94. Stepping into Homeownership: Advice from Property Experts (LIVE from P2P London Event)

We're back with an episode for first-time buyers! On Thursday 24th August 2023, we hosted an event in London at the Samsung KX building dedicated to debunking the first-time homebuyer journey.

This episode is Panel 1 - What are the schemes and options available for first-time homebuyers? Our panel was comprised of property expert Tayo Oguntonade (Brickz With Tipz) and financial advisor Emmanuel Asuquo (The Eman Effect). Ever wondered what steps you need to take to own your first home? 

By the end of this episode, you'll be well-equipped to make that leap from renter to homeowner!

Transcript

Kia Commodore: 0:00

Hey guys, and welcome back to the Pennies to Pounds podcast with your host Kia, and this is the podcast where we aim to dispel your myths, simplify difficult financial jargon and rectify your own personal problems. Happy Monday. I know it's been a long while since we last dropped an episode, but with good reason. We are currently in the process of creating our own studio, which is exciting. However, it takes a lot more time than I think I had anticipated and I have missed you guys. However, I cannot leave you in the lurch for too long.

Kia Commodore: 0:26

We had our second ever live event last week, thursday, and it was incredible. If you came down, thank you so much for coming. If you didn't, don't worry. We've got more events in the pipeline, which will be announced very soon. We managed to record each panel, so we'll be dropping each one every single week for you to have a listen to, but this week is all about the first time via schemes. What's out there? How do they work? Shared ownership first home schemes. At the event, we were joined by property experts, Tayo ak a Brickz with Tipz and Emmanuel a k a the E-man effect, who came on and gave some amazing gems. So, without further ado, here is your episode. Thank you so much for coming out Pennies to Pounds the event. You could have done anything after work on the Thursday. We choose, you chose to come here and I appreciate that very much. This is our second ever event. Can you imagine second ever and you guys all here. So thank you.

Kia Commodore: 1:19

I'm going to give you a brief little intro. I know you guys are all here for the panel. It's going to be incredible. But little intro first and then want to get into it. The panels that you can expect today. The first one is going to kick off in a second. We're going to talk about what options are there for you Shared ownership, first home scheme. What is that? What does that mean and how can that benefit you. Panel two is going to be renting versus buying. That's always a question Should I buy, should I rent? Don't worry, we've got a panel of experts who will be able to answer these questions for you. And then, lastly, we've got some amazing people. We've got a solo buyer and a couple who can be sharing their journeys of how they bought in their 20s the highs, the lows, not going to hide any of it and hopefully educate you guys. What, without forever ado, can I introduce my first panel. Oh, I can't get ahead of myself.

Kia Commodore: 2:01

Homebuyer stats. First, homebuyer stats. The average age of a first time buyer in the UK is 34 years old. It's a lot higher than I thought it would be. I think a lot of people think it's in their 20s you know that's always the conversations we talk about but it's 34 years old. Last year the average first time homebuyer deposit was around £62,000. Now I need to mention that this does include London. So when you minus London and half, that that's about the average for the rest of the UK, but including London is around £62,000. 21% was the average percentage for a first time buyer's deposit. So I know we've had 0% mortgage recently. There's obviously 5% in the market, 10%, but 21% is about the average and £300,000 was, on average, the price of a first time buyer home last year. Again, we're including London in that. So minus £100,000, and that's about the average around the rest of the UK. Now it's my first panel, so please can you guys clap for the E-Man Effect.

Kia Commodore: 2:59

Emmanuel Asoukwo and Tyogh Intunday Bricks with tips. Please come up. Where are you guys? Take a seat. Take a seat. Take a seat. My incredible panel. How are you guys doing?

Tayo Oguntonade: 3:11

Good good, good, Good good. Happy to be here, Happy to have you guys. Thank you, thank you.

Kia Commodore: 3:16

So tell us a little bit about yourselves first.

Tayo Oguntonade: 3:18

All right, cool. So me, I'm wearing a hat today because I don't have a trim. Let's get that out of the way. Honestly, I love that. To begin with, my name is Tayo Oguntonade. I'm the co-founder of Bricks with Tips, which I founded with my wife, antonette Where's she, antonette? She's over there. Woo, that's going to say it. And we created Bricks with Tips to kind of like bridge the education gap that there is in property and make home ownership available and something that's attainable for more and more people Amazing.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 3:49

Yeah, I'm Emmanuel Asuquo. I'm a financial advisor, qualified financial advisor. Qualified mortgage broker. I started off at the tender age of 22 as a financial advisor in Barclays and realised that I never saw nobody that looked like me, either with my colleagues or my clients, and got tired of just helping rich people get richer. So I left that and went online and started to teach people online. And here I am.

