How to Manage First-Home Buying Nerves: Preparation, Transparency & Due Diligence

In this Episode, Joel Sadler and mortgage adviser Scott Miller from Advanced Mortgage Solutions discuss the emotional side of buying a first home and how to reduce stress. 

Scott explains that the process can feel daunting because it’s new and involves many moving parts (finance, legal, negotiation, and multiple people), but it becomes easier as steps are completed. 

He advises using a team of professionals, communicating in a relaxed one-on-one setting, and being fully transparent about finances so lenders can assess applications quickly; credit checks can reveal undisclosed debts. 

Scott covers the value of pre-assessment and written step-by-step guidance, the need to disclose factors like pregnancy that affect affordability, and balancing emotional attachment with thorough due diligence such as building reports to avoid problems when buying or later selling. 

He directs listeners to the company website to get started: https://www.advancedmortgagesolutions.co.nz/ 

00:00 Welcome And Episode Focus
00:42 Why Home Buying Feels Daunting
02:02 Build Your Professional Team
03:18 Be Transparent With Finances
04:37 Credit Checks And Disclosure
05:58 Real Story Debt Collection Surprise
08:07 Pregnancy And Affordability Planning
10:00 Step By Step Timeline Checklist
13:07 Stay Calm When You Miss Out
15:16 Due Diligence Before You Commit
17:17 How To Get In Touch
17:46 Final Thanks And Sign Off

