The big moment of owning your first home (Image: Getty Images).

PartnersMarch 4, 2019

Tips for buying your first home, from Spinoff staff who’ve been there

A bunch of people

The big moment of owning your first home (Image: Getty Images).

Buying your first home is confusing, stressful, and a huge financial decision – and nobody knows that better than those who have actually done it. Here’s The Spinoff’s advice, gleaned from sometimes brutal first-hand experience.

Buying a home is intimidating. Buying your first home can be terrifying. Once the adrenaline rush from bidding at the auction subsides revealing the burden of 30 years of debt, that exciting moment of owning your first home can leave you feeling like Atlas, a drafty four bedroom villa with renovation potential metaphorically sitting on your shoulders.

To help relieve some of that weight, The Spinoff has put together some tips from our personal experiences of buying your first home. This short guide provides some expert insight on who to talk to, what to look for, and what to do, to help you navigate this big moment.

Don’t take the max contract

When my wife and I first asked the bank to lend us money we were shocked at how much they were willing to give us. It was a huge amount. The hypothetical interest payments felt far beyond what we’d be able to cover, let alone making a dent in the principal. While the bank had effectively endorsed us to look for homes that were worth over a million dollars, the idea of being burdened with that amount of debt was overwhelming.

So as we explored potential options for our first home we rigidly set a budget well below what we could have borrowed. We weren’t comfortable degrading our current, still relatively modest lifestyle for the benefit of the future financial certainty of owning a home.

When we eventually found our little home in the Titirangi bush it was hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper than what we what we had permission to borrow. But as soon as we moved from renting to paying a mortgage we felt it. Paying back the bank for our new home was nearly double the weekly payment for our crumbling yet charming flat on Auckland’s historic Franklin Rd.

We had to make big budgeting changes to ensure we were could make our mortgage payments, prepare for potential rises in interest rates, and save some money for home maintenance. While we’ve managed to maintain a lifestyle we enjoy, it’s also required a lot more care and attention and fewer rounds of shots at 3am (which is relatively easy when you don’t live around the corner from Snatch (RIP) any more). But had I borrowed much more from the bank my ability to enjoy my life now would have been so thoroughly eroded I don’t think I could have enjoyed my home, despite its long term benefits.

My advice is don’t borrow the max. The stress of being leveraged to the hilt isn’t worth it. It will steal the joy of owning your own home, especially when you can’t afford to fix the leaky toilet.

Bonus open home tip: Always test the shower pressure. No matter how beautiful the home, a weak shower is not worth any discount.

– Simon Day

The stock image representation of a middle aged man with a maxed out mortgage (Image: Getty Images).

Gamify your mortgage

So you’ve shackled yourself to a bank for 30 years – here’s one small trick that will make it marginally more entertaining. I split my mortgage into four pieces, each one running on a different length fixed term. Having them rotating that way had multiple upsides. Firstly, it meant that I could take advantage of what was broadly a descending market for mortgage rates over the last 10 years by fixing more regularly. Secondly, if I came into some random chunk of money as a freelancer, I never had to wait long for a part of the mortgage to float, and thus be able to pay off a chunk without any penalty payments. The third part was the most fun (assuming you share my perverse definition of the word): browbeating your broker/banker.

Because we have a relatively diverse banking sector now, and one which is increasingly competitive in the mortgage sector, there was often some doorbuster rate being advertised. I remember when rates got below 6%, then 5%, now they’re below a shocking 4%. Each time you could use that rate as a stick to beat down the rate you’d pay.

Banks always have non-advertised rates they can use on a discretionary basis to keep customers from getting antsy – or looking too hard at a competitor. A few minutes on the phone a few times a year often produced savings of hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Calculating it in advance and making a game of it is one way of passing the time.

– Duncan Greive

Do the mahi

The number one thing I would recommend to anyone looking to purchase their first home is to do your own research. And by that I mainly mean around house prices in the area you’re looking to purchase.

I found myself at open homes asking the real estate agent how much money they think we’d need to be in running for a particular house, and was often given a number around 10-15% lower than it ended up going for. And the reason for that is to drive more traffic to auction night when people, especially first home buyers, get a bit excited and start bidding well above their means. Trust me, I did it, and I’m so thankful some else in the room was sillier than me.

If you request recent home sales in an area, real estate agents can provide that. So get it and use it. Look at what similar houses have recently sold for and benchmark the home you want against these numbers. They are, after all, cold hard facts.

The only thing that dictates what a house is worth is the market. So look at the market and trust this information more than anything or anyone else.

– Mark Kelliher

Suburban houses in Auckland (Photo: Getty Images).

Get close to an expert

Befriend a real estate agent and ask them all of your dumb questions. I was lucky enough to have a stepdad in the game and his knowledge of the whole process – what’s a LIM? What do I need lawyers for? How conditional is conditional? – was crazy helpful during a time when you’re getting yourself into huge amounts of debt and navigating a process that’s very foreign and somewhat terrifying. And if you don’t know someone in the game settled.govt.nz is a great, independent place to start when you’re trying to figure out what it all means.