Kia Commodore: 4:14

Amazing, and you're an author as well, right?

Emmanuel Asuquo: 4:16

Oh yeah, I'm an author as well. Cheese, I'm a big deal, I'm a big deal, you're a big deal, you're a big deal, you're a big deal, you're a big deal On here, oh, and I should also mention that these two amazing panellists panellists, sorry are famous on TV.

Kia Commodore: 4:27

You're on TV and I've done TV with both of them, right? So we've done Steph's Packed Lunch together, haven't?

Tayo Oguntonade: 4:30

we, yes, we have. Yeah, that was excellent.

Kia Commodore: 4:32

Yeah, that was incredible. It was, and we did our Channel 4 show Money in my Mind last year. So these I've got big people on the stage guys, so make sure you take it in. As I mentioned, there's a QR code in the corner. If you have any questions, please scan it. You can put your questions anonymously. I can see it on here. If you don't have a question that you want to ask, but you want to see what questions are on there, have a look. You can upvote them so I might take one or two questions. So if there's one you want answered, I recommend you put a heart next to it. I will see it and I'll ask it. But first of all, first question to both of you. Let's start with you, tyra. What schemes are out there for first-time buyers?

Tayo Oguntonade: 5:05

Helped Buyer's gone now. That was a really popular one, and probably one of the most popular ones right now is Shared Ownership. There's other ones like First Home Scheme, right to Buy. It's also worth noting as well that there's schemes with mortgage lenders as well and home builders. So, for example, you've got Save to Buy with Fairview New Homes. If we flip over, that's a home developer. If we flip over to lenders, you've got things like Helping Hand with Nationwide. There's something out there for everybody. Everybody's trying to make it possible for first-time buyers.

Kia Commodore: 5:37

Amazing. Okay, so because you mentioned a few, let's break down the Shared Ownership scheme for us, then Can you tell us how that works?

Tayo Oguntonade: 5:42

Okay, cool. So Shared Ownership is a scheme where you can buy a share of a property. So if we picture a £400,000 apartment which there's plenty of in London, as you know Shared Ownership allows you to buy a share of it, so you could buy 25% of that £400,000 apartment. On top of that, while you're buying that 25% share at a value of £100,000, you could put down a 5% deposit. So that means that by putting down £5,000, you have access to what is a £400,000 flat where you're only buying 25% of it, which is that £100,000. Now you've only bought £100,000 of it. You're going to rent the remaining £300,000 that you don't own, the remaining £75,000 that you don't own. So a lot of people call it part-by-part rent. So effectively, you're buying a share of it and you're renting the rest, and the idea is that over time you will staircase, which means that you own 25% today. Maybe next year you staircase up to 50% by buying another 25% of that. So that's kind of how Shared Ownership works.

Kia Commodore: 6:47

Amazing. Could you break down another scheme for us please?

Emmanuel Asuquo: 6:52

I think one of my favourites, I like, is Right to Buy. So that's something that I have loads of conversations with people where, basically, if you grew up in a council house which many of us did after a certain period of time you get to be able to buy that house and get a discount on that. The discount is around 115K. I mean, who's given us 115K to buy our first house? Now, one of the big problems with Right to Buy is that it tends to be our parents that tend to go first. They tend to obviously be older, which means in regards to mortgage, in regards to their income, might not be enough, and obviously these houses tend to be in places like Brixton, stratum, peckham, all over the place, which tend to be quite expensive. So this is where children can then go on as well and buy together.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 7:40

Now, one of the big arguments I get with like, ah, I don't want to buy with my brother, or I don't want to buy with my sister, why, ah, I don't want to live with them. So what are you going to do for the next five years, while you save, you're going to be living with them. It just doesn't make no sense to me. So if you're going to live with them anyway, any better that you live together and then you're building equity to then be able to go part separate. One of the biggest problems I think, especially when it comes to property, is that we think too singular. We feel like we want 100% and a lot of the time when you turn around you realize that for a lot of us we have 100% of nothing Like. We are very proud and very much chesed, and I know my worth, but when you put your net worth in the calculator the answer is zero. So it's very, it's very.

