In this episode of "This Shared Ownership Thing" Podcast, Cheryl Gibbens (Marketing Officer) speaks with a fellow Aster Marketing Officer, who is also a recent Aster home shared ownership buyer, Lauren Allen. We discuss how Lauren went from selling Shared Ownership Homes to buying one herself #ThisSOThing
The conversation surrounding shares being purchased between 25-75% is based on the current shared ownership model and our shared ownership homes under the existing scheme. You may have heard that there are some changes to the Shared Ownership model on the way. Whilst this doesn’t impact on our current shared ownership homes for sale we will be updating our website with more details around the new model soon. If you have any questions about this in the meantime please do get in touch with us or visit the Government’s website to find out more.
In this episode of "This Shared Ownership Thing" Podcast, Cheryl Gibbens (Marketing Officer) speaks with a fellow Aster Marketing Officer, who is also a recent Aster home shared ownership buyer, Lauren Allen. We discuss how Lauren went from selling Shared Ownership Homes to buying one herself #ThisSOThing
The conversation surrounding shares being purchased between 25-75% is based on the current shared ownership model and our shared ownership homes under the existing scheme. You may have heard that there are some changes to the Shared Ownership model on the way. Whilst this doesn’t impact on our current shared ownership homes for sale we will be updating our website with more details around the new model soon. If you have any questions about this in the meantime please do get in touch with us or visit the Government’s website to find out more.
Hello, and welcome to this shared ownership thing podcast. Each month we sit down to discuss frequently, asked questions, share the incredible stories of our customers. And we dispel the myths and the rumors of shared ownership. My name is Cheryl. I'm a marketing officer asked to sales, and this week I'm joined by a fellow Astor marketing officer who is also a recent Aster home, shared ownership buyer, Lauren Allen. And this episode, we're going to discuss how Lauren went from selling shared ownership homes to buy one herself. Before we get started. Let's learn a little bit more about yourself, Lauren. Are you ready? Let's go. Okay. So here's a few quick fire questions for our listeners to get to know you. Number one, are you an early riser or do you love LA and I, um, early to bad and I like to sleep in, so a bit of both. So how many hours sleep do you like to get a night or nine or 10? Oh yeah. I kind of go. Yeah. Um, are you a tea or coffee drinker? T P strong and sweet. Do you prefer dogs or cats? Doggies all the way from me? Yes. Completely with you on that one. And lastly, what is your favorite snack? Because you know, all we talk about is snacks in this team. Yeah. So my life does revolve around chocolate. I do like for halo, I also like the brand. If I'm feeling really, really special, I need bougie pigeon shuffles. Oh, that sounds very bougie. Yes, exactly. That vegan dairy-free organic hit me right out with them. I love that from you loss
Speaker 2:
[inaudible]
Speaker 1:
Okay. So Lauren, your shared ownership journey to all of our listeners, presumably you found this podcast as you're interested in shared ownership and you want to find out more, wow. You've come to the right place, shared ownership for anyone that's not too sure is when you buy a share of a home and you pay rent on the shed that you don't yet own, if you're able to do so, you can then go on to buy more shares of the home. And this is called staircasing. This enables you to get a home that you want for a price that you can afford, like how our Lauren has. Now let's chat about someone who used to sell shared ownership homes, and then decided to buy one for herself. Lauren, can you remember the point when you thought that shared ownership was right for you? So we wanted to get on the property ladder. Like a lot of other people, we aspire to have something, an investment zone we owned and could call home. So when I came into the shadow ship team, I didn't know anything about
Speaker 3:
It. So it gave me a lot of insight into the product and how it could work. And then I realized it would really work for me and my family.
Speaker 1:
Perfect. And it has done just that hasn't it?
Speaker 3:
It has
Speaker 1:
Amazing. So how did it feel to be the Astor customer when you're used to being the person selling the shared ownership homes?
Speaker 3:
I think that was good for me, cause I felt like I could see both sides of the journey. So I could sit from a customer's point of view as well and what a customer would want and the information we need and how we can help as a team. Okay.
Speaker 1:
Amazing. So, yeah, I guess that helps you now you're back to sell in the shared ownership homes, you know, what sort of information the customer will need now.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. And the sort of questions people ask on a surprise. Cause I was asking those questions to
Speaker 1:
Perfect. So if someone was thinking of going down the shared ownership route, what advice would you give them?
