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What I Learned Guiding Clients To Their First Home
•Zebunisso Alimova
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You can feel the shift the moment the conversation turns from rates to real lives. We dive into a year of hard-won lessons moving from a structured banking career into the messier, more human world of advice—where first-home buyers carry decades of money silence, cultural narratives, and the weight of being “the first” in their whānau to own. Along the way, we unpack how to calm the fear, create clarity, and keep momentum when an approval isn’t straightforward.
We talk through the real job of an advisor: not just matching policies, but holding people steady through the highs and lows. That means translating jargon into choices, using KiwiSaver wisely, and mapping steps that turn a shaky “maybe” into a solid “yes.” We share the tactics that work when one bank declines and another approves, what to do when four lenders give four different answers, and why non-bank options can transform outcomes for buyers with thin files, credit blips, or non-standard income. There’s a standout story about challenging a default and getting it removed—proof that a single line on a report should never be the final word.
We also explore scenarios for older buyers near retirement, how to structure terms with care, and what “serviceability” really looks like when life doesn’t fit a neat template. The conversation returns often to community: serving Māori and Pacifica clients with respect, plain language, and a belief that homeownership is achievable. It’s about more than keys; it’s about the first photo on the couch, the first nail in the wall, and the security that echoes through a family for years.
If you’re navigating your first purchase or advising those who are, this is a clear-eyed look at what it takes to turn doubt into decisions. Subscribe, share with someone who needs encouragement, and leave a review with the biggest roadblock you want help clearing—we’ll tackle it on a future show.
So, Kunchai has survived with me over the last almost twelve months. She's come from the land of banking into the land of advice. Yes. Well, I th I wanted to like start a story, but okay, you jumped in.
SPEAKER_01
Hello, Kunch. Keilda, Keilda. Sorry to interrupt your story. You go.
SPEAKER_00
Let's do an episode today about your learnings as an advisor over the last almost 12 months. And how do you see this different to what you've done in
the bank? Because you had what 15, 16 years in the bank.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00
Yep. And uh almost 12 months with me. And I think you aged. I think I aged you.
SPEAKER_01
She's aged me, guys.
SPEAKER_00
I love it. Awesome. Tell me.
SPEAKER_01
What have I learned in the last yeah, nearly 12 months? I can't believe how quick this year's gone. So yeah, 12 months next month. Yeah, so it's absolutely crazy. Clearly enjoying it because it's gone by so fast. But I think what I've learned is in the advisor game, it's not just about interest rates. Like we've just done an episode on interest rates, or like, you know, how they go up and go down. But behind, you know, every application, there's like a real life story, you know, f families trying to create, you know, get trying to create security, buying their first home, you know, navigating their fears as well of buying their first home. So I've learned that yeah, it's just not about just the numbers, it's just about real people. So it's been actually quite amazing to go on a journey with all those people as well. And just to see, you know, you start talking to them six months ago and now they're settling on their house. Just amazing how that journey has come. And it just makes me so proud of them and their hard work, but also me getting the privilege of being able to, you know, hold their hand through that journey as well. And yeah, and that's another thing when I actually talk about or when I think about holding their hand, is yeah, we literally hold your hand through this whole journey. So as advisors, I think we are the mortgage broker, we are the mum, we are the therapist, we are the lawyers, we are the insurance provider because we're the sounding board for our clients. They ring us their anxiety level is huge, and then we've got to talk them down from there. Just give them that reassurance. So I've learned a lot of that as well. Like just yeah, giving them that confidence to dive into that fear as well. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00
I was about to say, because in the beginning, when they first come to us, it usually starts with a question of, oh, I don't know if I can buy a house. Do you think I can? I don't think I'm ready
yet. It usually starts like that, right? For the first um buyers. They come in, they're not confident, they're not sure. They also come usually from the background of my mum or dad never taught me, never, yeah, never taught me about finances, we never talked about money. They never owned a house, so you know I'll be the first one to ever own a house. But also they've got that narrative, and especially with the communities that we work with, a lot of you know, Maoris and Pacifica, uh, they've grown up with a narrative that you can't do it, you're not good enough to have a house. So for us to dive in and like I get teary thinking about like can you stop getting teary?
SPEAKER_01
Are you gonna make me teary and the camera's on me?