Kia Commodore: 8:23

You're coming across. Wow, that's hitting home, right Wow.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 8:27

Me. I only took facts. That's all I came here to do. So it's really important that we understand that actually we don't have to buy our dream home on the first go. We don't have to have 100% of it on the first go. We can share it and even better, if we can share it. I always tell people, for me, with a lot of these things, is your family or your family members if you're lucky enough to have them should be your first business partners if possible. That's where we should start thinking about family wealth, like, okay, what can we do together? And again, that takes time, that takes trust, that takes culture. And if you can't do it, if that's something that you can't do with your family now, please take it and say, like, when I start to build my own family, these are the habits that I want to be able to build for that generation.

Kia Commodore: 9:07

Love that. Thank you so much. First home scheme.

Tayo Oguntonade: 9:11

Yes, the first home scheme is a scheme whereby new-build homes are available for first-time buyers. Now, with that specific scheme, you can get a discount between 30% and 50% and they prioritize people that live in a specific area. So if you live in, let's just say barking, they will put you on a priority list and also if you're a key worker, you're also on a priority list. Now, the big problem with first-home scheme is that there aren't that many properties that fall under that scheme. I think in 2021, only 52 people completed on the first home scheme home, which is really really low. So, while it sounds good on paper, one thing I'll say to any aspiring first-time buyers is don't wait for schemes to come round. So don't save your money and say that, yeah, I'm going to wait until this scheme suits me effectively. If it suits you at the time and it's ready at the time, go for it. But I remember when I bought my first home in 2015, I think David Cameron was PM at the time he had a scheme that was almost identical to first-home scheme. And I'm thinking right, 50% of the property, why not? But I mean they'd be lying, right, they'd be lying. So I said to myself, let me just score the women, do it myself. Lo and behold, the scheme never launched. He was just doing it to get votes and I would have been waiting for nothing, right? So? And since then I went and bought a property myself which has gone on to do extremely well. So I say don't wait for schemes.

Tayo Oguntonade: 10:43

The other thing to note about the first-home scheme as well is that that discount is passed on. So if I explain that if you bought a house for 300K and they gave you a 50% discount, you'd be buying it for 150K, which is great, that house that is actually worth 300K goes up in value to 400K, so great. That's 100K equity, right, that increase from 300K to 400K. However, the discount stays on the house. So when you actually sell it and move on, you have to give the next buyer let's say you're the next buyer 50% off. So where I paid 150K for it, when I sell it to Kia, the true value is 400K, but Kia's got to get a 50% discount, so I'm only going to get 200K. So instead of getting 100K equity, I'm getting 50K, which is still good. 50k is still good, I'm saying, but just need to bear that in mind.

Kia Commodore: 11:35

That's a really good point actually, emmanuel. You help a lot of people as a financial advisor when it comes to saving, so let's talk about what's out there for people who are looking to save and how that can benefit them.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 11:48

I think there are a few schemes, but I think the biggest thing with saving is and I always tell everyone is to understand the difference between what you need and what you want. It's a problem. It's a big problem, like when I sit down with clients, we do a financial review and I always tell people how much you spend on this by the time we go through. You know one thing I always tell people like you can have pride and we can be happy, and there's just this special app that you use and it takes all your ego away. It's called online banking. Some of us we need to connect with our online banking because the way we are walking and moving, even the way we are spending this contactless and tapping we know you're praying, you're tapping. You don't know if it's gonna go through. It's not gonna go through. You need to be connected to your online banking. Okay, so that should be an app that you should spend more time on than Tinder or all that. I don't wanna start, but there are certain apps that you know I spend a lot of time on that are making you no money. So it's really important that you understand the difference in what you need and what you want. And then also for me, it's about then looking at okay, now that I understand that difference, what am I putting away to actually say for the future? So if I say, okay, I wanna buy a property, that's a goal, what am I putting away to actually do? I feel like we're not intentional. We say a lot of stuff because it sounds right, yeah, and you can tell yourself anything you wanna say. You can say one day I'm gonna no problem clap for yourself. But the reality is is what are you doing to get there? And that's the difference between people that achieve it and people that don't. And so for me, I think a lot of these schemes, like the help to buy scheme I mean the lifetime ISR these are good if it makes sense for you. But the reality is are you ready for the commitment? Because I've seen people they set it up and they start and it's great because you get a bit from the government and everything goes in and it builds up over time. But then Afro Nation comes. Everything is in the bin. It's in the bin. You're even taking it out and losing, because if you take it out, they take back the 20% that they top you up. But remember, because they've added 20% is more. So you actually get back less than what you put in if you take it out and people are ready to do it for enjoyment. So don't just do things because they're out there.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 13:49

