Buying a House

Celine said:
hi carol

it has been published for a while now that properties are way over priced. i am not sure if it is the estate agents putting unrealistic evaluations on the house or it is the seller demanding these prices. but if i were you i would read up more on this in the news. i have been looking for 4 months now and i can see that properties are way over priced.
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Thanks Celine, yes..I was watching the market for 6 months before we became active serious buyers...however, I cant get anyone to give me an accurate estimate on what is a realistic offer to purchase when we find the house we want. I am beginning to hate estate agents, we even have a friend who is an agent and the minute I told him that we are finally in the serious market, every time he sends me a house in our price range and I show interest, there is an offer in and I must hurry if i want the house blaa blaa blaa. Im dealing with several agents at the moment and I swear, everytime we look at a house, the owner is not neg, there are several people interested and we must put an offer in asap and/or the seller is neg but hardly in my terms(the biggest difference in listed price and offer, according to the agent, has been 40k on a house with a leaking pool and sinking garden)--40k???? Im seriously beginning to think that the market is booming as no-one is negotiating, sellers are selling fast and buyers are basically paying asking price less 20-50k if that on 1bar houses... im so confused.

Lols, if there is an estate agent on this board willing to dip his nuts, please help!!! :o
 
Die Burger had an interesting article last year in the weekend property section, stating that the average selling price was almost 15% lower than the market entry price. The difficult part is to know when the property was first listed and at which price. Many houses are on the market for 4,5,6 months or more so by the time you see the ad, they might have dropped the price by 10% already.

The other bad thing for me is that you never reallow know if you will qualify for a full bond or at what terms before actually having an OTP to take to the bank. So it can be very intimidating, and possibly embarrassing. I guess you just have to be confident.
 
Stefanmuller said:
Die Burger had an interesting article last year in the weekend property section, stating that the average selling price was almost 15% lower than the market entry price. The difficult part is to know when the property was first listed and at which price. Many houses are on the market for 4,5,6 months or more so by the time you see the ad, they might have dropped the price by 10% already.

The other bad thing for me is that you never reallow know if you will qualify for a full bond or at what terms before actually having an OTP to take to the bank. So it can be very intimidating, and possibly embarrassing. I guess you just have to be confident.
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That's the thing, I already know what we qualify for etc etc,like I said, ive been watching the market and researching for 6 months already,its the blady estate agents..im sure when they see me comming, they think ahhh, naive and stupid just because I wear converse shoes and have a very visable tattoo...Its the only conclusion that I can come to that I dont get taken seriously. Im doing most of the work with estate agents now as Im so embarrassed with what my husband is willing to offer on houses that I see the homes alone and if I think they are worth the negotiating, I book a second appointment with husband. When they meet him, its all business...I dont know...will see tomorrow with the house we are going to look at, its a winner and we are very keen but we are going together to look at this one...fark, i might just die if my husband makes an offer and we get thrown off the property..*sigh*, i cant control his actions!
 
carol don't be put off by what your husband's offer is. he is not stupid he has obviously done his homework. my husband is also getting annoyed with me when i challenge the estate agents who take us to look at houses and i tell them straight that the property is way over priced and facts are facts. do these people think they dealing with a first time buyer? best they think again, i've done my little bit of homework here hehehe.

have you tried www.privateproperty.co.za

these are private sales with no estate agents involved in.
 
Carol35 said:
Hi everyone,

We are also actively in the buying market and seen a few places already, Ive been following this thread and the tips here have helped alot for future options.

Im also concerned as my husband seems to think the property market is in dire staits and everytime we look at a house, he proposes the most ridiculous offers. We havent submitted anything yet because I always feel bad about offering way below the asking price. I really dont want to do anyone in, especially home owners who are desperate but we are also desperate to find an affordable home. EG: We are looking tomorrow at a house that is advertised at R1.095k and husband is already saying if we like it, we start at 800k. Is that reasonable or are we going to piss off every estate agent we come across and no one will be willing to show us houses anymore? Im so worried about that too?

Any advise would be great!
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Hi Carol,

I've just been through this process and finally have my own house...

Initially the owner wanted R1.2m for the property.... they reduced to R1.1, I offered R900k, got it for R950k...

Never be afraid to offer something, even if you think the owner will reject it, the estate agent is legally obliged to present the formal offer to the home owner.... plus you need to hunt around for the right estate agent, I went through 5 before I found one that understood ME and my wants/needs....
 
I would ensure that electrical compliance is properly checked. Regardless of which property I purchased and despite getting an electrical compliance certificate, there have always been issues (DB board, pool pump, cabling for down lights etc). I would check structure for cracks (or recent paint jobs). I would also inspect roofs and ceilings for any water leaks - where easy to overlook but can run into the thousands.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
I would ensure that electrical compliance is properly checked. Regardless of which property I purchased and despite getting an electrical compliance certificate, there have always been issues (DB board, pool pump, cabling for down lights etc). I would check structure for cracks (or recent paint jobs). I would also inspect roofs and ceilings for any water leaks - where easy to overlook but can run into the thousands.
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Damn straight on the electrical compliance aspect... my house got a nice clean bill of health... but the electrics are a MESS...

Thankfully I'm gonna do a bit of renovation sometime soon so the house will get mostly rewired when I do it.
 
Hello all,

weve been in the market for a year and still hunting, the prices that people ask for.their home is absurd, we're about to give it in.... these tips are awesome, thank-you
 
How does offering a price work? Is it a verbal procedure like normal negotiations with for example a car, where only the agreed on price gets converted to a formal multi page OTP contract, or must all offers be via OTP and selected from the pool? So is there any bargaining before going through the OTP process? Also, what is the time frame of drawing up an OTP and it being reviewed, and if rejected, drawing up a new one.

