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!
The Real Price of Change: Selling, Buying, and Starting Fresh
•Zebunisso Alimova
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11:19
What does it really cost to sell your home and buy another? Mortgage broker James Buchanan returns to the podcast to share the eye-opening reality of his recent property journey. After living on a lifestyle block for 20 years, James and his family decided to move closer to town, unwittingly embarking on a financial adventure that would cost them $40,000 in additional expenses.
The breakdown of these costs offers valuable insights for anyone considering a property move. The largest expense was the $21,000 real estate commission, followed by $5,000 in lawyer fees ($2,500 each for buying and selling). James spent $1,500 on professional cleaners just before settlement, an expense he considers essential given the dramatic transformation they achieved in his family home. Marketing costs, temporary accommodation in an Airbnb between settlements, storage containers, and numerous dump runs all added up to create a substantial financial burden that wasn't fully anticipated.
Perhaps the most valuable takeaway from James' experience is the importance of preparation. Six weeks of intensive work was required to get his property ready for sale after 20 years of family life. For listeners planning a move, James recommends starting the decluttering process early, considering alternatives to expensive dump runs like garage sales or giveaways, and being realistic about the full financial picture. While first-time buyers will face fewer costs, they should still budget beyond just their deposit and mortgage payments. Remember that proper planning not only saves money but significantly reduces the stress associated with one of life's major transitions.
Hello and welcome back to that Home Loan Hub . I'm Zibuni Salimova and I'm joined by James Buchanan Kia ora . Woo James . It's been a while . How are you ?
Speaker 2
It has . I've been MIA for a number of weeks and people might wonder where I've been . Where have you been ? I've been in na-na land trying to sell and buy a property . So I've been living the . I was going to say living the dream , but living what we work with every day . So I've been through all the stresses and tribulations that our clients go through .
Speaker 1
So now you know exactly how they feel . Yes .
Speaker 2
I do .
Speaker 1
Awesome . So let's unpack that and let's go on the journey of what happened in James's life and what the buyers should be aware of or wary of . From your own experience , yeah , okie dokie .
Speaker 2
So about two months or three months ago , I think , we worked out that living in the countryside on a lifestyle block is not really fitting our priorities anymore . So we've been there for 20 years and so we decided to sell
and move closer to Waikanae and move closer to Waikanae . But it turned out to be a huge undertaking just because we have not done anything with our property over those 20 years . So we were basically going from not done anything at our place to having an open home within a few weeks .
Speaker 1
Wow .
Speaker 2
So it was .
Speaker 1
And you wanted to present your house in the best possible light so you could get the best possible outcome for you financially . So then you could buy that next property right , and I think from memory you already had a property on offer before you sold yours .
Speaker 2
Yes , we got our offer got accepted quite quickly a little bit too quickly . Yes , our offer got accepted quite quickly , a little bit too quickly . So we had to make sure we could keep that property and no cash buyer took our place , or we had to get moving with selling our own place , and our own place was in quite a bit of disrepair . So I sort of had to take a bit of time out from work really and do all the work around the house inside and out and and manage the whole thing myself . So , and I think just by running through a few numbers , buying and selling is probably the expenses , probably cost me about 40 grand $40,000 , james $40,000 .
Speaker 1
Let's , let's drill into those numbers . I want to know what cost you that much .
Speaker 2
Okay , so the big one was because I was buying and selling and luckily a lot
of first home buyers won't have this cost but because I was selling , I had to pay a commission to a real estate agent . So half of it was about $21,000 to a real estate agent for selling our property . But that was money really well spent , I think , because within a week this was with property brokers . They had a network , you know , that they could send the advertised property worth had one open home . We had an interested party .
Speaker 1
Nice , so we got an offer straight away Nice .
Speaker 2
So that got an offer straight away Nice , so that was really good . So up to $40,000 , about half of that was real estate . Okay , so the other $20,000 is just various costs that came up Because I was buying and selling . You know , I had to pay lawyers fees for selling my property and for buying my property , and each one of those was $2,500 .
Speaker 1
Wow it was about $2,500 .
Speaker 2
So if you're just buying a property , you might be looking at about $2,500 , I think , depending on the lawyer , I suppose .
Speaker 1
And the complexities right If there's trust involved or the business is involved , et cetera . Okay .
Speaker 2
Mine was relatively low complexity , I believe . I don't know . I haven't sold a lot of properties in the past . I was a bit surprised because I had forgotten about the lawyer fees . Yeah , so you know how you do the numbers in your head .
Speaker 1
Yeah , and you go .
Speaker 2
Oh , I'm going to have all this money left over .
Speaker 1
Surprise , I didn't have any .
Speaker 2
I didn't have anything left over at all , so it was a bit sad . So no trips for me . I spent $1,500 .
Speaker 2
I mean I did a lot of cleaning and painting and stuff myself and all the outdoor stuff and I spent $1,500 on cleaning people on the day before settlement . Wow , that was money really well spent because they had to wipe down all the wall . You know , we've got young kids . We've lived in that place , you know , since the kids were little . They're now 15 . So it's pretty gross , if I can say that out loud . So that was money really well spent . They did an amazing job because what you get when you do your open home , the real estate photographer comes out and they take all the photos of your place and then they go online and they make your place look really attractive .
Speaker 2
And you're like that's not real .