Make sure you've got your first working on your mindset. Make sure you're ready to commit. Don't over commit. You can start small and then build up over time. Sometimes we go so hard on that we just go all out like no enjoyment. You know bread and water and then you know after six months, sustainable. You hit your life and now you're just spending everywhere. You know what I mean. So make sure that it makes sense for what you're doing. Be realistic with your goals. Like I wanna buy a house in 12 months in London on 20K. Please calm down now. Calm down for what. Relax. Like, let's make it make sense. So let's have realistic goals for yourself. But, yeah, utilize whatever's available. Two years ago.

Kia Commodore: 14:28

That's a really good point. I think being realistic is a key one. I think sometimes people have massive goals. I mean I love to live in a mansion, have a lot of mansion money. Probably not, Probably not, but it's okay, it's right. When I get there, Let me ask you the entire. I wanna call you bricks because that's your brand. You're wearing a brand, right?

Tayo Oguntonade: 14:42

I'm gonna call you bricks Branded is everything right. You have to represent. You have to represent.

Kia Commodore: 14:47

When it comes to you mentioned earlier about council properties, that's, you know, emmanuel mentioned it, right, yeah, and there's a lot of people whose parents may have been herring to the discount or they've been living there, and I think that's a very big one. I've spoken to people in the audience and that's a big one. Yeah, how does that process work? What does that look like? I think sometimes people get offered that you know, do you wanna purchase it? But it's like, okay, wow, I don't know what this means. What should I do? What should I prepare? So what does that look like?

Tayo Oguntonade: 15:11

So effectively, what you wanna look at is who is on the tendency, because that's who right to buy is going to apply to you In certain circumstances. Some people may have to do a little bit of prep work. What I mean by prep work is that in a lot of these situations, just like Emmanuel was mentioning, your parents might be the only ones on the tenancy scheme and on the tenancy agreement, and they may be near to retirement or retired, which means that they don't have the income for the mortgage or whatever it may be in a lot of scenarios like that. So what I mean by prep work is that in some cases, you may need to get on the tenancy, and you can do that by just speaking to the council as well, so that you can use your income for the mortgage that you're going to get. The next thing you're gonna do is you literally just have to make the council aware or see if you are eligible for that discount, and many people will find that they are, because there's the requirement isn't huge, it's like three or five years, and a lot of people are living in these properties for 10 years and remember, it's not in the property that you're currently in, it's how long you've been in tenancy agreement over several properties, so a lot of people are eligible and you can get, like I mentioned, over 100,000 pounds discount. The next thing the council will come and do is come out and value the property.

Tayo Oguntonade: 16:21

Now this is where it does get tricky and I did a video on this a few months ago. We did a video on it. Properties in London are inexpensive, right, and while 120K is a huge discount 120K on a 600K flat, which I'm trying to say you still need to service that 480K mortgage and it's probably worth you guys knowing that typically the salary that you need to service a mortgage the way to do it really easily is that you divide the mortgage by four and a half and those numbers can be quite high, especially when you're trying to service a 480K mortgage. However, if the council comes out and they value the property at like 400K, it's probably a number that a lot of people can work with, or especially if they're like him and said join in with siblings and do that together On a sidebar. On a side note, I'm a huge fan of co-buying. A note for you guys to understand is that in 2022, 60% of all first-time buyers bought, with someone more than half bought as a pair. That's the way the trend is going. Don't ignore it, pay attention to it. But anyways, you do it with a sibling and you try and service that mortgage effectively and that's kind of how it works.

