"I Got Hustled Buying My First Home. So I Spent 6 Years Doing THIS" [Case Study]

Eve values property for a living. But on her very first purchase, years before she qualified, she got played. So, what does a valuer see now that the rest of us miss? In this Case Study Sunday, Eve shares her journey from marketing to property valuer, and from first-home buyer to investor. You'll learn: The property valuer who got hustled on her first purchaseWhat a property valuer sees that the rest of us missWhy did this investor deliberately pause building her portfolioThe lesson? Even the pros get emotional and biased about their own property... which is exactly why she says to get an independent valuation before you buy or sell. Want to share your story on Case Study Sunday? Send us a message, email ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠ mailto:[email protected] For more from Opes Partners: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the weekly Private Property newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.opespartners.co.nz/newsletter-sign-up⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/opes_partners/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@opespartners

• 0:08Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome along to the Property Academy Podcast by Opes Partners. I'm your host, Stephen Knight. And I'm Andrew Nicoll. And this is the show that helps Kiwis go from zero to five investment properties. So you could be financially free and stick around for the next 15 minutes because you're going to learn about the property valuer who got hustled on her first purchase, what a property valuer sees that the rest of us miss, and why this investor deliberately paused building her portfolio. And to walk us through it, we are joined by Eve Prowse. Eve, welcome along to the show. Hi, thank you for having me. We're excited to have you. Now, I know that for most property investors, your journey starts when you buy your first house. And it might not be, you know, it's not that that's your first investment, but it's kind of your first investment in the, in the housing

• 0:50Speaker 00

  market. And often that becomes the leverage to buy your future property. So I know you bought your first home in Papakura at 25. Take us back to what was going on in your life and how that all came about. I just turned 25, but shortly after my 21st, when I'd graduated from university, my parents divorced. I graduated with a Bachelor of Business and I ended up living with my dad in his new house. Now, I wanted my own space and my own home to decorate. So I started looking for somewhere to rent, but then I found out that most landlords discriminated against dogs. So I couldn't find any rental that was suitable. And even

• 1:31Speaker 00

  though my dogs were smaller than a cat, I thought maybe they just discriminated against bigger dogs, but no, just any dog. So that prompted me to look for my own home to see if I could, if I could buy. And I could, I got pre-approval. And yeah, I remember watching the news at the time and seeing somebody who lived in the city, in Auckland City, complaining about the property market and how unaffordable it was on their income. And they disclosed all the numbers at the time, but I don't remember them. But I thought, yeah, they're just not looking at the right place. They can afford, but they're just not looking. I really find that comment so interesting because there seems to be this expectation

• 2:12Speaker 00

  of homeownership should be easy. Now, it's not easy. It's not necessarily that the property you want is affordable. And so it comes down to figuring out what is reasonable and suitable, and whether or not you're willing to make that sacrifice. Now, I'm not saying everyone can afford a property, but if you have the attitude that I can't find a property that I can afford, but I want all the bells and whistles, well, you're probably never going to get there. What made you different that you thought about the fact that actually I can afford something, I just need to realign what my expectations are? Well, I actually think I was lucky. My first home was beyond my expectations. It was about 10 years old, brick and tile, four bedroom, two bathroom, double internal

• 2:57Speaker 00

  garage on a decent sized section. It was just the location, I guess. But it wasn't even a bad location because it was within walking distance to my property at the time. I think it's just being open minded about how much money you have and what exactly you want, and being willing to move to a different location that's within your budget. We get sort of used to our safe havens and our areas that we know well. But it's not to say that somewhere else isn't just as good or even better. And you've said that the price you paid on that first home still irks you. What happened there? Yeah. So in hindsight, I was very innocent and inexperienced and uneducated when it

• 3:40Speaker 00

  came to, of course, buying property. I let them see that I was not sure what I was doing. I got my dad to hold my hand in the beginning of the negotiations. And I also let the salespeople visit me at work so that I could make a counter offer when I really should have done this outside of work, when I, you know, wasn't under that time pressure. And yeah, it's funny, I was looking at the sale and purchase agreement I found in my emails. My initial offer was 350,000. The vendor counted 385,000. Then I counted back 365,000. And then they counted back 380,000. So they weren't really moving much, but no, I was, I was moving

