First Time House buyer

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travcaine

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Hi there,

My partner and I are looking to buy a house together, but have no idea where to even start. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Need help from the loan to the agents please?

We aren't in a rush but just want to start getting the ball rolling.
 
Subbed. I will hopefully be in the same situation soon :)
 
Ask your bank or reputable bond originator for your qualifying amount.
Decide if you want to spend that or less. Look around at show houses, or places advertised by reputable places.
Pick a house.
Sign.
Agent will walk you through the rest until everything is at the lawyers. Then lawyers take it from there.
If you are not happy with the selected company, say due to location then say so, and insist on a change before signing docs for lawyer.

The last part can take up to 12 weeks. So after the initial rush to complete paperwork you then hurry up and wait. When the legal work is done they submit on your behalf.
 
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I am currently in going trough this process with my wife.

1) Make sure to have about R90k for bond/transfer costs if you buy in the R1.4mil range.
2) Get a pre-approval. You can use a bond originator like Ooba
3) Keep an eye on properties in the price range you can afford in the area you are looking at. I have email notifications on Private property and Property24 and by now know exactly what I can expect when buying next year.
4) Go check out some of the show properties on Sundays. This also gets you to talk to different agents and get some info from them.
 
And do remember that there is a small chance of the first house you view being your dream house. It could take week or even months.

We've just bought a place after searching initially only every now and then. And the last 3 month we went looking at show houses every sunday and even viewed places during the week. We "took off 1 weekend a month"
(this was really accross 6 months, go-slow to intently)

Seller accepted deal. Full bond approval done now we wait on the legal stuff.

We signed for a bond that is abount 60% of what we could get. We were prepared to go up to 75%, but didnt want to go higher.
 
terencej said:
I am currently in going trough this process with my wife.

1) Make sure to have about R90k for bond/transfer costs if you buy in the R1.4mil range.
2) Get a pre-approval. You can use a bond originator like Ooba
3) Keep an eye on properties in the price range you can afford in the area you are looking at. I have email notifications on Private property and Property24 and by now know exactly what I can expect when buying next year.
4) Go check out some of the show properties on Sundays. This also gets you to talk to different agents and get some info from them.
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LoL,

I did forget the transfer and bond costs. Those you cannot add to the bond. That you need to have,beg,borrow, make a personal loan etc.
 
Sorry to hijack the OP's thread, but what would a recommended deposit % be? I know the more the better, but would there be a minimum recommended % to put down to at least cut down on the financed amount?

Also, how much (percentage wise) is a good sum to put away for unforeseen expenses (leaking roof, blown geyser, cracking tiles, etc)? Usually these problems happen just as you sign the OTP, as Murphy has a very bad sense of humour :p
 
PhireSide said:
Sorry to hijack the OP's thread, but what would a recommended deposit % be? I know the more the better, but would there be a minimum recommended % to put down to at least cut down on the financed amount?

Also, how much (percentage wise) is a good sum to put away for unforeseen expenses (leaking roof, blown geyser, cracking tiles, etc)? Usually these problems happen just as you sign the OTP, as Murphy has a very bad sense of humour :p
Click to expand...

This will depend. First time buyers need to cough up some big moola just to cover the Bond/Transfer fees. Like I said on R1.4 mil I know for a fact it is in the R90k region. So whatever you have left after you paid those fees you could put down as a deposit. lol
 
PhireSide said:
Sorry to hijack the OP's thread, but what would a recommended deposit % be? I know the more the better, but would there be a minimum recommended % to put down to at least cut down on the financed amount?

Also, how much (percentage wise) is a good sum to put away for unforeseen expenses (leaking roof, blown geyser, cracking tiles, etc)? Usually these problems happen just as you sign the OTP, as Murphy has a very bad sense of humour :p
Click to expand...
We have an existing bond with nedbank. We got a 100% bond as we then use our money for the other big costs. We squeezed them until we are paying prime less 1%.
My accounts, and a few other bits are also through the same bank. That does help.
We're painting and tiling old place. Once ready we'll sell that and then place the proceeds in the new bond.
And to help us further down the line we asked for an access bond.

That way we can draw on that money if we have a big emergency, and in the meantime it will keep the interest low.




If you can have at least 10% and the transfer and bond fees on hand. Then make sure you have a few extra rands for the tiling/paint you want to change. And house insurance for the big emergencies.

House and household insurance are 2 very different things.
 
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terencej said:
This will depend. First time buyers need to cough up some big moola just to cover the Bond/Transfer fees. Like I said on R1.4 mil I know for a fact it is in the R90k region. So whatever you have left after you paid those fees you could put down as a deposit. lol
Click to expand...
R1.250mil is in the region of R65k.
 
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Thanks for the info thus far. Anyone in the know knowledgeable on the upper limit under which one doesn't pay any transfer fees? I think it was around R900k the last time I checked.
 
PhireSide said:
Thanks for the info thus far. Anyone in the know knowledgeable on the upper limit under which one doesn't pay any transfer fees? I think it was around R900k the last time I checked.
Click to expand...

Yes, R900k have no transfer fees. But you still have bond costs of around R30k I think!
Also, if you buy from some developers in complex style places you can buy without any bond/transfer fees(no matter what the property costs).
 
Thanks everyone for the abundance of information. Didn't even think of some of the things mentioned in the thread.
 
travcaine said:
My partner and I are looking to buy a house together
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Something I wish I'd known when I did this - if buying together, it's worth considering whether to do it in a trust.

If for some reason, you want to remove one person from ownership later on (break-up, bankruptcy, she gets a cat, etc.) , it's easy to do in a trust (just change trustees), but if you co-signed the bond as individuals, removing a person later on means paying registration fees and legal fees all over again.
 
I am going to be paying cash for the lawyers' fees and bond reg costs, as 'my first property' (sounds a bit like a Fisher Price toy set) will be under the R900k limit. I then also want to be able to put down at least a 10% deposit to squash the financed amount by as much as possible
 
All I can say is please don't rush it! Every agent will make you try and believe this is your last chance to buy the house etc. Don't let them push you into making a rushed decision and lastly try knock the price down even 5-10% if possible remember it cant hurt to ask :)

Side note: things you might not have thought of, our entire house needed curtains when we moved in the cost of that alone was R12k not something we thought of till the day we moved in :P
 
What's the general view on using a bond originator vs own bank?
I'm on FNB private clients - so is it worth going through them? Or just use an originator for all the banks?
 
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