Truck driver Steve Smith says he’s never had a high income, but he’s managed to buy two houses through sacrifice and being thrifty.
While he bought his first home 15 years ago, and his second before the boom of 2020, Smith says he’s often worked for low or minimum wage in that time.
Smith, 40, bought in Dunedin in 2019, and also owns a property in Palmerston North that he’s renting out.
Equity from the first house, which he paid $197,000 for 15 years ago, helped him get into the second.
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Five years ago, he moved to Dunedin, fancying the South Island scenery for his driving. That didn’t immediately work out, and his first job was as a motorbike postie, which he describes as “the old minimum wage job out in the cold of winter in Dunedin – in all the rain and icy conditions”.
“Nothing much was happening in Palmy, so I took off on my motorbike with a dream in my head. I didn’t have a job or a partner,” he says.
In previous travels the length of the country, he’d liked Dunedin, and thought it was comparable in size to Palmerston North. Once there, he gave himself two years to buy a house.
Smith’s house in Palmerston North is now rented out to cover the mortgage payments.
“It was probably quite a lofty goal, ambitious that’s for sure. I never worked a decent paying job because truck driving isn’t valued. Not unless you’re working for Fonterra.
“I did a lot of poor pay, long hours, not many breaks.”
He managed to find a house “by the highway, lots of noise, no garage, couple of roof leaks. Nobody wanted it.”
He paid $240,000 for the three-bedroom, 1950, brick and concrete-tile house, and needed flatmates to help him cover the mortgage for the first two years.
Supplied
The view from the lounge of Smith’s Dunedin home.
Having flatmates is part of the sacrifice that lower-income earners have to make to own a home, Smith says, especially if they’re single.
“A lot of single people might have had not great experiences with flatting. I think anyone will agree: After a long day at work you don’t want to come home and see other people’s dishes. It’s just the added stress.
“(With no one else there) you can turn your music up as loud as you want.”
He had a similar strategy in Palmerston North, where he bought a four-bedroom house, so he could rent out three rooms. “I could have got a three-bedroom in a better area, and nicer, but the four-bedroom allowed me to pay for it.”
He says he’s had to be thrifty to be a homeowner. “I wasn’t great academically at school but one thing I did learn in economics is needs and wants. You need a house to live in. You don’t need takeaways twice a week.”
As well as considering takeaways a treat, he buys clothes from op shops and buys secondhand furniture. The “new” kitchen in his Dunedin home is secondhand.
Supplied
The new kitchen in Smith’s Dunedin home was actually bought secondhand.
“I’m not materialistic. I always say, ‘Never spend more than $100 on a TV’. I have a 42 inch that I paid $75 for, just off Trade Me. I refuse to buy a new television.
“One of the only things I’ll buy new is a phone. It’s a Nokia, not the latest and best.”
He enjoys the outdoors, including walking trails and mountain-biking, on a $200 second-hand bike.
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He drove a 1990 Ford Laser for more than 10 years. ”The most I’d spend on a car is $3000. It was one of my splurges when I came to Dunedin: I bought a 2000 Toyota Celica, which cost $3000 once I got it fixed up. It was a police repossession.
“I talk to some people and they’re like, ‘It’s going to have all these problems and high maintenance costs’, but if you know nothing about cars, you know Toyota is a good reliable brand. I haven’t had problems with it.”
Smith says if more people on low incomes think about their day-to-day choices, and lower their sights to homes that aren’t necessarily “everybody’s cup of tea”, home ownership could be a reality for them too.
He loves “everything” about owning his own home.
“No flat inspections. If you want to hang a poster, paint the room a different colour . . . I like to renovate.
“You don’t have to get permission to do anything.”
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