Latest / Making Cents / Biggest Mortgage Myths: What Banks Are Actually Checking In 2026 (It's Changed)

Transcript

Biggest Mortgage Myths: What Banks Are Actually Checking In 2026 (It's Changed) · Making Cents

• 0:00
  If there's one thing that drives me crazy, it's the myths that stop people before they've even started.
• 0:06
  And there are so many when it comes to buying a home, and especially your first home.
• 0:12
  So today we're busting them.
• 0:14
  Rules that expired years ago, rules that never existed in the first place, and then the gray areas where it's kind of true, but actually with the right strategy, you can get around it.
• 0:25
  And all of this can mean you're so much closer to buying a home than you thought.
• 0:31
  Claire Williamson is the director of my mortgage and the 2025 Regional Mortgage Advisor of the Year because she likes to make life hard for herself and rise to the occasion.
• 0:41
  She also specializes in helping people who thought they simply weren't going to be in the home buying game.
• 0:48
  Sometimes you can go from a $5,000 credit card to an extra $50,000 of.
• 0:52
  Borrowing because sometimes you.
• 0:54
  You think you've run the numbers, but it's based on old rules, not the new ones.
• 0:58
  Having to have a 20% deposit.
• 1:00
  It's absolutely not true anymore.
• 1:02
  There are so many different ways that you can buy your first home.
• 1:05
  So.
• 1:05
  Welcome to Making Sense.
• 1:06
  It's the podcast for people who want financial freedom without giving up their coffee.
• 1:10
  I'm Frances Cook, a financial journalist and fellow financial freedom seeker who makes money simple for you today.
• 1:17
  First home buying, maths flustered.
• 1:20
  This episode of Making Sense is brought to you in partnership with Odoo, the all in one business management platform that brings everything you need to run your business into one place, fully integrated and actually affordable.
• 1:33
  Go to odoo.com that's o-o.com for more.
• 1:37
  I want to help as many people as possible reach financial freedom by taking control of their money.
• 1:42
  And you can help me in that mission two really easy ways.
• 1:46
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• 1:49
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• 1:53
  Then send this episode to a friend so we can all level up our money together.
• 1:57
  Then the show grows and I can keep giving you the money info that makes a difference to your life.
• 2:03
  Welcome in, Claire.
• 2:04
  So nice to have you back on.
• 2:05
  Been far too long.
• 2:07
  Look, you are someone who loves a challenge in life, so you have made it your specialty to help people into homes when they might otherwise have a little bit of a tough time getting over the line.
• 2:18
  Which means you have some very interesting conversations with people, I think.
• 2:21
  Do you see people have a lot of myths that they've got in their heads that end up holding them back?
• 2:27
  I think I get to have the most amazing conversations.
• 2:29
  Cause quite often I actually get to tell people that they can do what they maybe didn't think they could.
• 2:34
  So I think that's really exciting.
• 2:36
  Yes, there are a lot of myths out there, I think.
• 2:39
  Cause we're so overloaded with information, right?
• 2:41
  And you never know what information is true.
• 2:43
  People maybe hear something and they latch on.
• 2:46
  They're like, oh no, I can't do that.
• 2:47
  So I think the biggest myth in mortgage first home buying is having to have a 20% deposit.
• 2:54
  It's something that's been perpetuated forever.
• 2:56
  It's absolutely not true anymore.
• 2:57
  There are so many different ways that you can buy your first home.
• 3:00
  And deposits can be kind of anything from 5%, depending a little bit on your situation.
• 3:05
  So I think we're going to get into that later.
• 3:07
  I think the second one is that you have to have like this perfect two income situation and you know, you're buying the house with the white picket fence.
• 3:16
  There's so many different scenarios now you can buy.
• 3:20
  And often we even see siblings, parents and children, family, even friends buy together.
• 3:26
  So I think that's a really cool one to think a little bit more about.
• 3:31
  And then there's other ones around buying too many coffees or having a Netflix subscription.
• 3:35
  And how banks are sort of combing bank statements for definitely a wee while.
• 3:41
  But these days it's definitely a lot more relaxed and probably just a little bit more practical than it used to be.
• 3:46
  So I think those are probably the biggest myths that we see out there, particularly for people with first homes.
• 3:52
  And I think they're really strong ones.
• 3:53
  I see those in the comments all the time as well.
• 3:56
  And I think it's this mix, right?
• 3:58
  It's not necessarily that people are thinking silly things.
• 4:01
  It's something that might have worked for someone, you know, and just because it's worked for them doesn't mean that's the only way that it can be done.
• 4:09
  And then things that were true and not true anymore, what you mentioned there about the 20% deposit, I think is really important.
• 4:16
  Let's hook into that.
• 4:18
  Because if you think about the amount you need, say someone's in Auckland and they're needing that sort of 800 to $900,000 first home.
• 4:27
  That's a lot of money saving up that deposit.
• 4:29
  And you're thinking 20%.
• 4:32
  So much money, get it down to 5%, it's a quarter of the amount saved.
• 4:36
  So that's heaps.
• 4:37
  How does that all work?
• 4:39
  If you're thinking saving up that deposit is going to Be hard for me.
• 4:42
  What are your actual options?
• 4:44
  The 5% deposit is kind of the starting point.
• 4:46
  So that is what's available under the Kanger order first home loan and that's got some specific requirements.
• 4:52
  So probably the two big ones is the income requirements.
• 4:56
  So that's $150,000 joint income for a couple of and $95,000 income for a single person.
• 5:03
  There are a couple of other situations too there, but those are the main ones.
• 5:07
  And then obviously that you have to be a New Zealand citizen, that you're buying in New Zealand and that you're going to live in the property.
• 5:13
  So that's a key one.
• 5:14
  The Khanga Auto first Home loan is awesome.
• 5:16
  There is quite a bit of information required, so be prepared for that paperwork.
• 5:21
  Yeah.
• 5:22
  Yes.
• 5:22
  But hey, I promise it is worth it.
• 5:25
  And I think that key thing is it often makes a huge difference going from a 5% to a 10% deposit.
• 5:31
  So if you are eligible for Kaia Ora and that's essentially a loan which is underwritten by the government.
• 5:37
  So it means that banks don't have to delve into their standard high LVR or low deposit lending, which is great because it just gives a lot more opportunity for a lot more people to do that.
• 5:49
  There is also one particular requirement too around what they call a lender's mortgage insurance fee, which has increased in the last 12 months.
• 5:57
  So that went from used to be 0.5 and now it's 1.2%.
• 6:01
  But that can be capitalised to your loan.
• 6:04
  So that's quite good.
• 6:05
  Means you don't have to come up with that extra cash.
• 6:08
  And usually most banks as well will actually give you pretty preferable rates.
• 6:14
  So you're normally gonna get similar rates to what you'd have with a standard 20% deposit or more, which is awesome.