For assistance with a new or existing home loan, reach out to Advanced Mortgage Solutions today. www.advancedmortgagesolutions.co.nz 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Body, welcome back to the Advanced Morbid Solutions Podcast. I'm Joel Saddler and you're with your expert Scott Miller, founder from Advanced Morbid Solutions. In today's episode, we're in a slightly different change of tact that's less technical but it's more emotive. So when people buy their first home or any major purchase in their life, there's always a bit of nerve. Scott worked with thousands of people across the Canterbury area in terms of helping them get into their first home. So Scott, give us some tips and your experience around this whole how do you manage nerves and how do people work their way through the journey in a way that's that's less stressful, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Buying your house is, let's be honest, pretty much the biggest thing you're ever going to buy. Um you're probably not going to buy your your forever house or palace straight off the mark. Um and it means that it's new, it's it is exciting, but it's new and it's unknown, and there's many moving parts to sort of securing a property. And those parts include, you know, a financial side of things, a legal side of things, a bargaining side of things, there's interactions with different people through the process. Um and it can be quite you know daunting the whole process in itself, especially as you're starting out. The the good thing to know, I suppose, is the further you get through the process of buying a house, the more the more's behind you now. You know, you're sort of eating away and getting to a to a solution, which would be to purchase the house to live in. And that's mostly what a first purchase is. Um we do have the occasional first purchase, a person wants to buy a rental. Um it's not that common because they can't use their kiwi saber and things. So it's more common they're buying themselves a house, and of course, there's more of an emotional connection to that kind of purchase than purchasing a rental property that someone else is going to live in. Um so again, it just brings a different kind of um perspective to the overall process. But I think the thing, and we've touched on it before, as long as you've got the professionals in your team and you let your professionals do the jobs that you've taken them on board in your team to do, then you're pretty much going to get from one end of the process to the other in an easy and less stressful way than say going out and trying to do it all yourselves. Um, some people, for example, um, you know, don't really want to talk directly to a bank. They feel a little bit intimidated by um going into a branch and sort of spilling, spilling their life out in front of someone, um, and in that instance prefers to come to someone like a financial advisor or broker to do that for them. It's a little bit more, I suppose, you know, just a one-on-one rather than sort of going into a big corporate sort of feeling. Um and that can that can assist in um you know getting the information that we need um in a more relaxed kind of way, I suppose is the way to say it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah. You're almost like an advocate, um, for one of a better word, in terms of you know, you're you're like you said, you're in that more relaxed environment, one-on-one. It's not in the big sort of corporate-y um you know, confronting environment. Um tell tell tell them a little bit. So that's you know, working through the process. Uh you know, you've touched on this before, but tell us about how important it is to be honest when people are working with you as well to avoid those kind of stressful things that can pop up later, you know?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Part part of the attraction, I suppose, is also being able to talk in a way that we can get some numbers and things down, and if there is some roadblocks initially, we can work on those roadblocks to get to a result before we actually tell our story to a lender, and by that stage it might be too late, you know. So if if we can do that pre-assessment, have some time with you to work out where your statement of position sits in the big scheme of things, and if there needs to be some tweaks in there, then it gives us the time to do that, and we haven't um said anything to the bank yet, you know. So again, it it's that preparation and feeling like you're ready to move rather than oh my goodness, am I, aren't I, all of those sorts of things. Um but going to your question there, you know, again it's it's all around having an accurate statement of position that we can go to a bank with, uh especially on the finance side of things, that means the bank's just basically going to go tick, tack, tack, approved, move on to the next application. You know, you sort of want to not even be a thought in the assessor's mind because it's just so straightforward. We know that this is a good deal, and let's um let's make it um so by offering a conditional offer or what most people call a pre-approval. Um the banks and and uh the ways in which information can be found out about people nowadays is oh my goodness, it would you know it would surprise you to find out what people can find out about an individual, particularly with credit checks nowadays. There's just so much information on those credit checks. Um that it's really you know, you don't want to be disingenuous or to be in a position where you're not being fully transparent in the statement of position, you know. Exaggeration point would be, you know, try to hide a you know, a car loan in the hope that the bank won't find it, sort of thing. You know, I mean people don't generally do that, but that would be an example where the bank could very easily find that there is lending on under your name or uh, you know, an entity that you own that would affect the way in which that assess an application. So it's better to have the warts and all kind of approach and then highlight the warts and say, you know, we're aware that there's some debt here, the guys are working on it to reduce it as quickly as possible, um, and there's really nothing to see here, rather than trying to, you know, push it off to the side and not not mention it at all. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. A couple of experiences I had was um I've owned a number of businesses over the years and projects, you know, my core business, but also other subcompanies, and not to do with property. One of them um just happened to be uh with a certain bank, a company, and uh there was a falling out between two other parties and was sort of wound up, didn't it go as we planned? I mean, it went as we planned, but the two key two key individuals couldn't get on, so we just decided to part ways, you know. Uh we had an overdraft facility with that um uh um company and unbeknownst to me when we closed that down. There was like a thousand dollars overdraft still owing. And I didn't even think to ask the question because it was another person managing the accounts for us, right? Um so it went to um down to sort of debt collection level, and that's when I found out about it because I got a phone call and I was like, oh my. And so we we just settled straight away. We uh rang the other guy half and bang, you know, done deal and debt collection agents. We were great, thanks very much, you know, sorted. Um but when I went to buy uh lend for my own personal home, say five years later, it came up. Yeah, look at and I had to explain, I had to go, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

The good thing about an instance like that is it is quite easily seen as a genuine mistake and error, you know, you're not in purposely uh trying to not disclose something, you you know, it wasn't you know you forgot that it was there, and and the the banks are very good with that. If you've got a really good explanation or it is absolutely obvious that whoopsie, it just slipped the mind kind of thing, and it wasn't intentional non-disclosure. That's fine. It happens all the time. Everyone forgets things, you know. It's when it seems to be intentional, and like, yeah, yeah. Let's go back to the example that we just give. You know you've got a car loan. You know what I mean? You you you might have accidentally forgot that at one stage I had an overdraft facility that I might not have closed. That that that could slip your mind, but you know you've got a car loan. Uh and there's no accidentally forgetting that sort of thing. So that's again, it just comes back to that open, honest thing, and and again, going tick, tick, tick approved from an assessor's point of view. This is a nice, tidy, well-explained application, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Yeah. The other one that you've mentioned in the past was um about upcoming pregnancies, and that I thought that was quite interesting around just having that conversation and disclosing that, um, potentially disclosing it based on your advice at the time, you know, with the um it's really well under understood, you know, the process of um childbirth and and the timelines that are involved in those sorts of things.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