Tayo Oguntonade: 17:35

The great thing about right to buy as well before I move on from it is that that situation where you've got a 400K property that you've been living in, you're used to it, your support system is there, you want to buy it. The government comes in and says, right, we can give you a 120K discount off it. That discount is so large that a lot of lenders will say to you that you don't actually need a deposit, because what is going on is that that property is worth 400K and the discount you're getting is equivalent of a 120K deposit. So they'll say to you all right, so long as you've got enough income to service this mortgage, you don't have to put down a deposit. And remember, under 400K you wouldn't have stamped the lease. So you only have to pay a little bit of things here like legal fees and so on and so forth.

Kia Commodore: 18:18

That's amazing. That's a good point to know. I think there's quite a few people in this room who are interested in that, so thank you so much, Emmanuel. Yes, when it comes to saving up a deposit, right, that's always the thing you mentioned earlier about not, you know, don't have bread and water, but how can people figure out A how much you need to save and, B what's a realistic timeframe?

Emmanuel Asuquo: 18:39

Yeah, I think one of the things Tyra said about the fact that sometimes you have to look at the stats. Like you said, 60% of first-time buyers are buying train. Now, if you looked on social media, you wouldn't see that, because obviously they're taking pictures separately very clever. But Because everyone has to take the pictures with the key right, you get more likes if you're on your own. So it's all about the likes right.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 19:02

So again, for me, before anything, let social media be social media. Understand that it's a highlight, real. And also sometimes you have to use critical thinking. That's because somebody has a key next to a car or a house does not mean they own the car, does not mean they own the house. When you start to understand content, then you know content is content and real life is real life. And so a lot of the time you can't just believe something just because you see you have to start using some critical thinking In regards to like getting there.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 19:28

For me, I'm always about reverse engineering. Anything I do in life, I don't talk about where I'm at today, because that's one of the worst problems. You're going to remind yourself that you got overdraft, that you're in there, that your boss talks to you recklessly. You hate your life. Forget that. Forget that we can't change that. That's right now. But what we can do is say where do we want to be? And for me, I'm never focusing on where I'm at. I'm always focusing on where I want to be. And so I say where do I want to be? What does that look like? And then I work back on what do I need. So, for example, like Tyra said if it's four and a half times what house do I want to get? Ok. So if I know what house I want to get four and a half times OK, I have to put 10% deposit. So minus 10%, because that's what I now need to save what's left. Divide what's left by four and a half. Now that's the income I need to get to. So now I tell myself, can I get that doing the job that I'm doing? If I can get that doing the job I'm doing, what promotions do I need to take? What courses do I need to take? If I can't, do I need to now career change?

Emmanuel Asuquo: 20:23

Because we can talk about a lot of things, but some of us are doing jobs that are comfortable but they're actually not making us a lot of money, and so sometimes, actually, we have to say what's making money. So I'm personally, I'm seeing a lot of people moving to contracting, a lot of people moving into tech and so forth, because all these 25,000, 30,000 jobs that we like you know that give us high-five and let us come home and we can work. Brother, you're not buying yard on that. I'm telling you, you're going to be in that job for a very long time. And so it's really important for us to say if you're comfortable where you're at and you're happy where you're at, that's fine, stay in that job, do what you want to do, like there's balance. But if you say you want to get a yard and you want to buy, there's sacrifice to make, like I think sometimes we want stuff but we don't add the fact that there's a sacrifice to make to get there. So it's really important to look at the two.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 21:09

But for me, the biggest thing that changed my life was not focusing on where I'm at and all the things that are not going right, but where I want to be and then making the steps. And then every day, now I'm focusing on tomorrow. I don't even I'm not focusing on the once I've worked it out. If I know it's going to take me three years, forget three years. It's too long. You'll be reminding me, making yourself go crazy. All I need to know is every day I need to do. What do I need to do today to ensure that, as long as I do what I'm supposed to do today, three years will come and I will get my team. And so when you start to work it bit by bit, it becomes more realistic and before you know a year is gone. You're like, wow, 33% down. Do you know what I mean? And that's how it. That's how you get to achieve your goals. Yeah, I love that.

Kia Commodore: 21:47

I think sometimes you get so caught up in how far it is and how much you'd save so you say you know what, forget it, forget it. I can stay at my mum's house all day, it's fine. I think when you said you break it down into smaller chunks, now you can actually picture how you're going to get there and notice that you want to take that's amazing, you man Back to you. I'm going to ask you how can someone okay, so, we've explained a lot of schemes here, explained a lot here but how can someone know when a scheme is best suited to them? Because we mentioned shared ownership, we mentioned first home scheme. There's so many other ones there. How can someone know which one's going to work for them?