Speaker 3:
I would say, do your research look up and know your product and what you're getting into, get financial advice and know what you can afford and be comfortable with it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. That's perfect. And is there anyone that you would recommend for the financial advice?
Speaker 3:
So we worked alongside TMP. They are mortgage brokers as well. So I use them just because I knew then it was all in their hands and they knew what they were doing and I had access to shadow and ship mortgages.
Speaker 1:
Perfect. Yeah, no, that was great advice. And we can pop in the details about TMP in the bio for this podcast. So thank you. Um, what are the main benefits of shared ownership to you?
Speaker 3:
To me, it was about affordability. Being able to afford the house I wanted and be able to afford the life I want. At the same time, I didn't have to spend years saving a deposit cause my life was happening now. I didn't want to put it on hold while I was living with my parents to save for the deposit. The fact that pets are allowed in shadow and ship houses. Whereas with renting, you can't always have pets. The fact that you can decorate your home and make it your own was really important to me. As you know, I love Pinterest. It's a decorating home and making it into my own was something I really wanted to do. And I liked the security of having a share in a home.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. You've got something that you own. So the money that you pay, it goes towards something you own
Speaker 3:
Absolutely
Speaker 1:
Love that you've been living in your shared ownership, home and wheelchair. I believe it's for almost three years now. So what do you love about the area and what made you choose the area to start off with?
Speaker 3:
So I really wanted to live in the town where I'm from. I didn't want to have to move out there. I've done that before, when I felt very lonely and isolated. So being able to walk to family and friends with something I really wanted to do, and it's a very beautiful town wheelchair. So that was something I was really interested in staying here.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. I think it's quite common. Isn't it for shared ownership to help people stay in the area that they originally grew up in because some people might find that they're priced out of the area. So they have to move away from family and friends, but it's allowed you to stay in that area that you're from.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it would be too expensive for me to buy it outright in this area. So shadow ship helped me with that.
Speaker 1:
Perfect. I love that. So thank you so much for sharing your story with us Lauren, and we hope you're as happy as ever in your home. We have more customer stories available for our listeners to see on our website, just visit astor.co.uk forward slash life stories to watch more of our customer testimonials.
Speaker 3:
I'm going to thank you now.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 3:
No worries. See you later. See you later.
Speaker 2:
[inaudible]
Speaker 1:
Okay. So after hearing the amazing story from Lauren and her finding her very own shared ownership journey, our next topic, we're going to share some of the questions that we frequently get asked through, live chat on social media and on the phone from our amazing customers. First question, can I have a pet in a shared ownership home? So pets are accepted in shared ownership houses. In most cases, it's normally flats that are the exception. But the best thing to do is just to ask us, and we can check this with the specific sales negotiator for the home that you're interested in. As we know just how important this can be for you is shared ownership only for first time buyers. No, it isn't just for first-time buyers. You may have previously owned a home before, but to proceed with purchasing a shared ownership home, you must have no legal ties with any other property. If you are in the process of selling your current home, it will need to be sold or under offered to proceed. Do I have to buy the share advertised on the website? Okay. So there's two parts for this one, one for new builds and one for resales with a resale home, the minimum share you can purchase as the share that is being advertised at this is because this is the share that the current vendor owns and is selling. So you will be buying this share or even a higher share. If that's possible with new builds, you can buy a share between 25 to 75%. But we usually advertise our shared ownership homes at a 40% share as a starting point. But the affordability assessments are carried out with TMP. The mortgage people will determine what share you can afford to purchase. And if this is an affordable option for yourself, you may have seen or heard that changes are being made to the shared ownership model and lower shares can be purchased. But this doesn't impact on our current shared ownership homes for sale. And we will be updating our website with more details around the new model soon. So that is our three top asked questions that we've had recently on all of our different platforms, but for more answers to our FAQ's, you can visit astor.co.uk forward slash FAQ. Or you can ask your question direct by emailing homeownership, aster.co.uk, or contacting us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or via live chat on our website. Okay. So we've come to the end of episode, three of our, this shadow thing podcast. Thank you for listening. This podcast is brought to you by asked to sales visit astor.co.uk forward slash sales for more information.