You know, we've been doing it for a while, as you can imagine. Um, so look at the the banks are very aware that that will affect an application. It will mean that likely uh the couple will go down to you know one income and there'll be another applicant, a very small applicant, but nonetheless a third applicant or maybe more, depending on how big the family already is. Um, and they have an obligation not to put an applicant into a position of financial hardship. So, you know, we have to be very detailed in our explanations around ongoing affordability and all those sorts of things. And there's a number of little um sort of levers we can pull to ease the bank's mind around, okay, yep, the couple are expecting a child, but look, they've got some reserve funds over here to see them through the time where they're down to one wage. Um, and uh, here goes a letter from the employer and from the mother or father, depending on who wants to become the full-time mum, um, uh agreeing to go back to work. Um, and the associated costs of childcare are, or you know, a grandma or a granddad is happily going to look after the the wee one while the the parents go back to work. So there's a number of ways of explaining those sorts of things, and uh turning up, not declaring it and turning up at a branch, you know, very clearly heavily pregnant would be a bit of a surprise. I mean, they go through their notes and they say, But we didn't know you were pregnant. Um, yeah. So that has in the past uh triggered some interesting conversations, as you could imagine.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Yeah. Yeah. I mean then moving back to, you know, the process of of how it all unfolds, you know, when so someone I think back to when I again, you know, bought my first home, I had no idea. I mean, I I mean I had a reasonable idea, but I had no idea of the steps and the detail involved. Is that something that you will explain to someone around, hey, when they sit down with you, hey, look, this is the general sort of timeline, these are the different people and the steps that 100% you work through.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

And look at that, that that is usually the biggest cause of anxiety or fear, or you know, oh my god, you know, what am I getting myself into? You know, am I putting, you know, something ahead of where it really should be in the order, you know, all of these sorts of things. And yes, as much as it might seem a little bit like smoke and mirrors when you first look at the process of buying a house, it is actually quite regimented in the same process time and time again. It's just because this is your first time, you've got no understanding of knowing this. So we very clearly put down some steps in an emailed process so you can always come back to that and reread it and review it, you know, where a conversation is sort of an instant sort of gratification, but then you might say, Oh, did he say this or that, you know, a week later? Um, so we we always put it down in writing and assist with uh the different aspects of buying a home. And it allows you to go back and read it as many times as you like, sort of thing. Uh and plugging you into the professionals again, like solicitors or building reports, um, people, you know, they're all um processes that are very, very well trodden. And and when people start to understand what's in front of them, you can see the anxiety sort of slip away and and they get more into it, as they should. You know, they're buying their first home. It should be a a really good time and a good fun, not not anxiety and all the things that you know you tend to start with.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'm a detailed guy, so that email to me is music to my ears. I'd print it off probably. Yeah and and or turn it into a checklist, you know what I mean, and just have it there and just just with the all the documentation, you know, um, just just to keep kind of aware of hey, we're at this stage, we've you know, we've ticked that off.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yeah, and the the feedback that we get is uh super helpful. We loved it, you know, it it allowed us to go and have um you know several looks at things and um made the process easier. And I always say uh, you know, put my number in your phone. Um, I've got your number in my phone, so if I see you know you calling, I'm gonna answer it, unless I'm on a podcast or something like this. But you know what I mean? Uh you always say, Oh, I've mr call from Jack. I'll give Jack a call back because I know he's in the process of buying a house and he'll probably have a you know a question that uh is being niggling at him or something along those lines. So yeah, the open communication's great. The email sets a good base, but then we're always available here by the phone as well, just for those more little detailed kind of conversations that might not suit um email.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yeah. Yeah, brilliant. And then um, you know, just to sort of wrap up, tell us a little bit about you mentioned it before about going and enjoying the process, but obviously, you know, I've I've been over elated before, and I know people, you know, you can get too elated and then be really disappointed when you don't get the property that you just managed to attach your heart to, you know. Tell us a little bit about managing that process.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

