Buying your first home takes careful planning and, for most people, serious budgeting! Here are a few tips for first home buyers which will help you plan for the total cost of buying a home, including your mortgage, insurance, legal fees and other costs.

Saving for a Deposit
The first step in saving for your deposit is to set yourself a savings goal. Lenders ideally require a deposit of at least 20% of the amount you are borrowing. So if you’re buying a house worth $400,000 you’ll need a deposit of at least $80,000. Keep in mind that the bigger your deposit, the less you’ll pay in interest over the long term. Speak with your Mortgage Adviser about other possible optons (i.e. the Welcome Home Loan).

Get your Family’s Help
You may be able to borrow a deposit from your parents of use the equity in their home to secure a loan. Depending on interest rates, it’s possible that you could offer them a rate higher than they would get with a term deposit, but lower than your mortgage rate. In some cases, you could look at borrowing the deposit from another financial institution – as long as you have sufficient funds to repay the debt.

Getting a Mortgage
Your first mortgage, or home loan, will probably be the biggest financial commitment you’ll ever make. You’ll probably look at dozens of places before you find the home you want to buy. It’s a good idea to be just as careful when choosing your mortgage.
There are many types of mortgages, each with its own interest rate, fees and degree of flexibility. All these things affect how much the loan costs you and when it will be paid off. Again, speak with your Mortgage Adviser to get the broadest range of options.

Get a Flatmate
This is an option worth considering as it will generate extra cash to put towards your mortgage. For example if you had a flatmate paying $120 a week, this gives you an additional $6,240 per year.

Government Help
With a 10% deposit, you may be able to borrow enough to buy a house under the government’s Welcome Home Loan Scheme. If you have been a KiwiSaver member
for three years you can withdraw your savings and if you have been contributing to the scheme for at least three years, you may also be eligible for a HomeStart grant. This means that the government could give you up to $5,000 towards an older, existing home, or up to $10,000 towards a newly built home or land to build a new home on. If you’re borrowing with someone else, you can combine your grants, which means you could have up to $20,000 if you were both contributing to KiwiSaver for five years. There are other eligibility criteria to meet, as well as regional house price caps.

Take a Long-Term View of your Purchase
The property market is like a merry-go-round; prices go up and down, but they mainly go up, up, up. If you take the long term view you would be making a very good investment.
It doesn’t matter where the cycle is when you enter the market – if you’re in it for the long haul you will reap the rewards..

Moving-In Costs
You will need to keep money aside for things like:
– Moving services – or truck hire if you’re doing it yourself.
– Connection fees for phone, power and internet.
– Any renovations or decorating you need to do straight away.
– Advertising for flatmates or tenants.
– Legal expenses and builder’s reports

It’s school holidays and we have a $50 HOYTS New Zealand movie voucher to giveaway!!

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One of the wonderful things about Harcourts Holmwood is that when you talk to our top real estate agents they understand it was not the result of their efforts alone but because of the support of their sellers and buyers who have trust in them.

Our top real estate agent Chris Lewis commented, “the clients I have worked with this year have been such a delight it has been so great to share their journey, and to help them achieve their real estate dreams”.

In many ways this has been such a glittering year for Harcourts Holmwood. Week after week our top real estate agents share stories of their client’s success and how we as a company have helped make it possible. When one looks closely at the top twenty we see individuals who year on year have produced consistent results – a sure sign of client loyalty. Holmwood was thrilled that we also saw a number of newer consultants make their way into that elite group. Application and commitment were the trademarks of their success. It is a real credit to our new agents that all achieved top twenty status within such a short time of starting their real estate careers.

An area of traditional strength for Holmwood has been its focus on auction success and therefore it is of little surprise to see such a strong correlation between our consultant’s commitment to the auction process and their clients’ individual success. A quick look at the statistics would illustrate how successfully the auction process has been for our clients. That winning belief is an immutable part of the Holmwood culture.

Holmwood has many different components and is driven by our passionate CEO Tony Jenkins whose focus has always been on the client experience. To him, our priority is always answering the question, are we doing all we can for our clients? The Holmwood mantra is ‘our kind of people’ and for the team that means doing their best for everyone without exception. Our direction remains simply to work closely with all our clients to deliver award winning results for them.

The Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) Section 16 (A) outlines that landlords must appoint an agent in New Zealand to carry out their duties as a landlord.
When they appoint an agent, that agent must be a full agent and carry all the responsibilities of a landlord. So if it is a family member or friend to be the agent the appointee will be bearing all responsibilities under the Act for liability as a landlord. This means that if the tenant has any issues they would normally bring up with the landlord they will need to contact your nominated agent.

Once you have appointed an agent you are required to:

• Advise your tenants about who the agent is and how they can contact the agent
• Fill out a change of landlord form for MBIE’s Tenancy Services
• Contact the Bond Centre and ask them to update their records with your agent’s name. This means that if your tenant leaves while you are overseas they can retrieve their  bond (provided of course the property is in the same condition as the beginning of the tenancy)

When you return to New Zealand you’ll need to tell your tenant and Tenancy Services that you are back and taking over from your agent.

It’s unlawful if a landlord doesn’t appoint an agent or doesn’t provide the tenant with their agent’s details. If a landlord doesn’t do this, the tenant can give the landlord a notice to remedy. This notice gives the landlord a deadline to appoint an agent or to provide them with the agent’s details in New Zealand.

If a landlord doesn’t comply with a notice to remedy, the tenant can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to sort the matter out and landlords can be liable for exemplary damages of up to $1000.

If you have a Holmwood property manager, all you will need to do is let them know that you will be away. You won’t need to do any of the above as your property manager is already appointed as your agent.

If you want to appoint a Holmwood property manager while you are away simply contact us.

For more information contact:

Caroline Register
General Manager – Holmwood Property Management
M: +64 27 509 3121
Email: caroline.register@harcourts.co.nz

Harcourts scoop Readers Digest Most Trusted real estate brand for the sixth year in a row!

Reader’s Digest has announced its Most Trusted brands for 2018, and Harcourts, New Zealand’s largest real estate brand has come out on top. Meaning that for the sixth consecutive year, New Zealanders have voted Harcourts their Most Trusted real estate brand. Harcourts is the only real estate brand to have held this honour for this continuation.

Harcourts CEO Chris Kennedy says the support and faith New Zealanders continue to put into the company is humbling.

“To be named the Most Trusted real estate brand for six years in a row is an incredible achievement. We are not only proud of our teams across the entire country, but we want to thank those New Zealanders who have worked with us and voted us number one.”

“We take the trust New Zealanders place in us very seriously. After all, making the decision to buy or sell a property is often one of the biggest, most important financial decisions all of us will make. You want to know that the sales consultants you are working with have knowledge, experience, honesty and integrity.”

The challenge for the company is to keep finding new ways to deliver exceptional customer service. “That is absolutely always at the core of everything we do. We are constantly looking at ways to improve our clients’ experience with us,” he says.

“To ensure Harcourts is living up to this goal of offering clients a premium service, the company will, in 2018, launch a client experience project. This will allow every customer the opportunity to rate their experience with our company and our people, in a transparent way that can be measured. It’s an exciting innovation which will allow Harcourts to continue to grow our people and constantly evolve our service to clients.”

“You hear it said a lot, that no relationship can work without trust. Trust is something you can’t put a price on. That is why this title of Most Trusted is so important to us.”

Harcourts will receive this prestigious award on 30 May alongside other elite Kiwi brands such as Whittakers, Air New Zealand and Resene.