 a lot of times there's that huge debate or that discussion around whether it's better to buy or to rent and some people just opt for renting because they're like it's so much easier just sign the lease I go in and I don't have all these maintenance issues to deal with let's talk us or rather talk us through some of the benefits one gets by owning and purchasing a home fear not we are here to guide you through the steps of becoming a first-time home owner join us as we simplify the process and break it down so that you can start the process of becoming owner this is the private property podcast I'm doing good evening congratulations once again to Mukhale Mukhale for walking away with 500 grand cash from yesterday's show thank you so much for engaging with us Mukhale and hopefully your weekend is starting off on a good note you can be just like him because winning is easy here on the private property podcast join the conversation tonight on Facebook by commenting as many times as you can and when you're commenting be mention your friends tag your friends comment with your experiences if you're a first-time owner and you could walk away with 500 grand cash for just sharing your thoughts we all know that knowledge is power and sharing knowledge is exactly the reason why we are here especially when it comes to property these are the property you know knows for a first-time home buyer number one don't allow emotions to influence your decisions the spending doesn't stop after you buy a house there's moving repairs decorating and so on after that you have utility bills if you haven't budgeted for these adequately these bills can pile up quite quickly number two don't underestimate the running costs of a home being prepared will not only minimize the stress of the process it will also allow you to save money from the get-go and minimize the possibility of accumulating unnecessary and unforeseen debt number three don't rush your decision without proper without proper research take your time to map out your home buying journey well bear in mind how long you will need to save money repair poor credit as well as apply for pre-approval number four don't be unsure of your affordability understand how much you can afford to spend to as well as the type of bond you will need you can expect to get from a bank see how much you qualify for before you take that plan we hope that you enjoyed the property no-nose especially if you are one of those people who are prospectively going into the market to buy a home remember forewarned is for arms because if you have a clear understanding of the process it will also allow you to have a clear plan of action you can easily avoid costly mistakes and enjoy your first home because you are meant to enjoy it is a beautiful achievement that you don't want to turn into a little misery a couple of weeks ago I sat down with a head of sales who has demonstrated history of working with information as well as information services in the property industry luckily for us she will dissect and break down the daunting process of buying your first home she is the head of digital at limestone her name is Hailey Ivan Downs thank you to me thank you for the opportunity it's awesome to be here thank you so much you know we we we try as much as possible to bring people like yourself who are seasoned you know in in their in their field to come talk to our facebook family even those who are joining us on twitter on the spaces and people who come back onto our podcast to listen and hear these tips and I want us to jump straight in and talk about first time bias do you remember the first time you bought a property do you do you remember the feeling do you remember some of the things that were going in in your mind I do absolutely it was 20 years ago to be exact it was completely daunting I was it was overwhelming all of a sudden you have a huge amount of money that you now have to start paying off but you have your own property and along comes that with that as maintenance so it was just it was kind of two-fold very exciting very daunting all in one sure and talk us through the process like what is the the general process of acquiring a property how does it look you know some people think ah we know we know this already but maybe there's somebody who's watching us for the first time tonight and doesn't know how the process looks and sometimes doesn't even know that it's so detailed and so intricate and daunting as you have said so please just talk us through that process and how it typically looks okay so I think firstly if you're deciding you're going to own a property I think that's kind of the first step then you need to understand what you can actually afford and I would recommend obviously doing an affordability calculator using one of the calculators on the banks one of the mortgage originator sites but really getting a sense in terms of what you can afford before you start looking once you have a sense in terms of what you can afford start then looking at different locations around where you wanting to live obviously for yourself be it close to work be it close to school with their children be it close to an entertainment area or shopping but make sure that your location is kind of really kind of pinned down to where you wanting to be that becomes really important then starts the process in terms of looking so there's a couple of portals that you can go look at finding a property that have been listed seeing what's available and really start getting out there and just looking at properties before you kind of decide which one actually really appeals and it's quite tricky to kind of know which one that you're going to settle on once you've settled on your property you start the process with an estate agent obviously through an OTP which is an offer to purchase that obviously goes in with the estate agent if you're looking to bond the property the request will finance will then go through to a bank the banks through originator could give you a couple of options in terms of any rates kind of that they wanting to offer you you then have an opportunity then to take up a bond with the bank then the process really starts in terms of the conveyancing registering the property there are mountains of forms that need to be filled in it obviously gets registered through the deeds the conveyances on the selling side and obviously on the the buying side with the bond also being registered so just being mindful of that process and once all of that has happened you then obviously get into your house through that process as well the big thing to remember is also the rates clearances so the estate agent will help you with that as well and make sure that you get all of the rates water electricity all of that sound up as well sure you know as you said this this process is daunting and there's a lot of paperwork there's a lot of admin that goes into it and a lot of times there's that huge debate or that discussion around whether it's better to buy or to rent and some people just opt for renting because they're like it's so much easier just sign the lease are going and I don't have all these maintenance issues to deal with let's talk us or rather talk us through some of the benefits one gets by owning and purchasing a home okay so I think if you choose to own up own a property you are obviously buying an investment this is essentially your property this could be a long-term investment you could opt to then keep it for many years you could live in it for a number of years and then obviously opt out move out and rented yourself as an investment I think the the element of owning a property is almost just some level of ownership you've got an investment uh renting is very different um but I think also once again very much based on affordability um I personally prefer to own a property