SPEAKER_01: 0:10

If you're a first-time buyer and you were wondering whether you should buy a new build, whether you should buy an older property, or whether you should build completely from the scratch, listen up. This is the episode for you. Hello, James.

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

Hello, uh.

SPEAKER_01: 0:24

What would you recommend without without being biased? Because we know Rebecca's probably listening.

SPEAKER_00: 0:30

Yeah, I know she will listen.

SPEAKER_01: 0:33

Do you want to get in the good book or something?

SPEAKER_00: 0:34

Well, I would say gosh, this is a hard one though, isn't it? Because it's just it's gonna come down to clients' personal circumstances and things like that. And I've never built a new home, but I can certainly see the pros of having a new home with a with a master builder or a registered, you know, a really good builder for for want of a better word. Because you know that the building shouldn't have any issues. Hopefully. Although, you know. So but when you're buying an existing building, you know, the like the a lot of the places in the neighborhood where I live now, they were built in the 1980s, 1980s, early 1990s. You just don't you just don't know what you're getting when you buy. And even if you get a building inspector, it might not necessarily bring to light everything that could be wrong with a building. So at least with those first if you're buying if you're buying a new build, then you've got that guarantee of it, I think it's 10 years for the master builders to guarantee that yeah, they're gonna stand by what they've done.

SPEAKER_01: 1:39

Yeah. So let me tell you a story. So when I was a first-time buyer 10 years ago, 11 years ago, 12 years ago, hold on. How many years ago?

SPEAKER_00: 1:46

20 years ago.

SPEAKER_01: 1:47

20 years ago. Nah, it was before my son was born, he just turned 13. So about 14, 15 years ago. Yeah, I think, when we first bought our first house. The rule at the time for me in my head was buy what you can afford. And I think this rule could still apply here. Buy what you can afford in a good area. Yeah, it doesn't have to be the fleshest house, but it's gonna be a house that you can easily then sell or rent out and then move up the ladder. And that's exactly what we've done 15 years ago. We bought what we could, it was a little matchbox. I still have it as a rental. And the girl that's there, she's been there for 10 years and she's loving it. She's a single mom. But there was the house that we could afford by saving, saving, saving for our first deposit, and we got it on the ladder, and then over time we've upgraded the houses. Yeah, and then we build. And this is where we're sitting right now. This is my third build. And I've learned so much over the years, you know. I I think it's super stressful building for your first home. Yeah, if there is a turnkey where you just you don't have to do any decision making, it's already done for you, you know, it's already built, then sometimes it's easier versus going through the build process where you have to have a different stage for each build and you have to pay for different stages because things can go wrong. Like in our build, the first build that we were building, we could only afford a certain build. And I'm talking that was our third or fourth property by that stage, because we built, you know, we sold some to move. And building that first home, oh my gosh, what I've learned from that, you know, for instance, that you need to buy the land separately and then you need to build, but you already have a mortgage on the land and you have to pay the mortgage on the land and the build while you're renting.

SPEAKER_00: 3:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 3:31

So that was a huge stress for us versus if it's already built and you just move in straight away, that's less stress, right? Totally. So that was one of the lessons that people don't think about. That when you're building and you're still renting, you've got double the cost. Unless you've got family that you can move in with for six to nine months while you're building. Good luck. Good luck for that relationship, especially when you have young kids.

SPEAKER_00: 3:55

That's what that is what a lot of people do though. When they get halfway through the build, they do see see if they can jump in with family for six three or four months.

SPEAKER_01: 4:04

Yeah, so let's break it down again. I'll just step back a little bit. So the first time buyer, if you're looking to buy an existing property, so it's second, secondhand property, you know, someone already lived in it. Sometimes it's easier because you you see exactly what you get. It's already there, you know it's been through winter and summer and spring and autumn, you know it's been through the earthquake, you know, it's been through the floods. So you sort of know the all the ills and chills of that house. You know what you're getting yourself into. Sometimes you may not fully know, but on the surface, you may know, right? Overall. Overall. And you might get builders' inspection, and usually those builders' inspection reports are on point, and you know exactly what you're getting into. That's one option one. It's the most cheapest option because you get in, you already have a house, and that might be your house that you will sell down the track, move on to the next one. Then option number two: the turnkeys. As I say, you see a development, they already built those houses. Those houses are just sitting there, brand new, off the shelf. You can come in, you can see the house. Again, you're seeing what you're buying, and you could just move in straight away, right? It's ready for you.

