Lucky 3 Kervil Ave

Dear Sophie,

Your mom and I bought our first house in New Zealand on 19 November 2012. It was just 9 months after we came here on a working holiday visa!

The house was at 3 Kervil Ave, Te Atatu Peninsula. A 3-bed, 1-bath house on a cross-lease title in West Auckland. It had this big palm tree in the front with all kinds of noisy birds and they drop poos everywhere!

To be honest, I didn't like it at first. But your mom (She is good like that) insisted we look again. We put in a conditional offer, did some haggling, and they accepted that same night for $545,000. That was the max we could afford, and your gong gong Merrill chipped in some for the deposit, too.

We fixed it up a bit after moving in, and even got rid of that pesky palm tree. Over time, I really grew to love that house – cozy, convenient, and not so far from the city. Plus, you were conceived there, you know.

We used the equity to buy an investment property in June 2016, no extra cash needed!

Sadly, we had to move later because of one super annoying neighbour. But hey, on the bright side, we sold that first house and moved into a much bigger 4-bed, 2-bath place in Titirangi! And get this – we are so lucky and big thanks to Mommy's foresight. We made a sweet $356,000 profit in 5 years! Not bad at all, especially since it's all tax-free

My advice, Sophie? Get into that property market as soon as you can. Your first house won't be fancy, and it might take a while to see the payoff. But trust me, owning your own place is worth it in the end.

Love,

Daddy