Tayo Oguntonade: 22:19

Ah, there's so many schemes that's a tricky one to tackle. What I'm going to say is that, unless we're talking about right to buy, unless we're talking about right to buy, which right to buy is free money.

Tayo Oguntonade: 22:30

if I'm keeping it in a buck with you, I'm going to go back into right to buy, the prohibitions, go back into right to buy. What we need to understand, Jay, is that when you go right to buy, right, you can and remember. A lot of any wealth that's built in this life is going to take time, but right to buy is going to be one of the quickest. The reason why I say that is that after five years you can sell the house and you don't have to give any money back to the government. They've given you 120K discount initially. Let's just say that the house goes up in value by 50K in 10K a year over those five years. That means, if you do choose to sell, that, 170K cash that's coming back to you, not considering any other factors. And there's not a lot of government schemes that are offering anywhere near anything like that. There's not a lot of investment schemes or hedge funds that are offering anything near that. So it's really, really important to take that in. So back to the point, Bar right to buy. I always tell people in my opinion, try and do it without a scheme first, Even if that means that you have to move far. Like Eman said, sacrifices what's coming, we'll come in for long.

Tayo Oguntonade: 23:31

Anyway, Jay, I'm trying to say that everything can't be as sweet as it was when you were living in your mom's house. If you want to take those risks not those risks, but if you want to take those steps to build in your future so look outside London the outskirts, Essex, Kent, Even. Look at Milton Keynes, even if it means looking at like somewhere and doing remote work or taking a longer train into London. Do you know what I mean? Because at the end of the day, there's 50-year-old men that live in London and have got a job in Southampton and they commute there every single day. So if we're at this age, this young age, and we want to achieve these things for ourselves, even somewhere else in our commutes in London is actually a small price to pay. And sometimes you need to hear it from experience, and it's something that I did. I bought my first home in an area called Sitting Born in Kent. It was about a 45-minute drive until you get to the edge of London right. But since then the property has done incredibly well and it's helped me build a portfolio. So I think it's very, very important for people to hear these things.

Tayo Oguntonade: 24:30

But yeah, back to schemes. Right? How do you know if a certain scheme is good for you? I would say that if the scheme is so specific, it's almost like it was made for you. I would say that a scheme like shared ownership is very, very popular, and the reason it's very, very popular is that property typically has high capital requirements. It needs a lot of cash. But shared ownership the example that I gave you access a 400K house with a 5K deposit. That's why it's got so much interest. But in my opinion, it should only apply to a very small amount of people. I mentioned a scheme that sounds like it's made for you. That would be someone, in my opinion, who has a requirement to be in London. Maybe you have, maybe you're a carer for a family member or a family friend, or maybe your children have a special support system that you need to be in London for. But, in my opinion, before you consider that, if you can move out of London, do that first, because it will pay you better. You'll be better off in the long run.

Kia Commodore: 25:32

I love that Well. As someone who's recently moved out of London, I'm not going to disagree. Come on, yeah, someone recently moved it's cool, isn't it?

Tayo Oguntonade: 25:39

You don't be soft enough. I'm a Suffolk girl now.

Kia Commodore: 25:40

I'm a Suffolk girl. My family are in the building. We're Suffolk people, aren't we POPs Suffolk? That's it. Yes, come on Right Before we round up. We're going to come to your Q&A, so if you want to put in any more questions, guys, or vote for any, I'll do it now. Last question for you guys, for both of you, tyra and Emmanuel what would you say is the one thing that everyone should consider when they embark on their home-buying journey, one tip that you leave everyone with? I'll start with you, emmanuel.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 26:06

Before I get to the tip, can I talk about the scheme thing?

Kia Commodore: 26:08

Go, yes, go for it.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 26:09

Sorry, just in regards to the schemes, I think we have to understand. So we live in a country where we don't really make anything as the UK we don't make. When you check your labels on anything in your yard, how much of it is made in the UK? So understand that the whole reason the government do this scheme is a way for them to make money. So as much as they're giving you a scheme, it's good for them. Do you understand?

