“The kids were so excited to get their picture taken in front of the sold sign!”​

Back in 2017, I shared the story of my clients, Victoria and Jared, who had just bought their first home. When I first met this young couple they were not sure they would ever be in a position to buy a property. They had almost no savings between them and had limited experience with budgets. But with a little help and plenty of hard work, Victoria and Jared managed to save up enough for a deposit and just 12 months after our first meeting they were homeowners! (You can read the full story here)

Of course, that was only the beginning for Victoria and Jared, who went on to save for their wedding the following year. They have also welcomed two gorgeous children into their lives. Then, late last year, despite all the challenges that COVID-19 presented, Victoria and Jared sold their first property and upgraded to a bigger – and better – home, just perfect for their growing family.

Here’s how they achieved their goal…

We’d been in our first home for a few years when we started thinking about upgrading. With two kids we knew we’d outgrown the townhouse, so we went back to Effie to get her advice about selling and purchasing a new family home.

We had accumulated a few bad habits since we first worked with Effie and we weren’t really on track with our savings. But because of our relationship with her, we trusted that Effie would give us the right advice to get us into a position where we could afford our next home. I think the experience of buying our first home was what really established that trust. Effie would always tell us that everything was achievable if we were prepared to put the work in, and that was definitely the case with our first property so we knew she would have our back again.

We both really wanted to move into the Shire, and even though we knew it would be harder for us to afford a place there it was something we didn’t want to compromise on. Effie looked at our total financial situation and our mortgage options and calculated what we could realistically afford. That was another place where her insight was really helpful because we were actually quite surprised at how much we could borrow.

We had a 12-month plan to save up the amount she recommended but we actually reached our goal in 9 months!

Around that time we actually found a house that we fell in love with. But we hadn’t been pre-approved for our loan. That’s another way that Effie went above and beyond. She knew we wanted to get that offer in before we lost out to another buyer, so she was on the phone at 8 pm at night, getting the paperwork through in a rush. Nothing was too much trouble.

She also helped us with the selling side, because we didn’t really know where to start. In the end, we sold the townhouse on Tuesday and bought our new home on the Friday of the same week. That would be quite a stressful situation for anyone but we knew that Effie was in the driver’s seat so we didn’t have to worry.

Honestly, I’d say that the difference between Effie and going through a bank is chalk and cheese! We have learnt so much about savings and finances – we were honestly clueless when we first met with her. The second time around it was definitely easier, because we knew what she needed from us and she already had all our history and details, but we still really benefited from her experience and advice.

The kids absolutely love the new house, especially the driveway and the garden. They were so excited to get their picture taken in front of the sold sign! They went to daycare the next day and kept telling all their friends that Mummy and Daddy had got a new home.

The biggest thing we have learnt from Effie is how to budget. Hubby and I sit down each week and look at what goes in and out. We’re all about maintaining clean accounts – meeting your payments on time, making it easy on Uber eats, Netflix, etc. This is what banks are really looking for – they want to see that you can save and you can budget. But it’s also goal setting and having that next thing to work towards. Our next goal is to renovate the house. It is a bit of a fixer-upper but we now have the time to really make it our own. After that is an investment property or a holiday house. And of course, we’ll work with Effie to achieve that.

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Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Victoria and congratulations again to you and your family.