SPEAKER_00
I can flip the camera, but I feel like this is a very important conversation because I feel like we are the ones that help them to break those glass ceilings, to go, no, actually, you can buy a house. Yeah, you can be the first one in your generation to be a homeowner and to go and do whatever you want with that house and you know, nail your pictures to the walls and paint your fence and have a dog.
SPEAKER_01
It's such an amazing feeling to be able to help them break that generational um stigma that has been put on their community and on their family as well. And just, you know, only a couple of weeks ago, I actually went to one of the houses that I helped them buy, and just to see them settled in with their newborn, you know, chilling on the couch and things like that, it's just so wholesome. Like I yeah.
SPEAKER_00
I like your word this year, wholesome. You mentioned that a few days ago at my birthday, and I kept thinking about it. Such a cool word. Yeah, like we don't use it enough, and and I think that pretty much sums up like the journey that we go through with them. You know, we're on this emotional roller coaster ride, and it's our job to make sure we're holding on to those barriers for them and keeping those bars down so they don't fly out of the cart of the emotional roller coaster.
SPEAKER_01
And and it is an emotional roller coaster, and yeah, and that's what I've learned as well. Like
to us, it's just so easy, right? We're just like we've done it a few times as well, personally, and we go, it's just buying a house, like you know, but it's not, it's such a huge achievement for them. And I've learned that in this role, we as advisor carry a lot of responsibility in helping them, you know, make the biggest financial decisions of their lives.
SPEAKER_00
And it is, right? It is the biggest financial decision of their lives because a lot of them, it's their lifelong savings, it's usually it's their Kiwi savers, so they would have been working hard for the last 10 years to build their Kiwi Saver to an average of 30 to 50k of what we see. Often it's their lifelong savings or you know, just really working hard day and night, a couple of jobs. Yeah, it's it might be in some cases is inheritance, like you know, we've got some people that either parents going here, he's an early inheritance for you, or parents passing away, and that's the only last thing they've got left, and they don't want to ruin it, they don't want to go and splurge the money on something that they have nothing to show for. So usually uh reinvesting that money into home gives them that solid feeling of I'm doing something right by my family. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01
So you're right. Yeah. So I yeah, I think that's my learnings, and obviously navigating you know the bank systems and things like that. So it's not just you know, one bank that I need to understand policy, I need to understand every other bank, every other lender. So yeah, that that's a huge growth for me as well, in terms of being
able to navigate all the different lenders and things, and I'm not gonna get it right first time. There's just so much like to learn.
SPEAKER_00
So, but I think what you have learned, and watching you from the sidelines, is that if one bank says no, try another one and then try another one and try another one until you get a yes. Yeah, because I think you've seen me long enough now to go, no, we do not take no for an answer, we just keep going.
SPEAKER_01
Yes, there's another thing I learned is we do not take no for the an answer, we make the bank say no.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, but also often when the bank says no, we can still overturn that, yeah, because I hate this phrase is oh, there must be something wrong on your end because it works on my end. Yeah. And that makes the bankers question of, oh, well, if it works on her end, and she's been around a long time, maybe maybe we did get something.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and and you're right, we could submit an application to you know four different banks, and we get four different answers. So that's yeah, definitely something I've learned as well. One will say yes, the other one says no, and then the other one says maybe.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. Next time. Like, and we just had that, right? We even do personal loans, and we just had a personal loan for a client, and one bank like approved within a day. I think within like half an hour. Half an hour so fast. But she wanted to see what else she could get from other places, yeah. And then one we waited for like a week, and then that came back, and it was a no a no. And then the other one came
back and said we're deferring it for three months, come back in three months' time. So it was just really, really strange how she had three different outcomes. Okay, what else have you have have you learned?
SPEAKER_01
Um, it's not a nine-to-five job. So I've learned that it's not a nine-to-five job. Like, you can't just shut off Monday to Friday. Monday to Friday, yeah, definitely not. But I do enjoy it because it's a balancing act, right? Like you balance that work-life balance. If you're gonna work late or start early and things like that, you just balance it all out. So, yeah, I do like the balancing of work life. Do you like your boss? Yes, good.