• 4:23Speaker 00

  a lot. I wasn't sure what I was going to offer. I thought, okay, 370,000 next. That's what I wanted to offer. But the real estate salespeople said, I think you should just sweeten it and put another two and a half grand to sweeten the deal. And I naively listened and offered 372,500. And just in hindsight, now I know what I know. It's like, I don't think I needed to add that, you know, two and a half grand. I don't know what they were trying to round up their commission or what. But as you can see, you know, I came

• 4:59Speaker 00

  up from 350,000 and they came down from 385,000. So they didn't come down much. But yeah, there was one more thing. I also used the same lawyer and the law firm as the vendor in hopes to speed things up because I didn't understand about conflicts of interest and issues that that may cause. But also neither was I warned. You know, I feel like the salespeople should have said, yeah, it's probably best if you get your own independent lawyer. Interesting. And how did you end up with that same lawyer? It was so long ago now, but I didn't have a lawyer, obviously being my first home.

• 5:41Speaker 00

  So it might've been my idea, or it might've been theirs. I don't, I don't want to blame anyone because I'm, I can't exactly remember, but I still feel like, you know, they should have flagged it, you know, given how young I was and inexperienced. I mean, I'm sure they wouldn't use the same lawyer as their vendor with their buying property, you know? Now, did the lawyer actually raise it with you? And did you have to agree that it was okay that they acted for you both? Not that I recall. I might've had a different lawyer, but when I looked, like I say, I've still got this agreement. When I looked at the agreement, we had the same lawyer, exactly the same lawyer, the exact same firm. And of course, you know, the agreement is updated now. It's, you know, different. So maybe there's been some kind of change.

• 6:26Speaker 00

  I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. There's a possibility that that was an absolute coincidence, but obviously because you started out this journey not knowing what you don't know, which is completely normal. In hindsight, you look back and think, maybe, maybe I didn't have to go up in that price. Maybe you did. Who knows? But it's just something that's quite, you know, you can look back and think, oh, maybe, maybe I should have actually got a bit more support or information along the way. And at the time, you were in marketing and now you're a bit more of a property expert because you're a property valuer. Going from marketing to valuation, that's quite a jump. How did that happen? Well, at the time I was working for a global company and I worked with a big group of lovely people, but my team comprised of mostly healthcare professionals, so dieticians

• 7:11Speaker 00

  and nurses. And although they were very lovely, I felt very left out because I didn't know their work jargon and I couldn't talk at their professional level. So I also wasn't being challenged enough or enjoyed my enough to stay there long term, but I didn't know what to do. So a colleague mentioned getting her high school children to see a professional career advisor. So I got their details and my appointment with the career advisor was very thorough. And we came up with a shortlist of suitable jobs, one of which was a property valuer. I had only heard of this profession once. And it was because another colleague had mentioned to me that her father was a valuer. So when I told her about the career

• 7:56Speaker 00

  advisor, she offered to set up a dinner so I could ask her dad questions. And yeah, I was, I was very satisfied with his answers to my questions, my 101 questions. And that combined with my university visit just consolidated my decision to train as a property valuer, which was a big decision for me at the time because it was a lot of years I had to sacrifice and a big pay drop. So I think it was like $20,000 less. I've got a couple of questions on that. What the hell did you say to a careers advisor that they said, I know the role for you, a property valuer? Because I don't know what

• 8:36Speaker 00

  skills other than having a degree in valuation would lead them to that assumption. And my second thing is, when you went to that dinner and had a bunch of questions, do you remember a couple of them? Like I said, the career advisor was very thorough. I think this meeting was like three hours. And we did a whole combination of different tactics to figure out, you know, what I liked, what was I good at? And combined that with my existing skill set, which was, you know, the marketing and the business degree. And I think at the time I was so excited about being a first homeowner and the possible career in real estate. But the

• 9:21Speaker 00

  only career I knew of was to be a salesperson. And after I'd, you know, studied all this time, and I felt at the time that salespeople have a bad reputation, a lot of them. And so I didn't want to pursue that. I also don't like the idea of trying to convince somebody to buy something. That's not me. I don't like people knocking at my door trying to sell me things. I know what I want and I'll go buy it. If I, if I need help, I'll ask. So yeah, that was the only profession I knew of. And we ended up coming up with, I think, five jobs. And they were all to do with construction and real estate. So construction manager, quantity surveyor, property valuer. I can't remember what the other two are.