• 6:21
  So that keeps the cost of your repayment down over time, which is great.
• 6:26
  But outside of the first home loan, there are a couple of other options.
• 6:29
  So every bank has the ability to lend up to 25% of their lending to people with less than a 20% deposit.
• 6:37
  Now that sounds a bit confusing, but basically it means that they've got the ability to lend to people.
• 6:42
  And actually as of a couple of weeks ago, I did some research on this, they haven't used their whole allocation.
• 6:48
  So it means there's still plenty there.
• 6:50
  So if it is you and you maybe don't meet the first home loan criteria, then there are still plenty of options out there.
• 6:56
  For paper was less than 20% or from 10% deposit right.
• 7:01
  So basically, 20% deposit might be the standard, but banks are allowed to say, okay, this.
• 7:07
  Many of your customers can be lower deposit.
• 7:10
  And they basically correct me if I'm wrong here, that's basically because if you're a low deposit, you are considered higher risk.
• 7:15
  We want to make sure our financial system is stable.
• 7:17
  So they say you can have a certain amount, but right now, actually, they're not even using that.
• 7:20
  So the banks might be friendlier than you think.
• 7:23
  Yep, absolutely.
• 7:24
  And we are often getting multiple options for people with llama deposits too.
• 7:28
  So that's really cool.
• 7:30
  There's a lot of people who say, oh, you know, my bank isn't doing this at the moment.
• 7:35
  And that's okay, because if you speak to an advisor, you'll be able to get all of the options.
• 7:39
  And sometimes one particular bank might be slightly more friendly to particular borrowers, and that's all just down to appetite.
• 7:46
  So you're right, it's higher risk to lend with a lower deposit.
• 7:50
  And I guess, too, if we reflect on where the property market's gone in the last couple of years, that's why, you know, we don't want to be eating into our equity too far.
• 7:58
  So they want to make sure that everything is protected in that respect.
• 8:00
  So it is, I suppose, while it's sometimes a little bit challenging for borrowers, it's also there for financial stability, as you say.
• 8:08
  Yeah.
• 8:08
  And because I see this frustration around all the time where people will send me messages saying, I am paying a really high rent.
• 8:15
  I've run the numbers.
• 8:16
  Mortgage would actually be lower.
• 8:17
  Of course I can afford to pay this.
• 8:19
  I'm just paying such a high rent, I can't save up this deposit.
• 8:23
  And I guess this is sort of one of those systems where you get around that frustration, right?
• 8:27
  Absolutely.
• 8:28
  And I think a lot of people are more surprised than not when it comes to looking at what that affordability looks like.
• 8:35
  And I think we've been in a bit of a sweet spot as well with interest rates in the last probably 12 or 18 months as interest rates came down.
• 8:43
  And then people could actually lock in for a reasonable period of time.
• 8:46
  So two years at, like, a pretty reasonable rate.
• 8:49
  So that's also getting people in, and then it's not over committing them in terms of how much they need to pay week to week.
• 8:55
  So I think it's important to consider all of those things.
• 8:57
  But like you say, if you're paying rent that's very similar, then it kind of makes sense.
• 9:02
  And I suppose there's just something Quite special about owning your own home.
• 9:06
  And we know that often we don't get to buy our dream homes upfront.
• 9:11
  My first home was a very, very modest but quite large, very dirty home in Hamilton.
• 9:18
  Yeah.
• 9:19
  And we only just scraped together the deposit for that.
• 9:22
  So I think I have a very fondness in my heart for first home buyers who are like, oh, maybe we can do this, maybe we can't.
• 9:29
  But actually also just having the understanding of what lever there is to pull.
• 9:33
  Because sometimes it's not only about income, it might be about debt, it might be about deposit, it might be about some of those expenses.
• 9:42
  And so often we can go, hey, this is the particular thing for you and it's different for everyone.
• 9:47
  I love that when you're saying about your first home, large and dirty.
• 9:51
  I know it sounds silly, doesn't it?
• 9:53
  But they didn't clean it.
• 9:54
  So we moved in and we spent the entire evening like till midnight cleaning this house and I was just so proud.
• 10:03
  That's so funny.
• 10:04
  Your enduring memory.
• 10:05
  Yeah, I know.
• 10:06
  My first home was our real estate agent.
• 10:09
  When we then moved on later he came in and said, ah yes, this is a Marmite house.
• 10:13
  Some people will love it, some people will hate it.
• 10:15
  Okay, I've never heard of that.
• 10:18
  That's a good one.
• 10:19
  He was like, all we need is two people to absolutely love it and to fight over it.
• 10:24
  Exactly.
• 10:25
  He was right.
• 10:25
  And he managed that.
• 10:26
  So good man.
• 10:28
  But yeah, that first home is often sort of what you can get.
• 10:32
  Right.
• 10:33
  Do you have a particular type of property that you think often works people?
• 10:39
  Because I mean there's, there's some different things can help.
• 10:42
  Right.
• 10:42
  Even if you're thinking new builds versus an existing house that can change the mortgage lending or there can be different options that keep it at a bit lower price.
• 10:52
  So do you have certain types of properties that you think people should look at more often?
• 10:56
  First of all, there's one other exemption in the lower deposit space.
• 11:00
  So when you buy a new build there are exemptions around deposit as well.
• 11:04
  So if you are kind of interested in that and I've got a couple of clients doing it at the moment in Auckland, then that actually is also an exemption.
• 11:11
  So it means that banks don't have to dip into that funding that we talked about earlier so that there's more availability of funding in that space so.
• 11:17
  That ends up feeling cheaper.
• 11:19
  It's not necessarily cheaper, but you get a brand new, well insulated house, lower deposit.
• 11:23
  Exactly.
• 11:24
  So let's say hopefully those heating bills are a little bit cheaper.
• 11:26
  As well.
• 11:28
  So it depends a little bit on the situation.
• 11:30
  But I often say if people are quite happy to do a little bit of work, you know, renovating, that kind of thing, then maybe not a complete overhaul, but something which could be touched up a little bit.
• 11:42
  So I'm talking cosmetic things, a lick of paint, carpet, maybe changing some handles or something on a kitchen, you know, tidying up outside.
• 11:51
  Those are all things that I did with my first home and they added value.
• 11:54
  When you're in that lower deposit space, adding value is important.
• 11:57
  That's what's going to reduce your interest rate over time.
• 12:00
  So I often recommend that type of house for someone who is wanting to do that and get back to that 20% equity space.
• 12:07
  Overall though, the other key thing, if you have a lower deposit, you're generally going to need a registered valuation.
• 12:13
  And if you have significant maintenance challenges, things like roofs needing replaced, lots of moisture, that sort of thing, that's when you're going to need to find the funds to do that.
• 12:23
  And it's a little bit challenging to find those funds if you don't have much to begin with.
• 12:28
  So.
