Finding the right property

Matt91 said:
Get a pre-approved home loan through Ooba or SAhomeloans that seemed to make things go a little quicker for me.
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Very important.

To add to this, get all your documents in place. Scanned copies of your ID, 3 months banks statements, proof of residence, etc, and keep them in secure online storage.

And go register an account on Windeed. You will need it. Pull reports, deeds, etc of any property you are interested in. It's worth the money. Look at the history before you put in an offer.

If you are married, pull your original pre-nuptial from Windeed. Get your spouses ID, etc, and upload.

What I find is that going to the party prepared, puts you in front of the queue and shows you are serious. In my most recent purchase, the estate agent said I was the most prepared person he has worked with as I responded within minutes to every possible piece of document he needed.
 
derp90 said:
Yeah, there's a property I really like, save for nowhere to put the TV that works properly. It has to be in front of a window (nowhere else to put it).

Weird how a TV can be the deciding factor.
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Consider a roof mount? Just throwing it out there..
 
When u eventually find a property and decide to put OTP, spend a little on this company:

www.housecheck.co.za

Home - HouseCheck | Home Inspections

Housecheck provides detailed, independent home inspection reports so you can buy with confidence, avoid costly surprises, and protect your investment.
www.housecheck.co.za www.housecheck.co.za

Could save u lots of money further down the line or even get u a discount on the property u want to buy.
 
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derp90 said:
Yeah, there's a property I really like, save for nowhere to put the TV that works properly. It has to be in front of a window (nowhere else to put it).

Weird how a TV can be the deciding factor.
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And that's OK, you've got to live with the decision, just make sure you're not sabotaging yourself and if you are indeed ready to make the commitment.
 
What do you do when every time you find a nice property, you phone up the estate agent and "they've already accepted a cash offer"?

Sometimes I feel like I'm digging through the trash looking at the worst of the worst properties, and then when one comes along that looks nice it's already sold before it's even listed.

Who's making all these cash offers?
 
derp90 said:
What do you do when every time you find a nice property, you phone up the estate agent and "they've already accepted a cash offer"?

Sometimes I feel like I'm digging through the trash looking at the worst of the worst properties, and then when one comes along that looks nice it's already sold before it's even listed.

Who's making all these cash offers?
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I felt like that when we were looking for a place to rent in Cape Town lol. Was a bitch to get a place, view it and then apply just to be told it's already taken...

Dread looking for a place to buy in a year or 2.
 
TofuMofu said:
I felt like that when we were looking for a place to rent in Cape Town lol. Was a bitch to get a place, view it and then apply just to be told it's already taken...

Dread looking for a place to buy in a year or 2.
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It seems like everyone is trying to buy here now. The places to rent are complete trash. The places to buy are trash or sold before they're listed.
 
derp90 said:
It seems like everyone is trying to buy here now. The places to rent are complete trash. The places to buy are trash or sold before they're listed.
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Or very expensive, which is why we're renting first.
 
TofuMofu said:
I felt like that when we were looking for a place to rent in Cape Town lol. Was a bitch to get a place, view it and then apply just to be told it's already taken...

Dread looking for a place to buy in a year or 2.
Click to expand...

Even in Jhb it was a mission.
Agents don't reply to questions like "does it have fibre" and "does it allow pets", or they just don't respond when you use property24's message function.
Then when you call, it's taken, or you can view, but it's ****. Or too expensive.

The one we are renting now, my wife got a notification email about a new property going up as we were driving to another viewing one saturday, we called an hour later, booked a viewing for the same day, and sent through our application that same evening.

Many of the other shitty ones where the agent said "they will be gone by next week" were still in the market more than a month later.
 
I was house hunting before I could afford it. When I was ready I looked at below and more importantly above my price range, this was to get a sense of the market. It also allowed me to identify houses that were properly priced and houses that was above market and also long on the market and I made an offer to purchase on the same day.
 
Barbarian Conan said:
Even in Jhb it was a mission.
Agents don't reply to questions like "does it have fibre" and "does it allow pets", or they just don't respond when you use property24's message function.
Then when you call, it's taken, or you can view, but it's ****. Or too expensive.

The one we are renting now, my wife got a notification email about a new property going up as we were driving to another viewing one saturday, we called an hour later, booked a viewing for the same day, and sent through our application that same evening.

Many of the other shitty ones where the agent said "they will be gone by next week" were still in the market more than a month later.
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Yep they do that...

#AgentsAreTrash
 
House hunting can be a pain. Last year when I bought, we went to view about 15 house's in a period of 4 months before finding the house we bought.

I put in 2 offers at asking price and 1 offer R50k below asking and offer's was not accepted which really did make the process demotivating.

Therefore in my experience based on the property market I was viewing, people were putting in full asking prices offer. So basically it is about getting a feel of the market and prices before one truly knows if the agents are BS'ing or not. But this will be different, depending on the property market you are viewing.

I ended up getting the house I bought at R80k below asking price purely because I was first in line (I think I was the second person that viewed) and emotionally blackmailed the agent by letting her know how my previous experiences with agents were. I signed the OTP the same day only because I've been in the market for a couple of months, did alot of research and knew the game as I already read 3 previous OTP's so had an idea of what should be in the OTP or not.
 
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derp90 said:
What do you do when every time you find a nice property, you phone up the estate agent and "they've already accepted a cash offer"?

Sometimes I feel like I'm digging through the trash looking at the worst of the worst properties, and then when one comes along that looks nice it's already sold before it's even listed.

Who's making all these cash offers?
Click to expand...
Answering as an estate agent. I generally have a list of hot buyers in certain prices. The minute I do a valuation or the day the photos are done, I arrange a pop up show day and take my clients through. I do not do show days any more for the last 2 or 3 years, hence most houses are sold before even being listed.
 
Other Pineapple Smurf said:
Very important.

To add to this, get all your documents in place. Scanned copies of your ID, 3 months banks statements, proof of residence, etc, and keep them in secure online storage.

And go register an account on Windeed. You will need it. Pull reports, deeds, etc of any property you are interested in. It's worth the money. Look at the history before you put in an offer.

If you are married, pull your original pre-nuptial from Windeed. Get your spouses ID, etc, and upload.

What I find is that going to the party prepared, puts you in front of the queue and shows you are serious. In my most recent purchase, the estate agent said I was the most prepared person he has worked with as I responded within minutes to every possible piece of document he needed.
Click to expand...
Very good advice
 
nivo said:
When u eventually find a property and decide to put OTP, spend a little on this company:

www.housecheck.co.za

Home - HouseCheck | Home Inspections

Housecheck provides detailed, independent home inspection reports so you can buy with confidence, avoid costly surprises, and protect your investment.
www.housecheck.co.za www.housecheck.co.za

Could save u lots of money further down the line or even get u a discount on the property u want to buy.
Click to expand...
very good advice, but read the report objectively
 
Barbarian Conan said:
It depends. Having now looked at rental properties, there were a few that were listed very recently (same week), and when we wanted to organize a viewing they were already taken.

Then there were others which "all will be gone by this time next week", but you know that they have been on the market for 2 or more months already.
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Thats normal salesman talk. On property 24 the advert tells you how long the property has been on the market for.

If you like the property make an appointment to see it.

Even if your offer is low, an estate agent is legally obliged to take a written offer to present to the seller. If the agent is reluctant and the property is on open mandate go to another agent marketing the property. If on sole mandate go knock on the sellers door and explain the situation.
 
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