• 10:05Speaker 00

  Must be a good counter. Now, qualifying as a valuer is about a six-year process. What does that actually look like? Well, the first three years is the degree. So you do your study and it's really hard to get a job as an assistant valuer if you haven't finished your qualification. So that's why it's six years. So three years of full-time study and then another three years of practical experience under a registered property valuer. So basically an apprenticeship in a professional context. That's way longer than I thought. Hey, does that surprise you, Andrew? For guessing a property's value? Well, it's not guessing. No, I was only saying that. Educated.

• 10:48Speaker 00

  I was just saying that to wind you up. And then how does that lead you into becoming a property investor? What was that next step in your, in your wealth journey? This was a year after working as an assistant property valuer. At the time, my husband and I lived in our first home for about four or five years. And we had a few flatmates over the years to help pay the mortgage. But I was sick of living with other people. But I still wanted to offset the mortgage with rental income without having the flatmates. So after reading a few property investment books, I decided to look at buying a home and income property. About the kind of what you paid for, what sort of money it was making and how it had multi-income streams.

• 11:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, so we probably had a better, like a healthy deposit, like a 20% deposit, I think. We had about $200,000 after the sale of our property. And I came across this property during summer break or just after I'd just returned to work. So there wasn't that much interest in it because everybody was still on holiday mode. And that's one advantage I had. But it was an old dated 1980s construction. And our home at the time was, you know, brick and tile, full bed, two bath, double garage, 2010s build, only 10 years old, thereabouts. And compared to our home, this older property was not aesthetically appealing.

• 12:16Speaker 00

  So I thought it might be a hard sell to my husband and I had to pitch it in the most positive light to convince him it was a better move. And it has a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house with a single garage at the front. Then at the back, it's got a three-bedroom, one-study, two-bathroom, double-story house with a separate detached flat. And at the time, it was a one-bedroom, one-bathroom with an internal garage. So, you know, in my eyes, I knew we were upgrading, you know, twice the section size. It was a quarter acre and, you know, two and a half times more the dwelling, but it was just old. Now, tell me, negotiating with a valuer, if I were a real estate agent or a seller,

• 13:00Speaker 00

  I feel like that would be a painful process because the valuer would be telling me what they think it's worth and I'd be saying what I think it's worth. So was it a difficult negotiation or did you agree with their pricing? Oh, yeah, it was. Okay, so we bought it for $980,000. The CV at the time, I think, was a million. And the vendors had owned it for a while, but they were adamant that they wanted the CV price for it, which, you know, we all sort of know is a common sentiment in the market. But I managed to get it just shy. So I think, yeah, it was a million dollars CV and we got it for 980,000. So we did well and I knew, I think it was, you know, maybe a bit higher than I wanted

• 13:43Speaker 00

  to spend with it, but I realised that it was such a good property. And it was very emotional. Like, I remember crying when it got accepted in the negotiation because I just wanted it so bad. But I think it was, it was meant to be and you just know, know. Sometimes you try and push and push and push the life and want things to be a certain way, but then you realise you don't actually have full control. And if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. If the stars align, because they're meant to, they will. Or you just pay another two and a half grand.

• 14:17Speaker 00

  If you can, if you can. Sometimes people can't on their first home. That's true. Now, Eve, you bought this as a home and income, right? So you're going to have a set of tenants live in next year. What's it like and what did you learn about living next door to your tenants? Initially, it was like just bringing your work home. I felt like every time they saw them, we, you know, we were very friendly, the first lot of tenants, but they would always ask me a question, you know? Can I put this on the wall? Can I do this? And it was a bit hard when it came down to the business side of things, to be professional when they, you know, thought you had a bit of friendly relationship. And it was friendly, but yeah, I realised that you're better off getting a property

• 15:01Speaker 00

  manager if you, if you live right next door, because things can get, you know, complicated and it's not nice to live next door to somebody that you don't have a good relationship with. Now, did you ever let them get some dogs? They didn't want dogs, but tenants after that, yes, they had a German shepherd. Oh, wow. That's, that's. You really did discriminate. That ain't no small dog. What do you reckon, now that you've got quite a lot of experience in different aspects of property and, you know, you're a valuer as well, what are your kind of lessons and what's your message to anyone thinking about getting into the housing market, be it an investor or an owner occupier? What are your kind of top tips?