• 12:29
  Yeah, so that's why often first home buyers go to that new build or they go to a renovated home.
• 12:34
  I would say it depends a little bit on your skills and capabilities.
• 12:37
  For example, myself, I mean, I am not bad with lick of paint, but I'm definitely not a builder.
• 12:42
  So if you do have those skills, that's great.
• 12:45
  But if you don't, then, you know, finding something that is actually going to sort of set you up for the first three to five years is always a good thing.
• 12:53
  Yeah, And I do think it's.
• 12:54
  It's sort of looking at least that sort of medium term.
• 12:56
  Right.
• 12:56
  It doesn't have to be a forever home.
• 12:58
  You don't want to be buying and selling too often because you'll lose money to like real estate agent fees and things like that.
• 13:03
  But that three to five years, I think that's a very good ballpark people to think about before we move on to the singleton issue, because I think that's a really big one.
• 13:12
  But on the low deposit front, there can be some things to be aware of.
• 13:16
  Right.
• 13:16
  You might have a slightly higher interest rate.
• 13:18
  You mentioned the insurance.
• 13:20
  So sort of once you get in on that low deposit, is it one of those things where you try to focus on paying down as much as you can so that you inch up that percentage and can renegotiate
• 13:30
  the mortgage?
• 13:30
  Yeah, totally.
• 13:31
  So let's say you come in with a 10% deposit.
• 13:33
  So your standard lower deposit lending or high LVL lending.
• 13:38
  So, yep, you're wanting to be adding value.
• 13:40
  So often I say to people, is there something that can add more value if you do it versus paying that amount off your mortgage?
• 13:46
  So let's say you've got 10 grand, Cole, you could either pay that off your mortgage and reduce your lending accordingly, or could you go and put that 10 grand into something else that's going to add more value than
• 13:57
  it would in terms of that equity growth and therefore renegotiation of interest rates.
• 14:02
  So generally, let's say you start at 10% getting to 15% equity.
• 14:06
  That's one kind of hurdle, I guess, to get over and then getting to 20% from there.
• 14:12
  So most banks, not all, but most banks have some sort of kind of differing interest rate opportunity when it comes to 15% equity or 85% lending and then back at 80% again.
• 14:24
  So yes, that would be my advice to try and like reduce it down depending again on your situation and your skill set.
• 14:32
  So for example, if you're a doctor or you're a salesperson who can earn more and say bonuses or doing higher hours, et cetera, then potentially that might be the best way for you.
• 14:44
  But if you're a builder or you're a plumber and you've got some mates and you can come around and have a weekend of improving, then that might be the best way for you.
• 14:52
  So it just depends a little bit on the situation.
• 14:54
  Smart.
• 14:54
  And then you just get a new valuation and the bank would say, okay, it's worth this much.
• 14:59
  And I think what people don't necessarily realize is if it gets then revalued, that difference gets added onto your equity, the amount that you own.
• 15:06
  Because the amount you owe to the bank doesn't change.
• 15:09
  So it just tips the numbers in your favor.
• 15:12
  You've made the house worth more, that's tipped in your favor.
• 15:15
  And so therefore you've just increased the percentage of house you own without putting any money into it.
• 15:21
  Yes, exactly.
• 15:21
  And there are kind of a couple of ways that you can reduce that margin too.
• 15:24
  So one I did for some clients about three months ago was actually just a particular type of online valuation.
• 15:32
  So talk to an advisor or sometimes the bank will also have access to it where you can kind of like relatively cheaply get that report which confirms the value.
• 15:42
  And sometimes that can be enough and it might only cost you $50, whereas a full registered valuation is generally a lot more expensive than that.
• 15:51
  And so getting an updated one then You've got to look at, okay, pros and cons, how much am I going to save versus how much would I spend?
• 15:57
  So always look at that kind of online valuation first.
• 16:00
  Ask your bank what they use.
• 16:02
  Ask your advisor what the bank uses.
• 16:04
  For these clients, we could take that margin off and it saved them.
• 16:07
  I think it was like $150 a week or something.
• 16:09
  It was quite a lot, so makes a huge difference.
• 16:12
  Yeah, that's so good.
• 16:13
  Okay, brilliant hack there.
• 16:15
  For the people who are single, Pringles, we love them.
• 16:20
  I've had this as well where people have messaged me and said, look, I'm just a single income single, like trying to save up the deposit, single paying off the mortgage.
• 16:29
  If I get approved, it just feels impossible on one person's numbers rather than having two people saving that deposit, two people paying it off.
• 16:39
  Yeah, I see how that feels frustrating.
• 16:42
  Is it impossible?
• 16:44
  Absolutely not.
• 16:44
  It is not impossible.
• 16:46
  Key things is just getting a bit of an assessment of where you're at at the moment.
• 16:50
  So income is important, deposit is important.
• 16:53
  And then probably the other thing would be, are you looking to have flatmates or boarders living with you that can bump up your borrowing percentage quite a lot?
• 17:01
  The other thing is just having a little bit of a play around with any existing financial commitments.
• 17:06
  So, for example, and I've heard you talk about this a lot, you know, let's say you've got a $5,000 credit card.
• 17:11
  Obviously when you've got one income, income is important.
• 17:14
  So serviceability becomes a little bit tighter.
• 17:17
  So the impact of that one credit card might have a larger impact than it would if you were on two income.
• 17:22
  So that's a really key one.
• 17:24
  But I think even under Kai and on a first home loan, under $95,000 of personal income, you're eligible.
• 17:31
  So we had someone in Hamilton recently who purchased round about that income, maybe a little bit less.
• 17:37
  Two borders.
• 17:37
  And she bought a beautiful little home just in the centre of town.
• 17:42
  And so it was like a really perfect result.
• 17:44
  And she didn't think she was gonna get there.
• 17:45
  The other thing I think with single borrowers is every bank is different.
• 17:50
  So with that particular person we had ranges from about 600,000 to 750,000 overall purchase price, depending on lending across all of those banks.
• 18:02
  So it can actually vary quite a lot.
• 18:04
  The other thing I'm actually seeing quite a bit of, if people have a reasonable deposit but maybe not enough for a large centre, they're actually starting to think, well, maybe I go to a regional centre.
• 18:15
  Either if their deposit allows, they might be able to rent vest or if their commuting allows, they might be able to purchase and work from home.
• 18:24
  So I've actually had quite a few recently, say from Auckland, for example, go to Whangarei or to Thames because it's actually a reasonable commute.
• 18:32
  I mean, I came here this morning, so I think that's a lot more common and people just thinking a little bit out of the box in that respect.
• 18:42
  And you know, I often talk to people who are maybe a little bit frightened to do it on their own, but they're in a great position and they maybe look at all of the challenges and not those positives
• 18:53
  of, hey, I can actually do whatever I want.
• 18:55
  You know, I can buy a home and I can paint the wall pink if I want, I can get a dog.