Emmanuel Asuquo: 26:33

I remember if I want someone, the best way to make someone look after something is make them feel like an owner. Shared ownership makes you feel like an owner, because you say you've got the mortgage, you're paying and your name's there, but you pay all the service charge, you pay all the costs. Anything goes wrong. You want to sell it? They choose the price. You want to make any adjustments to the house? You have to get their permission. It's a great way to make people feel like they're an owner, but actually someone else is in control, and so you have to understand that. So for me, when it comes to the schemes, like Tyrell said, for me, most of them is not going to be for you, unless there's specifically a reason why. Now, yes, I've had clients who have done new builds, even around here in King's Cross, and they've done really well off the back of them. So I'm not saying that all of them are bad, but just understand anything that's brand new tends to be overpriced, so you're going to have to wait for the market to catch up.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 27:31

When I ask like my sister's buying a house and she's frustrating me because everything has to be fresh, she wants everything. I'm like if there's no value add, you're not making any money. But for her she just wants to walk in and put her stuff and there's nothing I can tell her. So it is what it is. But you have to understand that when you go with that mind, you're not going as an investor, do you understand? And I want us to become investors, and the way that we become investors is buy things that we can add value to. Too many times we want to buy things that already all the value has been added, you can't even know. There's no extension, there's no nothing that you can add to it, which means that it's going to take a long time for the price to go up and that goes up by demand. And if we have costs of living, we have things getting harder. People are more struggling. Things at the top end can only come down. So it's really important to understand Sometimes. I know the biggest thing I tell people to tip is that I know that there's a pride in ownership and wanting to buy. But don't buy to the detriment of your future generation.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 28:31

The idea is not to buy one yard, get to retirement and you've owned one house. That's not the plan. If that's your plan, throw that plan into. Bin Eman said so. That's not the plan. Do you understand? The plan is to buy and build and grow and have one or two behind you or have things that are working for you, because the plan is the whole plan. Whether I don't know if anyone ever told you the whole plan is to stop work. That is the plan. As soon as possible. The sooner you can stop work and your investments and the things that you have can pay for your lifestyle, the better. That is the plan. To enjoy time but the problem is that we give all our time to make money and then have no time to use our money to enjoy our time.

Kia Commodore: 29:13

Thank you, that was profound. I love that E-Man always comes to the gym. Every time I talk to him I always leave with some sort of gym I love that. I love that. Thank you, tio, let's go. What was the question? Again, you forgot the question. I went too hard, didn't I? You didn't even know if you answered the question. I know it's no idea. We have no idea. You don't know if you answered the question.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 29:30

We're taking this word for it.

Kia Commodore: 29:31

So what's the one thing that you would kind of advise anyone, or give anyone a tip if they're going to embark on a home-buying journey?

Tayo Oguntonade: 29:39

I'm going to give two really quickly. The first is find out where you are today. The reason why people dip into their savings and just go to buy is that they don't know that that 20K they got saved their goal was 21K. They're saving aimlessly, so they literally have no idea how close they are to their goal, so they keep on dipping backwards, dipping backwards and it just keeps on going like that and you could have got your goal a lot quicker. So find out what you can do today and determine what your goal is. Like you mentioned earlier, just reverse engineer that.

Tayo Oguntonade: 30:12

The second point which I always make for first-time buyers is when you're looking for a home, buy it for yourself, but also buy for the next buyer as well. What I mean by that is that if you don't drive, it doesn't mean that you should buy a house that's got double yellows everywhere for the one mile radius around it, right, and you're thinking I don't drive, I take bus. It matters because what you've done is that you've cut out every single next buyer that is a driver. They look where they wouldn't be interested, so you can only switch it on its head. If you drive. Don't buy a house that's like nowhere near a bus stop or a train station. You need to think about your next buyer as well, and that goes for schools, if you don't have kids, that goes for supermarkets, if you do online shopping. Always think about all of these things that people need around their area, and those are the fundamentals of a good buy, and just make sure you remember that. And then also, last thing that Eman said is that just remember as well your first home is at your forever home.

Tayo Oguntonade: 31:07

There was a lady who was looking for a house, one of my clients Well, she wasn't my client at this point, but she was looking for a house. I said what are your search filters? She said I'm looking for a free bed, semi-detached, something, something, something. I said have you tried to look for terrace houses? Because I said to her because right now I'm on my fifth house and I still live in the terrace. She goes, I don't know what to say and she said all right, cool, let me tweak the figures she bought in the next two months.