– Kerryanne Nelson

Live the European lifestyle – buy an apartment

Apartments are a good option for first homeowners for a couple of reasons: they’re (usually) a bit cheaper and you don’t have all that pesky grown-up maintenance to deal with.

I wouldn’t jump into buying an apartment without having lived in one as a renter first – you want to make sure the lifestyle suits you. It might be stating the obvious, but if you need a sprawling backyard and are easily irritated by neighbour noise, it’s probably not for you.

The hunt can feel a little overwhelming at first, especially if you’re in Auckland where there seem to be endless apartments to choose from. After looking at a few duds you’ll soon realise what you’re after, however, and be able to separate the wheat from the chaff when you’re trawling through TradeMe.

The apartment buildings at Gleisdreieck park (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images).

So, things to remember: when checking out an apartment, use the compass on your phone to work out where the sun will be at each time of the day. Sun is really important, especially in the late afternoon. Don’t rely on what the real estate agent says – they’re working for the vendor, not for you.

Don’t get panicked into making an offer. Always get a building report or inspection done first, even if it’s just someone you know who has building knowledge. You don’t want to end up buying a leaky home, and one of the checks they do is moisture levels in walls and ceilings. Before you put in your offer, get a lawyer to have a look at the offer documents, or at the very least, insist on a clause that says ‘subject to lawyer’s advice or approval’.

Obviously, you’ll need to know if you can afford the property you’re looking at. Check out mortgage interest rates and when you do your sums, add a couple of percentage points to the current rate to see if you’d be able to afford that.

You’ll also have to factor in rates, of course, and with apartments, there’s the added cost of body corp fees, which cover insuring the building, maintaining the common areas, yada yada. So it’s important to factor those in when you’re looking. The more bells and whistles the building has – everything from lifts to gardens to pools and gyms – the more you’ll pay. Before you buy, it’s worth getting hold of the body corp minutes and find out what’s in the maintenance fund. Might there be a big maintenance bill looming?

– Alice Neville

This content was created in paid partnership with Settled.govt.nz. Learn more about our partnerships here.

Keep going!

Dame June Jackson with her mokopuna Te Aria Jackson (left) and Te Waiora Iti (right). Image: supplied

ĀteaFebruary 28, 2019

The incredible legacy of Dame June Jackson

Teuila Fuatai

Contributing writer

Dame June Jackson with her mokopuna Te Aria Jackson (left) and Te Waiora Iti (right). Image: supplied

For decades she stood up for urban Māori and provided services to a community that was often overlooked. Close friends and family celebrate the life of Dame Temuranga “June” Batley-Jackson.

A lot is made of understanding the Treaty of Waitangi as a living document.

The Waitangi Tribunal explains the concept by outlining how Te Tiriti ‘speaks’ to Māori. Put simply, it says that the principles of Te Tiriti should be applied so that all Māori – whether they exist in 1840 or in 2019 – understand and recognise the role and contribution it has in their lives.

Broad as that may be, Treaty claims and settlements stem from that understanding. But, as we’ve seen over the years, interpretation of that concept, and the resulting claim outcomes, differ vastly between cases.

So what happens when someone stands up and points out that the system, which is designed to redress Treaty grievances, glosses over the needs of a significant number of Māori?

As Dame Temuranga “June” Batley-Jackson (Ngāti Maniapoto) found, someone was going to have to carve out a space for those like her, who moved away from their ancestral rohe and into cities, and challenge for funding and resources. And it may as well be her.

Born Temuranga Batley to King Country farmers Huinga and Barney in 1939, Dame June (the name she was given by teachers who couldn’t pronounce Temuranga) grew up in Mahoenui, near Te Kuiti. She went on to attend high school at Hukarere College and moved to Wellington in her late teens for work. It was there she met her beloved husband Bob Jackson, a wharfie of Ngāti Porou descent. The couple, both strong community leaders and ardent advocates for the rights of urban Māori, had three children, including MP and broadcaster Willie Jackson. In 1971, they moved their family north from Porirua to Māngere, South Auckland for Bob’s job, and it was there that the movement for the rights of urban Māori really took off.

Willie Jackson says his mother was an agitator at a time when Māori women were not in many leadership roles. “Mum, I think, was very special because she laid down a lot of challenges, particularly at a time when men were so dominant. She put challenges out to the [Sir Robert] Mahutas and [Sir Tipene] O’Regans in the ‘80s and’ 90s in terms of Māori in the cities. She asked about rights for Māori who had lost their way in the city, who had not reconnected back up with their iwi or their tribes. What rights did they have?’”