• 19:01
  You know, there's all of these really cool things that mean that you have ultimate control.
• 19:05
  And so, yeah, I mean, I think for everyone, anyone who is looking at it, just see what you can do and then go from there and make the decision.
• 19:14
  Yeah, I feel like this is an enduring theme across the podcast, especially this year, but the shop around, you know what you're saying there about the huge variation between banks and that's the big one because I'll have people
• 19:27
  ask me, you know, should I just go straight to my bank or should I work with an advisor?
• 19:31
  And sure, sometimes you will do well going straight to a bank.
• 19:33
  But I always think if someone's in a tricky position, they're not sure how they're going to get over the line.
• 19:37
  Going to an advisor, being able to shop around and being able to know what's happening between the banks right now because they do have different amounts of different types of borrowers on their books.
• 19:47
  I've already talked about how that's important.
• 19:49
  Different rules, different way they apply the rules.
• 19:51
  And so like you said, that's a huge difference between banks that you just laid out there.
• 19:55
  Being able to shop around and be like, what have I got?
• 19:58
  That changes your purchasing power enormously, doesn't it?
• 20:00
  Yeah.
• 20:00
  And often it can put you into a different bracket of type of home too.
• 20:05
  So I had another person recently where that she actually bought a four bedroom home and she could virtually pay the mortgage with her flatmate income.
• 20:17
  So that made a huge difference to her.
• 20:18
  But if she was the next echelon down, she may not have been able to buy a four bedroom home.
• 20:24
  So it just depends a little bit on the situation, on the location as well.
• 20:27
  Banks prioritise different Types of lending at different times.
• 20:31
  Some banks are slightly better for say salary plus bonus income or self employed income or sometimes they're better with overtime.
• 20:41
  So it just depends.
• 20:42
  I think there's a lot of variation these days in how we actually earn our money.
• 20:47
  And one other thing I wanted to mention cause I think it's relevant.
• 20:50
  One of my property investors, he had a side hustle where he made about, I think it was about 15 to 20,000 a year, which doesn't sound like a lot.
• 20:59
  That sounds good to me.
• 21:00
  Yeah, but it doesn't sound like a lot in terms of overall yearly income.
• 21:04
  And it made the massivest difference for him in getting into his property investing journey.
• 21:10
  And I think we should never discount that because I think, yep, you might have your income where you earn every day, but if you can actually create some more income on the side and it's consistent and the bank
• 21:24
  can see it, then they will use that income.
• 21:28
  And so it's just about getting that fit.
• 21:30
  Right.
• 21:31
  And if you can use your skills in another way then I encourage you to especially cause I'm also a business enthusiast.
• 21:37
  But you know, it's all really positive for borrowing as well.
• 21:41
  Yeah, I think people underestimate as well.
• 21:43
  So much of the mortgage and home buying world is based on percentages.
• 21:48
  So even if you're bringing in like you say that 15 to 20k and you might be thinking, ah, what's the point?
• 21:54
  You know that that's not going to get me over the line.
• 21:56
  But if that can be applied to something else that's built on the percentage scale.
• 22:00
  It was like how you were talking earlier as well about you know, a credit card with a limit of $5,000 that can impact your amount that you'll get approved for by far more than that $5,000.
• 22:11
  Because it's all working on percentages.
• 22:12
  Everything scales up quite quickly in this.
• 22:15
  So it can work against you on the debt front, it can work for you on the income front, right?
• 22:20
  Yep.
• 22:21
  Sometimes you can go from a $5,000 credit card to an extra $50,000 of borrowing and that's massive.
• 22:27
  Right.
• 22:27
  So it makes a huge difference.
• 22:28
  There have even been situations where people have considered repaying student loans because that percentage increase was so much more.
• 22:37
  And yes, we have to make an educated decision on whether or not we want to pay off interest free debt, take on other debt.
• 22:43
  And that's just a decision that you need to make.
• 22:45
  I made that decision myself when I bought my ex husband out of our home in 2019 and that set me up for A lot of things that I've been able to do since then.
• 22:55
  So it's all about options, I think.
• 22:58
  And then it's all about, we call it in our business levers.
• 23:01
  What levers have you got to pull?
• 23:02
  Is it an income lever?
• 23:03
  Is it a deposit lever?
• 23:05
  So is it a debt lever?
• 23:07
  Are there some other things that we can do to kind of add a bit of value here?
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• 24:47
  All right, back to it.
• 24:49
  Well, speaking of the income lever there, you mentioned a flatmate or a boarder before, which is a huge hack, which I only actually really thought about properly when I was talking to you quite a while ago.
• 24:59
  And at that time I think you said one flatmate could sometimes equal $100,000 more in lending that you could get from the bank.
• 25:08
  Would it still be about that?
• 25:09
  Yeah, probably still about that.
• 25:11
  Maybe a little bit less.
• 25:12
  I think now servicing may have increased a little bit, but.
• 25:16
  But it would be around about that.
• 25:18
  So it makes a huge difference.
• 25:19
  So the person I was referring to before who bought the four bedroom home, effectively we were able to use I think about 6 to $700 of income a week for her.
• 25:30
  So every bank again has a slightly different amount that they'll accept.
• 25:34
  So therefore it impacts borrowing slightly differently.
• 25:36
  But yeah, absolutely, there's a huge, huge gain there.
• 25:39
  Even sometimes with families, they're quite happy to have a friend or a family member move in.
• 25:45
  And now these days we often see parents or aunties and uncles or cousins come and live with people and that actually makes a whole lot of sense for everyone.
• 25:55
  So we see that a lot like probably every second person we're having that conversation with.
• 26:01
  Cause it adds so much value.
• 26:03
  Wow.
• 26:04
  What about in terms of actually buying in with someone who isn't a partner?
• 26:10
  So again, probably talking parents or sometimes siblings hear a lot about that.
• 26:15
  Or friends.
• 26:15
  If you really trust your friend, how common is that buying in with someone else and what do you need to do to make sure you get it right?
• 26:22
  I actually think it's not common enough because I think people are really scared of it.
• 26:28
  They get put off by, oh, you know, don't buy the family or don't buy the friends because they're not family.
• 26:33
  And you know.
• 26:34
  But then I actually don't think it's that much different to buying with a partner.
• 26:37
  You know, like you could break up at some point, it's no different.
• 26:42
  So I think the principles are the same.
• 26:44
  Going in on a property with anyone needs a good agreement around what everyone's responsible for.
• 26:50
  Ideally you're 50, 50 on your deposit.
• 26:53
  Sometimes it doesn't quite work out that way, but at least you have agreement on what people have put in and then probably more importantly how you're going to deal with it on the other side.
• 27:02
  So often if it's a friend or if it's a sibling, I usually say go for like a three year time period.