SPEAKER_00: 5:13

That feels like quite a nice option, actually.

SPEAKER_01: 5:15

That's an amazing option, but often it may be more expensive, right? We're talking a couple of hundred Ks more sometimes, depends on the region. And then option three is building. And often people go, Oh, I really want to, you know, design the kitchen the way I want to design it. I really want to design the bathrooms the way I want to design it. For instance, I'm from the Soviet Union, right? And a lot of our people, they like when you walk in, they like to have a wardrobe on the site because you come in, you take off your shoes, you take off your jacket, you put it away. I found in a lot of New Zealand.

SPEAKER_00: 5:45

There's school hats as well. Yeah. There's no hat.

SPEAKER_01: 5:47

A lot of New Zealand homes don't have that option. When you walk in, for some reason, New Zealanders don't get changed when they walk into their home. I don't know why. I know a lot of new builds have this option now, but a lot of older homes, they don't have that. You walk into a home, you just walk into a home, you keep walking. I don't know at what point do you take off your shoes and where do you put them? But in my culture, you walk in, you take off your shoes, you put it away straight away. And then the other thing is we do is we wash our hands straight away as well. So a lot of those houses that my country people may design is it may have a wardrobe and a washroom straight away. So again, this is where people go, no, I really want to build because I want to design the house the way it suits my needs, right? I was dealing with a beautiful Iranian couple, and this Iranian lady, she likes the steps, she wants the house to be different levels because this is what she's used to from her country. And designing that sort of house would have been so expensive because if you change levels of your house, if you're not building a leveled house, again, that costs money, you know. But she needed that change. She she she really was adamant she wanted a transition between a living room to the kitchen and the kitchen to the bedroom. It all had to be different levels.

SPEAKER_00: 6:59

Our place is very much like that. There's like four different levels, it's not a four-story house, but there's four different levels. Might be the Iranian person designing that. That's cool. I mean, it's good if you like a bit of exercise. Um the other thing I was just thinking, I've forgotten what I was gonna say, but oh done.

SPEAKER_01: 7:15

So you just you just gotta watch out, you know. Like if you want to build a house, that's cool, but you're just gonna have the calm to that will be paying your rent, paying your mortgage while you're doing this.

SPEAKER_00: 7:26

Well, that's the thing, thing that I was gonna say is that the people that we work with who are building a house, and the difference between say building the the normal of the plan type house, and then you're adding all your changes, it's so much more expensive if you are once you start making changes to the house that you really want. So there is a couple of different tiers that you can do within building your own house.

SPEAKER_01: 7:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 7:53

And the other thing, just going back to what we were saying before, is if you are a first-home buyer, I don't think you need to be going into that with you buying your dream house at the beginning, like what you were saying. Because you you know it's a stepping stone, right? You just need to get the get into the market, make sure you buy buy a structurally sound house that you, as you say, is easy, that is going to be resellable in a in an okay area, and then you slowly move towards what you want uh as you get older and as you need to sort of change.

SPEAKER_01: 8:28

Yeah, absolutely. And remember there are also different rules apply. For instance, if you're buying your first home and if it's an existing property, we can get in with as little as five percent deposit. But if you're building, the deposit has to be at least 10 to 15 percent. So this is where you could also, you know, see do you want to buy right now, move in right now, or do you want to wait a little bit, but then the market might change with you.

SPEAKER_00: 8:52

Yeah, and then if you wait too long, you're uh you might need a bigger deposit, right? And how long is it gonna take you to save that extra deposit and house prices are moving?

SPEAKER_01: 9:00

Exactly. Awesome guys. Well, I hope this has been valuable to you. If you want us to cover anything else, let us know. But again, everyone's situation is different. This is not a financial advice, and we highly encourage you to reach out to us directly to run through your scenario and determine which option would suit you best. Until next time.