Speaker 1
You know , my house does not look like that .
Speaker 2
So I was like really conscious that I needed to have my place at a standard that reflected what the pictures looked like Nice . So there was quite a bit of work that went on behind the scenes . So it was about six weeks , I think , I was working on this .
Speaker 1
Okay , so it was quite a long time . What else ?
Speaker 2
So we got the commission . So you always keep in mind that you pay the commission once you actually sell your property and it settles , but you have to pay the marketing costs up front usually , unless you've got a special agreement with the
We ended up because we had a cash offer . There was a three-week difference between when the person wanted to move into our house and when we move into our house the new house that we've bought so there's three weeks difference . So we're staying in an Airbnb for three weeks .
Speaker 1
Oh , wow so that's about $4,000 . Okay , what did you do with all your stuff ?
Speaker 2
We've got three storage containers , three 20-foot storage containers in Palmerston north that I've loaded all our stuff into , wow so , and I have taken about 15 truck trailer loads of big cage trailer loads of stuff to the dump whoa . So that's about a hundred dollars each time whoa I've burned all the wood and stuff because we're able to it it was out in the lifestyle property .
Speaker 2
When Rebecca wasn't looking , I was burning all her wood and furniture , which was just another way to get rid of it . It was quite cool , so , yeah , that's another thing that people need to be aware of . If you know you're going to be moving , start planning now . Start getting your stuff out of your house that you don't need . We ended up hiring a storage container on site . They dropped a portable storage container to our property . It looks just like a cabin .
Speaker 1
Yeah .
Speaker 2
And what we were able to do before the open home is just take all the stuff out of the out of the house and put in the storage unit , so it instantly made the place look more spacious .
Speaker 1
Nice and tidy and decluttered .
Speaker 2
Oh , absolutely . There's no way we could have sold it with all the stuff we had in there and so that's what people should be , so it's not a big rush like it was . For me it was a really kind of spontaneous thing . Not spontaneous , but we knew we had to do it . So if people know they're going to be doing it , start working away on these things slowly you know , tidying the place out , getting rid of things that you don't need and just getting organized .
Speaker 1
I often suggest to my clients as well that start doing garage sales . You know whether you're a first-time buyer or whether you're buying a second property . Start doing garage sales because that helps you to get rid of stuff , helps you build up your fund . But I guess it's a bit harder when you live rurally .
Speaker 2
Yeah .
Speaker 1
You know , not many people can come out easily to your garage sale .
Speaker 2
We could have done that . We probably would have done that if we'd had more time , but because we were sort of I was in a rush , because I knew I was taking time out of work .
Speaker 1
Yeah .
Speaker 2
I didn , where we're sort of I was in a rush because I knew I was taking time out of work . Yeah , I didn't want to necessarily be uh talking with people coming to our house and doing all that sort of stuff , so it was easier for me to , you know , take stuff to the dump and things like that , or burn it , yeah , but yeah , we could have probably , you know , made it a lot cheaper for ourselves by either giving it away and not having that cost going to the dump exactly um , or know , getting a bit of money for some of the stuff that we had .
Speaker 2
It wouldn't have been much , but it might have been $1,000 or so , depending . You know , sometimes people do like stuff that you don't like . Oh , totally .
Speaker 1
Totally . I've discovered that , you know , when I was running a shop the retail store that I had for a very short stint of my life and I've discovered when I would purchase things for the shop to sell based on my , you know , likes , often it wouldn't be the ones that would be selling . It would be some random stuff that I would get , that I wouldn't even like , but that used to , you know , fly off the shelves . It used to absolutely puzzle me , and that's where I realized that often what you think is cool , other people don't think
that way . And it could be the reverse , you know , like , for instance , stuff you wanted to get rid of and you thought , oh my god , this is bad or you know this , who would want this ?
Speaker 2
there will be people that would want that and would pay money for it so if you've got time to do it , yeah , I would say get organized and do it that way it's for it . So if you've got time to do it , yeah , I would say get organized and do it that way it's so much a little bit more efficient ? Um , it is . It's pretty expensive going to the dump these days dumping non-recyclable rubbish . I think I spent fifteen hundred dollars going to the dump .
Speaker 2
So , um , what else ? I think that's all my main costs . So , and then loss of earnings , for , you know , four weeks Probably put me a month behind here . So if you add it all up I would say we're pretty close to 40 grand .
Speaker 1
Yeah .
Speaker 2
But for most people , if they're organised , they won't have it .
Speaker 1
No .
Speaker 2
It shouldn't be that much . And even if you're just buying , you know it's just going to be your lawyer costs , isn't it really ? And moving costs . I suppose you don't have to worry about marketing costs for selling and things like that .
Speaker 1
Yeah , exactly , exactly . So really good takeaways of today , and I think what we're suggesting for our buyers , for our listeners , to do is do your numbers . You know , even rough , but do your numbers and always prepare for the worst . So then , if you do come out of it and you actually have extra bucks left , it's better than not . Yeah , so that's awesome , cool . Well , thank you , james . This has been an absolutely insightful episode . It has been an absolutely insightful episode and , for those that have missed out on James talking about his journey as a buyer , go back a few episodes and we talked about what happened when he decided to leave his lifestyle property and how he got his finances sorted with no income at all . Thank you , james , thank you very much .