• 27:08
  That's a nice reasonably stable time period, but it's not gonna lock you in forever and then just say after that three years there might be like a right of renewal effectively where you go, okay, hey, we're happy, let's
• 27:20
  keep going.
• 27:21
  So I think the key things is agreement on how much deposit everyone's putting in, agreement on how you're gonna deal with the expenses.
• 27:28
  So generally we'd recommend having like a house account where you each put in a certain amount every week.
• 27:33
  If you have a third flatmate, then you might then have their income or the rent coming in going into that account, et cetera, as well.
• 27:41
  So things like rates and insurance and maintenance, put some funds aside for that.
• 27:45
  Generally, if you're not a couple in a romantic relationship, you'd have some sort of property sharing agreement which is a legal document.
• 27:53
  So talk to a solicitor or a lawyer about that and that just lays out what everyone's agreed.
• 27:58
  Now I've seen this work many, many times and in the situations where it hasn't worked, there hasn't been that agreement.
• 28:07
  So having that in place as a fallback position is really important.
• 28:11
  And then also just making sure that that person is in alignment with your values.
• 28:16
  So you know, if you're a saver and they're a spender, that's often a bit of a challenge if you're not in a romantic relationship.
• 28:22
  So trying to kind of get along.
• 28:23
  Why do savers and spenders always end up in friendships or in relationships?
• 28:27
  I don't know.
• 28:30
  But yeah, just to reasonable agreement on what everyone's responsible for.
• 28:33
  With parents it can be a little bit different and I get asked questions around this a lot.
• 28:38
  So generally with parents I always ask the parents, what's in it for you?
• 28:42
  Are you trying to get capital gain here?
• 28:45
  Are you wanting this to be like a rental investment of some kind?
• 28:49
  Do you understand the impact of what that might do for your own borrowing?
• 28:53
  Or are you just wanting to help your child out?
• 28:55
  Cause a lot of people want to jointly own property when actually they could gift or loan some funds and that would be a better result for everyone.
• 29:03
  Often you can leverage the equity in a parent's home, especially if they are working and they're earning and they can afford to service that additional lending.
• 29:14
  Quite a few banks have kind of like part guarantees.
• 29:18
  So that's essentially like where let's say you're $50,000 short on deposit, say to get to 20% for example, then there's a portion of equity that's guaranteed by the parent's property.
• 29:30
  So every bank has a variation of that.
• 29:33
  And you just have to make sure that the solicitor looks over that and makes sure that they're really happy with it.
• 29:39
  Because obviously you know, the parents home is held as security and that's important to get what is required for them as well in their own journey.
• 29:47
  We have started to call it co ownership because there's like about 10 different ways that you can buy property property with someone else.
• 29:55
  So friends and family, like siblings are the most common ones that we see.
• 30:00
  And I would love to see that happen more.
• 30:02
  Cause I think it really does catapult you into the market maybe earlier than you may otherwise have been able to get into the market.
• 30:09
  Yeah.
• 30:09
  What are some times you've seen co ownership go wrong and what could they have done differently to avoid that?
• 30:16
  Yep.
• 30:16
  So I've had a family where it was a mother and a daughter and her partner, and I think, honestly, they weren't on the same page.
• 30:25
  And I remember having that conversation with them where it's like, cool, this is what everyone's responsible for.
• 30:31
  And I think in the end, they maybe just didn't quite have enough of a plan around how long that relationship would be, but in the end, they have actually just retained the ownership of the property and what it's
• 30:45
  done is it's just kind of pushed out the ability for the daughter and her partner to go and buy a property together.
• 30:52
  So, like, not so great, but also not the end of the world.
• 30:57
  Dealable.
• 30:58
  Yeah, dealable, yeah.
• 30:59
  But this happens actually with couples a lot too.
• 31:02
  It's just kind of like breaking up or someone moving unexpectedly.
• 31:07
  So we've had that happen a couple of times.
• 31:08
  And then you just have to work out, like, say, if the property's going to be sold, what is everyone happy with in that respect?
• 31:15
  Is it just 50, 50?
• 31:16
  Do you get your deposit back plus whatever there was in terms of equity?
• 31:20
  What if there isn't any equity?
• 31:22
  What happens in that situation?
• 31:24
  So again, it just goes back to having that agreement.
• 31:26
  Have a really tough conversation in front of a lawyer.
• 31:29
  Yeah, basically, yes.
• 31:31
  And just.
• 31:31
  And keep it positive, too, like, absolutely.
• 31:34
  It is tough, but it's also like, hey, this is looking after both of us.
• 31:38
  If something is to go as we don't expect it to, and.
• 31:41
  Or if it does all go as we expect it to, we're not actually going to need to fall back on this.
• 31:46
  So I think, yeah, it's generally plans change and there wasn't a plan to begin with.
• 31:51
  Yeah, Well, I remember I almost bought an investment property at one point with a friend and we were sort of having these conversations of what happens at various points and sort of what percentage equity we would both do,
• 32:03
  what percentage payment we're both making.
• 32:06
  And we went back and forth a little bit on the sort of lawyer side of things and eventually actually decided, no, we're not going to buy this together.
• 32:15
  And my lawyer said to me, he was like, oh, I'm really sorry, I still have to bill you.
• 32:21
  And I was like, look, I know it's a few hundred bucks that's expensive.
• 32:24
  It's not really what I want to do, but I'm counting this as A much cheaper pattern this journey.
• 32:32
  Then if this had gone ahead, these conversations hadn't happened, it could have been a tens of thousands dollar problem because we just much love in the world, still very good friends.
• 32:41
  It wasn't right for us to buy that investment property together.
• 32:44
  Expectations, what we wanted from it were different and thank God we figured it out at that point and it cost me $400 instead of however many hundred thousand.
• 32:55
  If things go really wrong and maybe the friendship would have also.
• 32:58
  Totally splendid.
• 32:59
  It was sort of a little bit awkward and then everyone moved on and it's fine.
• 33:02
  Totally.
• 33:03
  So rather have that conversation then.
• 33:05
  Absolutely.
• 33:05
  And I say that to people a lot too about property when they go, oh, I don't really want to get a building report or I don't really want to get a building report.
• 33:12
  Yeah.
• 33:13
  And I'm like, no, no, this is your due diligence.
• 33:15
  Like if something's wrong with this property, you need to know about it.
• 33:18
  And it's the same thing with any kind of relationship where you're owning a property together.
• 33:24
  I think lots of people go, oh, I just want to put my partner on the mortgage.
• 33:28
  I'm like, yep, that's owning the property together.
• 33:31
  And that's a big change from what happens at the moment.
• 33:33
  So you've just got to make sure that everyone's like super on board with what the plan is.
• 33:38
  All right, Switching gears because there were so many things for a while that people could use to help get them over the line for that first home deposit.
• 33:48
  Notoriously hard first home grants had lots of people messaging me, very upset that they can't use those anymore and feeling really held back from their first home because of it.