For example, a house is listed for R1 mil. Can you offer R800k, they reject, they want at least R950k and you reply by offering R870 and they return with R900k on which you settle. Can this happen within a few minutes, or does it require 3 seperate OTP's?
 
Either side can cross out the offer on the OTP, initial it.. and if the other side initials the change its legally binding...

So it can go back and forth a few times... in a few minutes (mine took 2 hours)... or it can take a few days.
 
A small tip. Once you have moved into your house, and everything seems perfect, what about the traffic in the mornings and evenings. Here around Cape Town, they have very few feeder routes into the main artery. Check to see how difficult it could be to be able to get to work, this might seem small, but its very important. Also if you have kids, the schooling area is very important.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Either side can cross out the offer on the OTP, initial it.. and if the other side initials the change its legally binding...

So it can go back and forth a few times... in a few minutes (mine took 2 hours)... or it can take a few days.
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Where you in the same room with the seller or was this through the agent. Haha, i would be so nervous if the seller was in the same room>

Another thing, what is the difference between the municipal evaluation and estimated value? If a house is on the market for 1.2m and the municipal evalution is 935k, can we hold that as a bargaining tool at all? We are really interested in this particular house, the agent told me on the phone that he didnt want to waste my time but the house needed alot of work and has been on the market for quite some time, owners have droped so far from 1,4m. Going to see it next week and want to be clued up.
 
Jaxy said:
Hello all,

weve been in the market for a year and still hunting, the prices that people ask for.their home is absurd, we're about to give it in.... these tips are awesome, thank-you
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Tell me about it. Some asking prices are absolutely laughable. The house we saw yesterday was 1.095. Garden was a sand pit and you had to walk through the bedrooms to get to the braai area. I wouldnt pay more than 800k for it to be honest!
 
I bought a year ago and am now also a trustee of the Body Corporate. If buying into a sectional title complex find out if the complex is in good financial standing and what % of units are in default. If the amount is greater than 10% the complex is not being well managed financially and you should steer clear. If too many units default in payment the body corporate account can go negative and then essentially it becomes impossible to do critical maintenance to the common property and also you can't sell your unit. The other option is they overcharge the people who do pay to cover those who don't which also sucks as you end up paying 10% more on your levy than you should!

Also speak the neighbors if you can. The best info always comes from other residents. When we came to see our unit we asked if we could walk around the complex and just chatted to people in their gardens or walking their pets. Found out that the complex was fairly quiet, well managed, pet friendly, etc. Also found out that most units had owners in them rather than tenants which sometimes can mean its quieter and better managed.

Make sure to get a copy of the Body Corporate rules before signing to check if you are happy with the complex house rules. In particular check the pet policy and if you are happy. If you have 3 cats that are like your children and are moving into a complex that does not allow cats or only allows 2 you may have an issue. Likewise if you hate cats due to allergies then don't move into a pet friendly complex perhaps.

If you see signs of recent patch work or fresh coats of paint that may have covered mould or damp perhaps get a qualified inspector from inspectahome or someone like that in to check things out as that can get expensive to fix. Same with any signs of damp on the roof. Get it checked! We did not till after we had bought and have found major issues with our roof. Fortunately that is covered by the body corporate but many roofs in the complex have these issues (bad installation) so the complex is at risk due to the cost of fixing all of that.

Otherwise, good luck!
 
Carol35 said:
Where you in the same room with the seller or was this through the agent. Haha, i would be so nervous if the seller was in the same room>

Another thing, what is the difference between the municipal evaluation and estimated value? If a house is on the market for 1.2m and the municipal evalution is 935k, can we hold that as a bargaining tool at all? We are really interested in this particular house, the agent told me on the phone that he didnt want to waste my time but the house needed alot of work and has been on the market for quite some time, owners have droped so far from 1,4m. Going to see it next week and want to be clued up.
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You can't REALLY use the municipal valuation as a bargaining tool.. but you can use it as a benchmark from where to build your offer... BUT never ever ever ever believe an agent... do you own research... find out what other houses in the area have been sold for recently, etcetc... and then offer based on that... and if the owner doesn't accept the offer... then its their loss.

Talking about Durban, (roughly).. the municipal valuations are all slightly above the actual market value of properties atm.
 
re: Schools

It's not enough to be near a school (as we're now finding out, to our horror.) You need to be in the catchment area, my house is 'near' tons of schools but isn't the right are for most of them. That catchment area also changes every year (usually by getting smaller.)
 
for JHB : http://ims.joburg.org.za/joburg/
Gives property values :p
If you are seriously considering putting in a offer on a property, look at www.propiq.co.za for a valuation report on the property and area. (+-R70) Quite interesting most of the times. Never buy a property over it Municipal valuation. Especially in the current market.

FNB recently said that house prices are about 25% over valued. Offer a lower amount. They can only say No. :D
If they say No, make another slightly higher offer, or leave the offer for a few months.
 
Always start at a lower offer on a house. Friends of ours offered R400k less on a property listed sales price and the owner took it.

Like everybody said, the seller can only say "no". But then you can counter offer or walk away and look for a new place. We recently sold and the buyer offered R30 k less than the asking price, we took it as we wanted to move out of the complex we live in.
 
Just an update, we finally found a house and put in an offer 300k below asking price, to our utter shock, it was accepted.

Now the waiting game for the bond. Does anyone know how long approval takes from time of submitting the OTP to the bond originator?? this waiting might kill me!
 
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