, put us up in the hotel twice because, um, I couldn't go with a newborn stay at home while they were repainting and plastering and things like that, so that was a fun experience, but something I guess for me now to share with you guys is that yeah, that's a good experience to share, because not that doesn't happen, often like increasing your excess and then your pipes burst.
Speaker 2:that's like a very rare type of scenario, so that's, yeah, really good hearing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know. So think about those things. So when you are setting up those insurances or when you're buying an older house, is that what are the chances that you will have to claim for a sudden event? It doesn't cover gradual damage and again, we'll do a whole episode on insurances separately. What's a gradual damage versus sudden, you know, event? But just to keep in mind for you guys is that the post-settlement, you know. Keep an eye on your house, make sure that you are looking after it because, yeah, insurance is there for you, but there might be other things that you know that you could be in charge of. But hopefully this episode was useful for those that are listening and feel free to listen to the ones we've done before. So, congratulations. You bought a house, you've revisited your current home loans and insurances with your advisor or a banker, and onwards and upwards from here. Amazing, thank you, thank you, bye.