• 33:59
  Myth of truth, what's happening there?
• 34:00
  I'm a little gutted about it too.
• 34:02
  But interestingly, when you do the numbers, most of the time it hasn't made a great deal of difference.
• 34:09
  And there's a couple of reasons why.
• 34:10
  One, I think property's become a little bit more affordable since that change happened,.
• 34:15
  To be honest, since the year 2021, yes.
• 34:18
  The other thing I think that lots of people didn't realise is so way back in the day, the first home grant and the first home loan both had property caps, property price caps.
• 34:30
  And for a long time they were, excuse my French, utterly useless because those price caps were just exceeded in almost every region.
• 34:39
  There was a few regions where it worked and I think it just hasn't been well publicised that those property caps were removed.
• 34:46
  And so for a lot of people, if they are in the situation where they may have needed the first home grant and that would have been helpful.
• 34:55
  Often the first home loan is now plugging that gap because of the removal of the property caps.
• 35:01
  So I think that's been the single biggest impact to first home buyers, removing those caps.
• 35:06
  So rather than getting a lump sum cash, you can now more easily access a low deposit loan on a house that actually fits what's happening in your property market.
• 35:20
  Correct.
• 35:21
  And I think the only time where it is really impactful is if someone is not eligible for the first home loan and they have to go to that 10% deposit space and that's not quite enough.
• 35:33
  But I do think just having a little jiggle around with the KAIA order first home loan and then also with the low deposit lending that banks have available to them has actually probably made a lot of difference for
• 35:44
  first time buyers.
• 35:45
  So I think that's a.
• 35:46
  Is it a myth?
• 35:48
  Maybe?
• 35:49
  A little bit, yeah.
• 35:50
  A strategic change.
• 35:52
  A strategic change.
• 35:53
  Hey, you got it, you got it.
• 35:55
  You know how these things work.
• 35:58
  All down to strategy.
• 35:59
  Yeah.
• 36:00
  Okay.
• 36:01
  If someone comes to see you and they're saying, look, I would like to get into my first home at some point, it might be a year from now, it might be five years from now.
• 36:10
  Let's make a plan.
• 36:11
  I imagine you look at their kiwisaver.
• 36:13
  How would someone get strategic with their kiwisaver?
• 36:18
  Depending, I imagine a little bit on how long their timeline might be.
• 36:22
  Yep.
• 36:22
  Are they in a fund that's helping their kiwisaver grow?
• 36:27
  Is there like how much risk are they willing to take?
• 36:30
  How much of their deposit is going to be kiwisaver?
• 36:32
  Like is it going to be all of that deposit or have they got other funds from other places or, or as a couple potentially.
• 36:39
  Has one person got more kiwis over than the other?
• 36:42
  Or could we, you know, do something where one takes a little more risk versus another?
• 36:47
  I often have conversations with people where I say, cool, like you could potentially buy today, but it might be this amount.
• 36:53
  And they might say, hey, I'd like that to be a little bit more.
• 36:57
  The impact though of waiting can I often go in quite a few different directions though.
• 37:03
  So like you say around kiwisaver growth, you know, if you are in a slightly riskier fund or even if you're in a moderate type fund, we can still get some up and down and a little bit of movement.
• 37:15
  So really the safest place there for us to be a little bit more conservative, but then it's not gonna actually grow Quite as much.
• 37:21
  So I think it's about making a plan that's based on the particular person.
• 37:25
  And then like, what is the impact of an up and down on that?
• 37:29
  And how long is our time frame?
• 37:31
  Yeah, and kiwisave is such a huge lever for people these days.
• 37:34
  Like, as you were saying, looking at those levers for people, it's massive.
• 37:38
  When you are sort of assessing someone's situation and saying, okay, which lever can we pull to help these people?
• 37:45
  You know, what are you looking at?
• 37:47
  And how do you hone in on the ones that's going to make the biggest difference for them?
• 37:50
  So we look for things that are discretionary to begin with.
• 37:55
  So for example, you might be spending as much as I do on clothes.
• 38:00
  I don't know.
• 38:01
  And we might say, okay, hey, look, if we pull that back a little bit, the impact is gonna be this.
• 38:06
  But if we can see, say a unused credit card or something that could be paid off, that might be quite a high repayment.
• 38:14
  So often someone might be, say, paying off a car and they might only be six months away from finishing it.
• 38:20
  And the impact of having that finished might be huge.
• 38:23
  So that we'll look for things like that.
• 38:24
  I often ask people, you know, have you had a conversation with your employer about having a pay rise?
• 38:30
  Is that gonna be a thing?
• 38:31
  Cause occasionally some people will say, oh, yeah, no, that's already factored in.
• 38:35
  We're gonna do this.
• 38:36
  And all of a sudden it makes a huge difference.
• 38:39
  Sometimes people are five grand short on a deposit and they'll go, actually, you know, that is actually possible.
• 38:46
  My grandmother said that she was in a position to help out.
• 38:49
  It's often we look at the overall situation and then we go, okay, what is kind of like the bottleneck?
• 38:56
  And sometimes it's servicing, and sometimes it's debt, and sometimes it's deposit.
• 39:01
  And so we can make a bit of a, I suppose a judgment call.
• 39:06
  And occasionally too, their particular bank might not be the best fit.
• 39:10
  And so then we might have a conversation about that as well.
• 39:13
  If they are lower deposit, then we'll look at Kai and order rules.
• 39:16
  So one of the key Kaia order rules that is reasonably important is being in your role for 12 months.
• 39:22
  And so for a lot of people in the early stages of their career, like that might not be the case.
• 39:28
  And so sometimes I have conversations with people where it's like, hey, maybe you could actually buy Understanding policy today.
• 39:35
  But if your goal is to get to here, hey, maybe we wait three or four months and you get to that 12 month time frame.
• 39:41
  So those are a couple of ways that we look for levers to pull.
• 39:46
  You mentioned the spending there and guilty.
• 39:49
  As someone who is not as frugal anymore as people expect me to be, I love a bit of frugality.
• 39:53
  But people will sometimes see me out in cafes and like, what are you doing here?
• 39:56
  And I'm like having a nice time.
• 39:59
  Yes.
• 40:00
  What do you mean?
• 40:00
  Remember we were doing this without giving up our everyday coffee.
• 40:03
  Exactly, exactly.
• 40:06
  But how much does your spending matter?
• 40:09
  Are there any particular types of spending that can raise red flags or is it just purely amounts like what's happening there?
• 40:16
  Yeah, it's generally categorized as discretionary and non discretionary.
• 40:20
  So non discretionary is stuff that you need to live, food, power, you know, insurance, things that are in place that are going.
• 40:29
  So all those things are really cheap right now.
• 40:31
  That's so great.
• 40:32
  Yeah, discretionary, going out, buying clothes, haircuts, Netflix subscriptions, that sort of thing.