Kia Commodore: 31:29

So there you go. Those are some amazing tips, guys. Thank you so much. I'm going to round up, pause, please. Thank you so much. Right, we have quite a few questions, but we've got two that are top that I'm going to ask first. So first one, everybody can take it. So this question says which schemes would you recommend for buying a property as an investment, aka not to live in? So there might not be schemes, there might be things to consider it might be a better way to phrase it if you want to buy an investment property.

Tayo Oguntonade: 31:56

I'll say it's not a scheme. But if you want assistance on investing, co-buying with someone, group economics, right, find there's contracts that can protect you. There's even syndicates you can join. Put yourself out there, talk about what you do, talk about what you want to do. You can use social media. You can use LinkedIn, your network of people. You'll meet people and you can make contracts there airtight, that allow you to maybe put 25K into an investment that would typically take 100K as a starting point For people putting in 25K, you can still reap the rewards of it and in that process you not only reduce the amount of risk you've got because you haven't put up that whole 100K yourself, but you learn while you're only putting out 25% of the investment. You're learning 100% the whole way through the process, basically, and that just makes you better prepared when it's time to put down more of your money. Typically, there aren't schemes that help to invest because government don't want to help you make money, exactly.

Kia Commodore: 32:59

Right next question is how much deposit should you put down? Is it better to put more or less? Everybody can take that one.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 33:08

So it's based on. Typically it goes in 5%. So 5%, 10%, 15%.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 33:13

For me, it's more about the monthly payment than it is about the deposit. So focus on what's affordable monthly payment. That would then either guide you. Or you're going to buy a property that is a lower value in order to make sure the monthly payment makes sense, or you're going to put more money in to make sure the monthly payment's affordable. Does that make sense?

Emmanuel Asuquo: 33:31

So, for me, I always tell my clients focus on affordability. And again, that's why a lot of my clients now are not crying because interest rates are going up, because they already thought how long will it stay this low, like, do you know what I mean? Whereas a lot of people have stretched themselves, focusing on the maximum amount they can buy and getting this amazing home and this amazing area, and now they're having to sell it. Unfortunately, it's a very difficult situation. So, for me, focus on that monthly payment, because remember the commitment that you're making.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 33:59

I know we say 25 years. That's a long time. 25 years, 30 years, some people are doing 35 years. You're saying you're going to be able to pay this for the next 35 years and you haven't worked out If now, if there's two of you. If we have a child and my partner goes part-time or stays home to look after, can we still afford this? If we can't, ah, let's chill out, because sometimes all we're doing is buying just for it to get taken off us, and it can affect you in the long term. So really understand what your goals are, what you're trying to achieve, and make it make sense. Focus on that monthly payment.

Kia Commodore: 34:32

That's amazing. That's really good. Now last question is I have helped buy ISA, but now the scheme has finished. What can I do with it?

Tayo Oguntonade: 34:43

Help to buy ISA is done for anybody that doesn't know. So you can't get help to buy ISA, but lifetime ISA is better. Anyway, the help to buy ISA is still redeemable. So, I think a lot of people have confused help to buy scheme With the help to buy ISA. So the help to buy scheme you can't apply for anymore. If you already have an help to buy ISA, you can still redeem it when it's time to buy your property.

Kia Commodore: 35:06

Luckily, yes, and if you have help to buy ISA and you want to move to a lifetime ISA, you can do that as well as contact the provider, and then we've over a few as well. Thank you, guys so much. Before you leave the stage, can you let everyone know where they can find you and anything else they need to know about you?

Tayo Oguntonade: 35:19

Yeah, you can find Antonette and I BrickswithTips on Facebook, linkedin, instagram, tiktok, twitter everywhere, you're everywhere, you're both a friend Everywhere. Yeah, yeah, and that's about it.

Emmanuel Asuquo: 35:30

Yeah, same, the EmanEffect UK on all social media. Emanearlyoscuqocom is the website and yeah, get your Money Right is the book. So yeah, Love that.

Kia Commodore: 35:41

Thank you, guys so much. Give them a round of applause, please, guys. Thank you, woo-hoo, thank you, thank you, thank you.