• 15:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, well, I've seen, you know, lots of people make and lose money. And it doesn't matter whether they're a first home buyer or a seasoned investor or even a fellow real estate professional, you know, because when it comes to your own property, you do have that emotion and you are biased or even when you're wanting to buy a property, right? So the biggest thing is always get the valuation at the right time. And for sellers, that's typically getting at the valuation when you're taking the property to market before it's on the market. So you've got realistic expectations and the same with the, similar to the buyer. It's getting the valuation before you make an offer.

• 16:23Speaker 00

  I mean, yes, you might lose out on the property in the meantime, but at least you're not paying too much. That's the worst thing you could do is, you know, as a buyer, pay way too much or as a seller, you know, sell for too little that your, your other, the buyer wins more than you do. Often a buyer might have to get a valuation for the bank. So the bank knows that, yeah, that's a reasonable price, not always, but, but, but sometimes. I've never actually got a valuation when I've sold a property unless it's been on something that I'm retaining and the bank wants it to know that I've still got enough equity with that bank. But you're suggesting a seller might get a valuation. What's the benefit of that over just relying on my real estate agent giving me an appraisal to sell?

• 17:05Speaker 00

  Well, the real estate agent giving you an appraisal, their primary job, in my opinion, I don't know how to do their job, I'm not a salesperson, but in my opinion, their primary job is to sell the property. It doesn't matter for what price, you know? That's their job to sell it, ideally for the most, most money, but it's not necessarily that, it's just, just to sell it, to get, you know, two parties to come together, the buyer and seller, and to sell it ideally as fast as they can. So everybody's happy, as fast as they can move on to their next. Property valuer as a market expert, they're valuing property every day and banks, you know, everybody's relying, you know, millions of dollars at stake here in comparison to an appraisal.

• 17:47Speaker 00

  And also, if you think about it, it's just such a small price to pay for that peace of mind to give you that leverage and decision-making tool. Such a small price, like, you know, like, say, at, at least in a thousand dollars typically for a standard residential property. And think about how much, you know, the equity you're trying to gain or, we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, aren't we? So a thousand dollars compared to hundreds of thousands of dollars? And Eve, you've deliberately pressed pause building your portfolio at the moment. Just talk us through that decision. Yeah, right. So I've got a very young family, but I remember ever since I was in my early twenties, I had a conscious decision to try and achieve balance in my life.

• 18:32Speaker 00

  And tomorrow's not guaranteed for anyone. So currently in my stage of life, I've got an investment property. I've, you know, got my owner occupied property and I've got a great career that keeps me busy. I've got a great family that keep me busy. And I want to enjoy all of that without, you know, driving myself into the ground, getting sick, missing out on precious time that I have with people. Because if somebody dies, you know, I didn't spend enough time with them. I've had a bit of loss in my life over the years. And so it's, it's made me realise the importance of that balance. Yes, I have to work, you know? And yes, I'd love, you know, lots of properties, but at what cost?

• 19:18Speaker 00

  And so I'm just very careful and considerate with my most precious resource, which is time, right? And Eve, I really appreciate you coming on the show and sharing your journey, both becoming a property valuer and then as an investor as well. And if you've been listening along to Eve's story and been inspired by that, you've got to remember, there'll be people listening to the show who will be inspired by your story as well. I want you to come on the show, 4K Study Sunday, sharing your story. Send me an email, [email protected]. We'll get you on the show because over the last 15 minutes, you've learned about the property valuer who got hustled on her first property, what a property valuer sees that the rest of us miss, and why this investor's deliberately paused building her portfolio.

• 20:01Speaker 00

  Right, let's wrap it up there, but please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast. Really does help us get the message out to more people.

• 20:14Speaker 00

  Thanks for listening to the Property Academy Podcast. I'm your host, Stephen Bickdite. And I'm Ajnukul. We're going to be back here tomorrow with even more daily strategies, tactics and insights to help you get the most out of the New Zealand property market. Until next time.