than to rent a property um I think there's something to be said in terms of owning your own your own house yeah no definitely um the housing market was really affected by covid and when you're talking about some of those benefits so many people also lost their homes because of affordability and for them not being able to afford their homes during covid-19 let's talk a little bit more about how this has affected the market it has affected people's pockets people's ability to to be home owners and how the market is changing and now augmenting because of covid-19 so covid was a really interesting kind of pandemic that really strikes on Africa and the specifically the property market what we found was for almost two to three months when it initially covid hit there the property market literally ground to a halt um obviously all of the deed offices were all closed so no properties could really transact and register so the important thing here for us is obviously it affected many people on different levels people that almost lost their jobs um that obviously then couldn't afford to live on the house and then obviously had to sell and then obviously rent but I think on the on the other side of that it also changed the way that people were working so the pandemic meant that people could work anywhere and from anywhere and I think that in itself also changed the pattern of where people wanted to live so what we found was quite a few people deciding that they didn't actually need to live in a big city anymore they could do a bit of a semi-gration down to a coastal little town that would be absolutely fine and they could do all of their meetings and interactions from a town which meant that the property market was actually quite buoyant after covid so for the first year and a half two years we've seen the property market at levels that it's never been before since like 2008 so um the property market really bounced back um and I think for people that were obviously looking at buying it was a really good time a couple of interesting kind of snippets was that the interest rate was at an all-time low the lowest that it's ever been for the last 50 years it was a complete kind of you know to buy a property was the opportunity and in the opposite effect we saw the rental market market taking a bit of a dive and people could now afford their own property so you know the the market then kind of swung up in terms of buying of property so it's really interesting in terms of the effect it was an effect from covid that we weren't anticipating to be quite honest and it was really driven I think by the change in the work environment there was a sudden realization that one didn't need to be in the office no please let's let's also come back a little bit to say for a first-time buyer how would would being what would covid have changed the market for them you spoke a little bit about the interest rate but was that the only thing you know it we've been seeing all of these other things change in the market and the way people do business change so is interest rates the only advantage that they had during covid 19 all were the other things that you guys noted who who are in the industry I think the interest being low was the main kind of driver and also the fact that you could work anywhere so I think all of a sudden you know the fact that you could work anywhere meant that you could live anywhere and now you could actually go and purchase a property of your affordability anywhere and still work from there so I think that was also the driving factor that you weren't for instance working in Santon but couldn't afford to live in Santon you know now you could actually go and buy a property anywhere even though your office was based in Santon so I think that was also part of the driving driving factor of it true and any any other disadvantages that you guys have seen in terms of one purchasing a home in terms of one getting into the process starting the process and ending up needing to retract from the process because maybe there's something that went wrong or there's a change in one's life do you are there any specific incidents maybe that you have seen that you may use as advice to someone who is a first-time buyer I think always just be mindful of the process and just keep communicating with your estate agent if you're working through any state agent it becomes really important to know where the transaction is so there is a cooling off period obviously through the offer to purchase stage so at any point in that cooling off period the seller could obviously also opt to cool off of the transaction so just be mindful of that and anywhere through the process if suddenly something becomes apparent like a latent defect or any kind of those processes there is some level of kind of awareness of that as well that could happen but you know that's kind of the process and use a profession a property professional like an estate agent to help you and guide you through that process because there's a lot of unknowns for anybody purchasing a property thank you so much for that and thank you so much for joining us and giving us such great insights for for first-time buyers who are really looking at getting there bagging that property and really living in it and enjoying it then the information gave us was extremely helpful and I'm sure everybody who's watching us tonight will make that decision with confidence now thank you so much for joining us and have a good night thank you what a very insightful conversation we had there with Haley we were helping first-time buyers and people who are prospectively going into the market to prepare for for getting those homes I'm just going to hop onto social media to quickly take some comments and maybe share some love before I tell you who the winner of today's competition is or to the winner of today's prize is just sending out love to Anelda Anelda Everton is here thank you so much Anelda happy Friday to you too hope you've been having a brilliant week joining us every night here on the private property podcast it was a very interesting topic and thank you so much to Rita as well Rita thank you so much we see Rita Magoan-Shongue thank you so much for joining us and Satie even Sato also is joining us and Polina Angosi as usual is here thank you so much Polina for always engaging with us we really see those we really see the love coming through and yes we are hashtag road to 500 episodes I nearly said 500 grand because that is the amount you can win if you keep engaging with us on the comment section thank you so much to Princess Angosi as well who is here tonight sending those green hearts marking the register it's very important when we get here as as the regulars to share also the conversation with anybody we believe is going to benefit from hearing the conversation tonight so I have it under good authority that the winner for tonight is in I'm sure everybody is now sitting at the age of their seats to know who the winner of tonight's 500 grand cash prize goes to and the winner ladies and gentlemen is drum roll please goes to Polina Angosi one of our absolute favorites here at the private property podcast thank you so much Polina for always staying around and engaging commenting and even sharing you know with your friends and your family we really really appreciate it if you want to be like Polina I catch us every weekday right here at the private property podcast where we share everything and anything about about property also do remember to like share and subscribe to all our social media platforms so that you don't miss a beat when we are having those conversations around on the past topics about everything in anything property thank you so much for joining us tonight hope you have a beautiful night a beautiful weekend see till we see you next week have a good one