Dame June Jackson with her son, Labour MP and broadcaster Willie Jackson. Image: supplied

Those questions were a practical necessity, borne out of the work Dame June did in her South Auckland community. From her early working days as a cleaner, to her role as the longest-serving member of the Parole Board, Dame June’s CV covered an array of jobs over the years. Some of her lesser known roles include her work with disabled children, time as head of a security firm, a stint as a store detective and work with domestic abuse victims.

Waipareira Trust executive John Tamihere, who first came across Dame June as a student at the University of Auckland, says her “no-nonsense” approach was evident even then.

“I used to be one of the key executives in the Auckland University Student Association… back in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. I first came across her when she was running her own security firm. She used to provide security for all our functions,” he says.

“Even then, she was quite a formidable person. She was actually quite fearless and I think that’s a fair look at the type of no-nonsense approach June took to things, and about how she holds her space. I then came to know her more because I operated in the West and she was in the South.”

As Dame June and Bob worked towards improving life for their South Auckland community, her various roles and life experiences proved invaluable in organising and negotiating for better access to essential services. Honing in on initiatives that tackled poor education, health and employment, the couple, alongside other urban Māori leaders in Auckland, formed the Manukau Urban Māori Authority (MUMA) in 1986. They also acquired a space in Māngere for Ngā Whare Waatea marae, a place for urban Māori to feel welcome.

“We were looking after Māori in terms of how they looked after their families, their reconnection with their kaumātua and their health and housing,” says Willie.

“We took over those roles in South and West Auckland through MUMA and Waipareira [Trust] with no tribal funding. We’d have to get our own funding through the government, and find our own ways to support our people. The call for support for the rights of urban Māori grew stronger because here we were doing all the work, and the only people who were getting settlements were the tribes.”

The whare nui at Ngā Whare Waatea marae in Māngere. Image: Radio Waatea

In the two decades Dame June headed MUMA, she grew the organisation to become the major Māori agency in South Auckland. She oversaw the creation of a gymnasium, a credit union, a driving school, a funeral home, a food bank and a kohānga reo. The authority’s work was also recognised at a central government level, through its procurement of major government contracts in the health, restorative justice and social service areas. MUMA’s marae-based reintegration programme for whānau recently released from prison was particularly well-regarded.

As Willie recalls, his mother’s belief in rehabilitation and redemption brought a whole new meaning to ‘welcome’ at Ngā Whare Waatea marae.

“She’s right into rehab and restorative justice. She’s always believed in redemption and being able to give people a second chance. All the different crims who came out of Paremoremo, the heavyweight ones, Mum had quite a bit to do with.

“We admired her for that, although we weren’t that admiring of some of the criminals who turned up at the marae,” he says with a chuckle.

Dame Temuranga (June) Batley-Jackson receives the Insignia of a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit from then-Governor General Rt Hon Sir Anand Satyanand. Image: gg.govt.nz

As close friend Dame Naida Glavish puts it: “June’s generosity often met no bounds.”

“She would help anyone out. She wouldn’t be backwards in coming forwards to growl somebody, but then she’d still help them out. She had no tolerance at all for anyone that wasn’t pono, no time for anyone that didn’t show integrity.”

“I remember her as a keynote speaker,” she laughs. “She was so honest and forthright, you’d have to be careful about the subject you asked her to speak on and who might be in the room.”

Naida met Bob and Dame June when they sat on the Auckland District Māori Council together under the leadership of Pat Hohepa, and later Dr. Ranginui Walker.

“We met in our concern collectively about justice for Māori, education for Māori, about health for Māori, about housing for Māori. All these issues that are being talked about today, we talked about it then.”

Dame June’s evolution as a leader saw her spearhead the challenge on behalf of urban Māori for a fairer share of the Crown’s fisheries settlement. Years of litigation continued to the Privy Council in London. She was eventually appointed a Waitangi Fisheries commissioner and chair of the Te Putea Whakatupu Trust when it was formed in 2004. Te Putea is responsible for administering the $20 million fund set up specifically for urban Māori under the fisheries settlement. Six years later, in 2010 she received her damehood for services to Māori. She told the NZ Herald at the time:

“It’s no secret the tribes are the tribes and they think they’re entitled to everything. So the tribaltanga [iwi] purists and me will always have some differences but amicable ones.”

Willie, in reflecting on his mother’s life, touches on the state of affairs for urban Māori today.

“We still haven’t got a settlement for Māori in the city, but we’ve got a lot of recognition through her initial fight, and through the years we’ve got things… we’ve got our own radio station, we’ve got our own recognition in terms of social welfare where they’ve said Māori in the cities cannot be prejudiced anymore.

“I think she was always disappointed that urban Māori didn’t get enough recognition. We’d come up with all the reasons why we deserved rights [with iwi leaders]. They would agree with it and when it came to the crunch, they’d never concede. It was always totally frustrating.

“But she always managed it well. She’d just say: ‘Never mind son, just keep at it. Keep at it’.”

This content was created in paid partnership with the National Urban Māori Authority. Learn more about our partnerships here.