first home

 

PHOTO:TOM LEE/STUFF Reuben Nuku and Jo Lines-MacKenzie are struggling to find their first home in Hamilton.

The first thing I learned when starting on the open home trail is that jandals or slip-on shoes are essential.

Secondly a strategic list for Saturday and Sunday – you can guarantee the houses you are interested in will clash times.

My partner Reuben and I have been looking for that elusive first home for coming up 12 months.

It’s a hell of a rollercoaster ride. We’ve had the butterflies of putting pen to paper and going into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, the excitement, the tears (well I have), the uncertainty of ‘what are we doing?’

There have been a few offers put in, four to be exact, and all four have failed.

Our first offer is the one we probably regret the most. It would have been too good to be true; our first day of open homes – having got our pre-approval through Mike Pero mortgages – we stumbled across the house we wanted.

After two visits including one with Dad to give it the once-over and we put in an offer. As rookies, we decided to offer below what they were asking – the house did require a bit of freshening up.

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