• 40:41
  So what the bank will often look at is like what is the pattern over time?
• 40:46
  So back a couple of years ago where we had the kind of triple CFA stuff and there was a whole lot of, oh my goodness, we have to like, you know, evidence every single thing.
• 40:55
  It's definitely relaxed a lot more because.
• 40:57
  It was brutal for a while that like I see how this myth came around because they were brutal.
• 41:01
  But it's changed and has changed and banks can be a little bit more what I call practical.
• 41:07
  So if we see that someone has been spending a larger amount of money on X, Y or Z and it is non discretionary, we'll kind of go, okay, maybe they could adjust those expenses slightly, you know, like you
• 41:20
  say, shop around, find some a different way.
• 41:23
  If it's discretionary so can be changed or can be pulled back, then we'll have a conversation about that.
• 41:29
  So it depends a little bit on the situation, but basically those two categories.
• 41:33
  Excellent.
• 41:34
  Now the other thing that you mentioned before was about being in your job for a certain amount of time, which yes, a lot of people go to work for a salary and like you say, solid year of your
• 41:46
  employment history, really good there.
• 41:48
  Self employed people, of course, though that's also tricky because they need to prove a certain level of income for a certain level of time.
• 41:55
  And I know a lot of self employed people really find the mortgage process that's quite intimidating and unfriendly, whether or not that's deservedly so.
• 42:04
  What do you think for the self employed people, how tough is it?
• 42:07
  There is no doubt that there is a higher information requirement because the bank perceives that there is a higher risk in lending to a self employed person, because there's a perception that it is not consistent in the same
• 42:18
  way as a salary or wage.
• 42:21
  The more information you can provide, the better.
• 42:24
  And so longevity is reasonably important.
• 42:27
  Generally for self employed people, two years is kind of gold standard.
• 42:33
  More is obviously great, but if it's at least 12 months and you've got some history in the industry that's also totally workable.
• 42:42
  A common one is a builder who has worked for someone else for let's say five years and he decides to go out on his own or he decides to contract back to his original employer.
• 42:53
  That scenario, hey look, you're probably going to earn a little bit more, but even if we fell back on what happened in the previous three or four years and we looked at those IRD summaries for that amount of
• 43:03
  time, we can kind of reasonably assume that that sort of level of income is going to be able to be perpetuated regardless of how things go.
• 43:14
  Often getting a letter from an, from an employer that's providing a contract can be helpful.
• 43:19
  If you are self employed and you are essentially contracting to a whole range of different places, or you're effectively a freelancer generally.
• 43:26
  Again, it's about longevity of career and what have you done before.
• 43:32
  So I would say as long as you've got 12 months.
• 43:34
  And if your 12 months doesn't fit into a financial year, consider even just getting a set of very high level draft financial statements done, which.
• 43:44
  So for example, let's say you started on the 1st of June, so that's kind of partway into a financial year.
• 43:49
  If we think about 31 March being a financial year, then go through to the next year and get a set of financials done.
• 43:57
  Cause you're actually gonna be straddling two years there.
• 44:00
  If as much as possible your accountant is onto it in the sense of being able to provide some sort of forecasting.
• 44:06
  So we do quite a lot of that in terms of self employed.
• 44:09
  If you are buying, like upgrading a home or you're buying and selling, so you might be in a better equity position, that's obviously advantageous as well.
• 44:18
  Also if you've got another income alongside that.
• 44:21
  So let's say you've got someone contracting and someone on a salary, that's also great.
• 44:26
  So it depends a little bit on the overall situation.
• 44:29
  I would say that it is a lot easier dealing with a financial advisor or a mortgage advisor in that respect because you're generally gonna get someone who has a range of experience across different bank policies.
• 44:40
  And every bank is a bit different with self employed.
• 44:43
  So they'll treat some, some banks will say, hey, we average two years.
• 44:46
  Other banks will say we will take a minimum or scale down by 30%.
• 44:52
  There's a whole lot of different ways that it can be approached.
• 44:54
  If you're thinking about going self employed, just consider what those impacts are going to be.
• 44:59
  Think about like what have you forecasted in terms of your income and then what changes might come up in that time because it might make sense for you to put that off for six months and get your house
• 45:10
  in order in a sense and then think about it from there on.
• 45:15
  And so it just depends on the situation and where you're at in life as well.
• 45:18
  Yeah, yeah.
• 45:19
  And I think just as much information as you can.
• 45:21
  As you were saying, you know, you've got stuff locked in for the future.
• 45:24
  I did that as a, you know, now self employed person and I had plenty of side hustles on the side before that.
• 45:30
  I just laid out, you know, here's everything that is actually that I have earned, that's in the past.
• 45:36
  And then a spreadsheet of here are the contracts I've signed, here's how much they're worth, here are the ones that are probably happening that it's not signed yet, but we're confident and here's how much they're worth and just
• 45:49
  like laid it all out and the bank, bless them, we're just like, all right, that looks great.
• 45:55
  Yeah, cool.
• 45:56
  And normally for most people who are self employed, they'll either have Xero or they'll have Henry or they have some sort of accounting software.
• 46:03
  So doing like a profit and loss statement and working out, you know, what does that net profit position actually look like?
• 46:09
  Or if you're not using either of those systems and you're going direct to IRD, what does your IR3 look like?
• 46:15
  And then that's effectively what the bank will use.
• 46:18
  I have a lot of conversations with people who are like, oh, you know, but I claimed that expense and so, you know, it's less than what I otherwise would have earned.
• 46:26
  And I'm like, okay, whatever the bottom line is is what the bank will take.
• 46:30
  So they will perceive that you've actually incurred that expense as part of your business.
• 46:35
  So it's an expense of doing business.
• 46:37
  So just, yeah, something to be a little bit mindful of.
• 46:40
  You know, accountants always try to help us pay less tax, which is quite often lovely.
• 46:46
  But it gave me a Little bit of a double edged sword when it comes to lending.
• 46:49
  So yeah, again planning is quite nice there.
• 46:52
  Yeah, nice.
• 46:54
  This is another one that I get a lot when I talk to people and they're like, oh, you know, I'd love to buy a house.
• 46:58
  I'm not sure about right now though.
• 47:01
  Property prices might keep going down or interest rates look like they're going to go up.
• 47:05
  And I just think, you know, in a few months from now it might be better or a year from now it might be better.
• 47:10
  And what do you think of all that crystal ball gazing?
• 47:14
  I think that the only thing you know for sure is today and it depends on your driver.
• 47:22
  You know, like if you need a place to live, that place to live is gonna be necessary today.
• 47:28
  And in six months time it's really different.
• 47:31
  If you're looking at buying an investment property, that might be a situation where the market going up or down or interest rates might have a large impact.
• 47:38
  But I think if you are paying to live somewhere and you are gonna need to pay to live somewhere ongoing, then the market and interest rates shouldn't affect your decision too much because there's always gonna be ups and
• 47:52
  downs.