SPEAKER_00
I'm like, we're on air, coach, and we're live. You better say something. Don't hesitate, I'm still here. Good. Because that was my worry, right? You've come from a very corporate world where there's structure, where there is policies and guidelines, and you know, SOP, you know, standard operating procedures for working and this and that, and coffee breaks and morning teas, and so many coffee breaks and morning tea. And you and you've entered my zone. And when you first started, you know, it was just me with a few girls in the background doing some admin work, but they're all remote, so it's not like we had a place to go to and a place to be. So you were the first high of the year, really, yeah. If you look back in January last year, and I think at first you were like, What the heck have I found? Yeah, is that the right read I get here? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01
It's like, oh my god, and I I think you're right. Like, I was so used to what we knew called an operating rhythm. So we're very structured, we have, and yeah, the rhythm, and and it was literally like, oh, okay, this ball was rolling here, the ball's rolling there, and it was just an adjustment to that.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah. Because often we do have 100 balls in the air, and it's really how do we manage and which ball is the most urgent one for us to catch right now and pass on. Yeah, I think for you as well, what I've been proud of to watch you on the sidelines as well is the way you navigate at very complex deals, just not from as we talked, and this is sort of looping back, not from the structural point of view, because you know how to deal with trusts and businesses and stuff like that, but from the emotional point of view and also helping clients to understand
non-bank lending when they do have issues. Because I remember when I first joined, it took me a while as well to take off my banker hat where you go, oh, it's bad credit, no, we can't do that, or you know, yeah, you don't have 20% deposit, we can't do that. I think watching you from the sidelines as well was going, okay, he is finally coined realizing we can do non-bank deals. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01
When the light bulb did click, because yes, there would was deals that came across the table, and I'll be like, that wouldn't fly, you know, but it flies elsewhere. And that was where I just needed to remind myself that actually it's not just one place we submit things through. We have other options. So yeah, it's been really cool to see that as well, like to get things approved, whereas they wouldn't uh typically get approved.
SPEAKER_00
And also I think for older clients as well, because you know, bank's standard is 30 years to the retirement age of 65, and then usually you can't really get a home loan over 30 years over your retirement age. So you can't be like 70 or 80 still having a home loan. But also for you, because you had few older clients this year.
SPEAKER_01
I did, I I was quite surprised. Uh yeah, there were a few, you know, almost at retirement as well that were like wanting to buy their first home, and
amazing how we could, you know, get that across the line as well. So yeah. Or also the one highlight was actually uh client having a default, and then they, you know, after investigating and things like that, and me actually encouraging them to go, no, actually you can challenge this with the provider who actually put that default on their credit check. They were able to challenge and it got removed.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
So that was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00
Again, something you probably wouldn't have done in the bank.
SPEAKER_01
No, I probably would have not. Would have been like, nope, this is on your credit check, sorry, unsuccessful.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
And then go and investigate yourself.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
But here you're investigating with them.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00
One one other thing, I feel like it's like an episode of I'm so proud of you, conch. This is your this is your annual praise, by the way. This is your annual review. Yeah, review. This is how we do end of the reviews here in Zebunisa's World, live on podcast. I think one other thing was really cool to watch is your community and how much you actually could tap back into your community and help them.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah. That was actually been really amazing how I've been able to tap into the Porter community. Yeah. You know, the community that's given so much to me. Just being able to, you know, help them achieve their homeownership goals or your finance goals, you know. So if you're in Porter area, hit me up. Hola.
You were like all professional, and and then suddenly we talk about Porter, and you're like, woof, it's changed years. That was really cool to watch because I know in your previous role at the bank you couldn't really deal with those clients because of the patch that you were working in. And and I know when we were having our interviews, it was one of the things you mentioned that you really want to give back to the community, and it was really cool to see over the last few months how now that's finally coming to fruition. It is, and people know what you're doing and they know your name, and they're coming to you. So this is really, really cool.
SPEAKER_01
It's actually really exciting. So I cannot wait to see what 2026 brings for that side of things. So bring it on, 2026. So, what's our phrase for 2026? Bring it on 2026. I haven't actually thought about that yet. Because we're 25 and thriving, and then I'm not sure.
So I don't know what 2026 is yet, but yeah, I uh I'm excited about 2026.
SPEAKER_00
All right, sweet. Conch, thank you so much for being part of this team. I'm very grateful to have you on board and I can't wait to see what twenty twenty six brings us. Yeah, thank you.
