Tips for buying a house first time?

xrapidx

xrapidx

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I'm tired of renting, and currently house shopping, I'm a first time buyer, and AFAIK, banks don't do 100%, or 110% bonds anymore.

Does anyone have any tips on how to actually buy a place? I"m looking in the 1.3-2m range - but a 15% deposit on that is ridiculous- who has that sort of cash for a deposit? And then you have to pay transfer duties, etc.

Any work arounds, etc to this?
 
*watches thread*

I'd like to get into property as well - hopefully by year end :/

Yea - transfer on R1,2m is something like R41,000.00 - and Conveyance fees like R18,000 :(
 
I'm not only tired of renting - I'm tired of moving - I want my own house.

Also, don't want to turn this into a debate about whether or not its the right time to buy - I can afford it - I don't care if the market drops a little more. A place of R1.4-1.5m odd is only going to be a bit more than what I rent at now - maybe not as nice as what I rent, but I'll be happy being able to call it mine.
 
If I may, what are you paying renting ?
 
I'm also keen to watch this thread. I'm in the same situation with the exception that my rent is less than 1/2 yours xrapidx.

I chatted to my bank manager a while ago (2 months maybe) and he reckoned that with enough motivations etc you can get 100% loans BUT your monthly repayment must be well below what you can afford. So if you have R15k to spend each month on a bond you need to apply for a R10k bond (probably a 800k or 900k property) ... just FYI.
 
xrapidx said:
The new place? After water and lights, refuse, sewerage - R11,000 - I know - its a lot -kicking myself for signing the lease. :o
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still much cheaper than paying for a R2m place, but i know the feeling :(
 
xrapidx said:
The new place? After water and lights, refuse, sewerage - R11,000 - I know - its a lot -kicking myself for signing the lease. :o
Click to expand...

I am in shock, you have no idea how shocked i am right now.

I can understand renting a 5-6k places but 11k omw buy a damn house you nooblet.
 
xrapidx said:
The new place? After water and lights, refuse, sewerage - R11,000 - I know - its a lot -kicking myself for signing the lease. :o
Click to expand...
BTW - this is the only short-notice place I could find that allowed one-month notice :) Hence the rent, my old place was less.

Waaib said:
I'm also keen to watch this thread. I'm in the same situation with the exception that my rent is less than 1/2 yours xrapidx.

I chatted to my bank manager a while ago (2 months maybe) and he reckoned that with enough motivations etc you can get 100% loans BUT your monthly repayment must be well below what you can afford. So if you have R15k to spend each month on a bond you need to apply for a R10k bond (probably a 800k or 900k property) ... just FYI.
Click to expand...

I'm pre-qualified for R2.1m with a 15% deposit purely because I bank with ABSA Private Bank - I'm trying to find a place for a maximum of R1.5m.


KSINGH said:
still much cheaper than paying for a R2m place, but i know the feeling :(
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Yeh - But not that much less than a 1.5 place (I think). Even if its R4,000 more - that means I'm paying R4,000 more for an asset, over R4,000 less for nothing.
 
killadoob said:
I am in shock, you have no idea how shocked i am right now.

I can understand renting a 5-6k places but 11k omw buy a damn house you nooblet.
Click to expand...

LOL - just remember, you can always afford to rent a much nicer place than you can afford to buy :)
 
If you want, I can PM you the details of a bond originator I know. He may be able to help you get a bit more than the 80%.
 
No sure i understand that but i would rather live in a smaller less nice place knowing the 11k a month is going to aid me when i'm older and not pay off someone else's house.

Are you in randburg?
 
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agreed. problem is finding a place u want for 1.5 in the area of choice.
 
xrapidx : One other thing I've found since I'm in the same situation, jsut with a much lower budger.

Standard Bank for instance will give a loan of up to 90% of what they think the value of the property is.

So if you put an offer of R900k on a property they think is worth R1.1m... they'll give you a 100% loan.... since its less than 90% of the value of the property.
 
This is a great time to buy though, house market is down heavily due to the lending problem.

what area you looking at, my sister is moving to an estate and has an amazing house in the randburg area for 1.4k soon, really nice house well looked after.
 
I have no idea how anybody affords to buy a house these days?!

I bought a townhouse unit in 2001 for R180,000, literally right before house prices started going crazy. It's worth about R800,000 now. I don't even think I could afford to pay what the rent is for a unit in my complex now!

Everyday I am grateful I got it when I did! So unless your salary is increasing faster than house prices, every day you hold off from buying means you'll only be able to afford a smaller and cheaper place than the day before so rather get in sooner than later.
 
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