• 47:53
  There's always gonna be something.
• 47:54
  If we think about the last 10 years, we have had something every single year.
• 47:58
  There's always gonna be a reason to say, hey, nah, I don't actually wanna do this right now.
• 48:02
  So usually I say to people, what are your drivers?
• 48:04
  Do you need a place to live?
• 48:05
  Yes, I need a place to live.
• 48:06
  Okay, great.
• 48:07
  I think too we can mitigate the impact of some of those things.
• 48:10
  So interest rates, for example, if you're worried about interest rates going up, you can lock in certainty for a little bit longer.
• 48:16
  Often there's a sweet spot in interest rates or often there's something that suits you better.
• 48:20
  But if you've got a concern it's going to keep you up at night, if you don't know what you're going to pay in the next two years, then let's have a conversation about that.
• 48:28
  So definitely some mitigants, I think with property, as long as you are not planning to make huge changes and if we reflect back to that three year timeframe we talked about earlier, that's a reasonable timeframe for something to
• 48:42
  increase or decrease and kind of level out over that time period.
• 48:46
  If you're thinking, hey, I might buy my first home, but like, you know, in six months I might move overseas, well that's quite a different conversation to hey, I'm relatively stable and set in my role.
• 48:57
  So I think all of those lifestyle factors do play into it a little bit.
• 49:03
  But at the end of the day, if you need a place to live, it shouldn't really affect your decision if the market goes up or down or if interest rates go up or down.
• 49:11
  Yeah, yeah.
• 49:12
  I'm such a hard degree in terms of we don't know what's coming next.
• 49:16
  There's been so many things, as you say, that have hit the market, have hit financials, and most of us didn't see them coming, didn't see Covid coming, didn't see war in Iran coming.
• 49:27
  You know, a whole bunch has happened that has had really big knock on impacts and we didn't see them coming.
• 49:32
  And I think especially when it's your own home, that's such a mix of a financial and a lifestyle decision, you've kind of just got to look at your own life, your own finances and say, do I want to
• 49:42
  buy a house right now?
• 49:44
  Yes.
• 49:44
  All of these things may or may not happen.
• 49:46
  But if you're honest with yourself, are you looking at that because you're a bit intimidated by the home buying process or actually it's not right for you right now?
• 49:54
  You want to stay easy breezy, able to move for jobs, that is valid, that is fine.
• 50:00
  But be honest about what your motivations are.
• 50:02
  And if you're saying, oh, these things might happen in the future, I just personally don't know how I feel about that being a way to make financial decisions.
• 50:10
  It's super close to, you know, when we have a share market episode and saying, don't time the market.
• 50:14
  Totally, it's exactly the same.
• 50:16
  I agree.
• 50:17
  Like, I think over a reasonable period of time, you're gonna get ups and downs.
• 50:21
  It's kind of the reality of any market.
• 50:24
  Like, I've been doing this for over 10 years now, and the people who took action are the ones who are further ahead.
• 50:29
  I've had a lot of conversations with people about that very thing over the years, and some of those people still don't own a home.
• 50:36
  And I had conversations with them in 2018 or 2019, and that's okay if they're happy with that.
• 50:42
  But I think the impact of that on their overall life would have probably been a little bit more positive had they had a bit more certainty and stability over that time.
• 50:53
  So, I mean, everybody, each to their own.
• 50:55
  There's many, many different ways in which to look at this.
• 50:59
  All right, well, this has been an amazing taster of all of the knowledge you have.
• 51:03
  You have far More knowledge though, and you put it into one handy dandy place for us.
• 51:06
  Grab your book.
• 51:07
  Oh, yes, tell us about it.
• 51:09
  Because this is a really handy guide for people.
• 51:12
  The excitement.
• 51:14
  So this is Smashed AVO to smash goals.
• 51:16
  No, I did not think of the name myself.
• 51:19
  It was.
• 51:20
  I think it was a little LinkedIn comp.
• 51:22
  But I love it.
• 51:24
  So, yeah, it's a little play, I guess, on the fact that it used to be said that millennials eat too much.
• 51:30
  Smashed avocados, they can't buy their first home.
• 51:33
  Basically.
• 51:33
  This is just all the stuff I've Learned in the 10 years or so that I've been a mortgage advisor.
• 51:38
  And I think the key thing is it's all in one place.
• 51:41
  So everything in here is current.
• 51:44
  All of the caps that we've talked about, the income requirements, all the different options for low deposit borrowers.
• 51:50
  There's also a couple of bits in here about keeping your home loan healthy and the process and, you know, how to get pre approval and a few tips around making offers and things like that.
• 51:59
  All of this information's also on our website, but I think having it in one place has been really useful to people.
• 52:05
  I've got a couple of copies to give away.
• 52:08
  Exciting.
• 52:08
  Tell us how it'll work.
• 52:11
  So we're going to pop up a link and there'll be a code.
• 52:15
  So Francis is the code to get your copy.
• 52:17
  And so the first 30 people to reach out to us with their copy will get a copy posted to them.
• 52:23
  We'll put a link in the description of this episode down the bottom of the video or if you're listening online.
• 52:29
  Yeah, we'll put it in the description.
• 52:30
  So it's real easy.
• 52:32
  That's very generous to have 30 of them, but it's a great book.
• 52:36
  Cause I've had a hearn through that and it's very easy to understand having everything in one place.
• 52:40
  So useful.
• 52:41
  Yeah.
• 52:41
  And I think just my goal when I wrote it was actually just to get some more people into their first homes.
• 52:47
  I think sometimes it can be a little bit of a scary process to some people.
• 52:51
  And for those of us who have been around for a while, like, why not impart that knowledge?
• 52:55
  You know, I still remember being a first home buyer and being like utterly terrified about this thing.
• 53:01
  Yeah.
• 53:01
  And how on earth was I meant to know all of this stuff?
• 53:04
  And often I talk to people and they're like, I'm so sorry, I don't know yet.
• 53:07
  And I'm like, this is just your opportunity to learn how exciting you know.
• 53:12
  And so, yeah, this is my kind of not, I guess, my give back to the young first home buyers of New Zealand.
• 53:22
  So good.
• 53:22
  So good.
• 53:23
  All right, so there we go.
• 53:24
  Opportunity to get a free book if you want one.
• 53:26
  Claire Williamson, thank you so much for coming on, sharing all your wonderful knowledge with us.
• 53:30
  Now, if this episode was helpful to you, send it to a friend, especially anyone who might be in that first home buyer market.
• 53:36
  Let's all level up our money together.
• 53:38
  Until next time, have a great day.
• 53:41
  This podcast can only give you general information about how things work in most situations.
• 53:46
  It's not individual financial advice.
• 53:48
  If you're after that.
• 53:50
  A financial advisor is always the best bet.