It's so hard, isn't it? I mean, you I can see just in the way that you've explained it, how how at the time it meant it meant so much to you, and and then there was something that was seemingly coming in to stop the the process or so, you know. Um, look, I I'm in a position that I work 100% for my clients, and that means when unfortunately you uncover something about a house or something like that that I'm really gonna have to tell you about because it might change your mind on buying it, you know, because it's something considerable, maybe structural or something along those lines. Uh and it's it's very easy to get upset about it, but you you sort of got to say, well, just because you don't want to hear it doesn't mean what I'm saying's wrong. It's just, you know, it's just you don't want to hear it because you've already got emotionally attached to that property. So it is a sort of a situation that you've got to balance and say, hey, look, I know you're really attached to that house, but we've found this out about it. Um, knowing that, do we still want to continue and then find solutions to problems or things along those lines. So it is a difficult one, particularly again, we're going back to all more that first home purchase or a purchase for yourself rather than a rental. Certain things about rentals you're not really going to get upset because you're not living in it yourself. But yeah, it's just managing those expectations and knowing that we're all here trying to row in the same direction, but make the outcome as best as it possibly can for you, because it is likely one day you'll go to sell the same house that you're purchasing. And that problem that we've found might then cause trouble when you go to sell that property down the line. And of course, at this time of the period of the process, you're not thinking about selling the house, you're thinking about buying the house. So those kind of thought patterns of what this might mean down the line is not really always taken into consideration. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Yeah. And uh yeah, again, a first hand experience there, learning there, which didn't really, you know, bite me in terms of financially, but first time that that we purchased back in the day. Um the building inspector, which we're paying, couldn't fit through the manhole. He was a slightly overweight guy. And so he so I said, Well, I'll go down for a look with the camera and climbed under the house and had to click round. And obviously, you know, not an expert, but also emotionally my my partner was emotionally connected to the property already. Um, I found out later that I could put a hammer through some rotten boards, literally just scraped my way through them. And, you know, for it was so it was a structural issue, and we'd already bought by that stage. So that really taught me to put the emotions aside, you know, and really get really do the due diligence part properly. Um, and luckily enough, when we came to sell, it was um after the earthquake, so there was a lot of demand for stock, so it sold fine. But if it wasn't high demand time, it could have been a big issue for us to, you know, try and sell. So, yeah, really good point there, Scott, around, you know, as as a motive as you are buying a new home, really get the DD. Yeah, due diligence.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah, no, it is super important. And yeah, we started off by saying it's probably the biggest purchase you're ever going to make. So you sort of really want to make sure you're buying, or at least what you're buying is what it says it is, like there isn't a little hidden thing like you found out afterwards, and you're going, oh, you know, that could really come back and hurt later on. So during your due diligence is really, really important. And and and I suppose, you know, because we are talking about the fear factor of buying a house, that kind of confirmation from a building report that the house is tickety-boo, you know, and she is what she says it is, takes a lot of again that anxiety away. I've done that check and it's come back fine. So let's move on to the next thing, you know, and and it's just one that one further thing in the rear vision mirror um before you get to that stage of actually purchasing the house. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah. Brilliant, Scott. Thanks. As always, a wealth of advice. Uh, if people want to reach out to begin their journey with you, what's the catch?

SPEAKER_01 17:23

As always, we sort of finish off with this, don't we, Joel? Look, the the uh the website's the way to go. There's contact details, phone numbers, there's um contact forms, there's information on there on buying your first home and getting your Kiwi Saber, all the things that you expect to be on a website around giving financial advice. Um, so yeah, that's probably the one stop shop right there.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Fantastic. Awesome. Thanks, Scott. We'll see you on the next episode.