 Good evening and welcome to the Private Property Podcast. I'm your host, Zaman Dunwa Kumalu. This is episode 17 of the Private Property Podcast and of course, on day 40 of the national lockdown we're on level four. So at least we've got a little bit of room around what we can or cannot do but I hope that you are staying at home and you are staying safe during this period. As promised, today we'll be looking at five secrets your state agent wants you to know. This is a conversation that's specifically for people who are looking to bar. So if you ever had any questions on what a state agents want you to know this is the conversation for you. Oftentimes, some people are a bit skeptical around state agents or they don't know what they should or shouldn't be asking. So if you had any of those reservations or question marks this is certainly something that you don't want to miss. And joining us to understand what a state agents want us to know rather, I'm joined by Annette Evans, who is the general manager of the Institute of State Agents in South Africa. Good evening, Annette. And thank you so much for joining us this evening. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you inviting me and it's wonderful to be able to still broadcast from home, I must say. I know, right? So I think this is probably one of those things where we are grateful that there certainly are certain things that we're able to do. I mean, a lot of us are now using whether it's Zoom or meetings or whatever other platform that we're using. And in some ways it's slightly overwhelming because we're not used to it. But in others it's quite helpful that people can be watching us from the comfort of their homes and that we're able to do it also from the comfort of our respective homes. But Annette, let's get into it. I mean, I think there are so many people who've shown an interest in property, so many people who want to be buying, they're going on to www.privateproperty.ca.za and viewing different properties even on the social media platforms that we are posting on. But of course, as a state agent, there are probably certain things you would want buyers to know. Let's go through some of the things that you think we certainly need to know as we navigate our home buying journey. Okay, well, I think that really one of the critical things that we needed to discuss is that under lockdown essentially the agents are not able to show people properties. But I think that gives everybody a brilliant time to actually get prepared. And that's what I really, really think we can focus on. And my biggest consideration for people who are looking to buy, let's say we're focusing on the people who are buying at the moment, is that they should use an estate agent who is registered with the estate agency of Facebook. And we all know that being a licensed property practitioner means that they are regulated by an organization such as the estate agency of Facebook. And usually belong to an organization like ourselves, the Institute of Estate Agent, to keep their skills and remain professional on that aspect. And that's how would people know if somebody's registered or not? Because I think we're already seeing so many different people starting their own, I'll say smaller practices, opening their own businesses, seeing they're selling a property. I mean, I could potentially even start the amount of properties and then start selling people or try to get people to give me mandates about their respective homes. How would a buyer actually know that if Zamantunga decides that she's going to start selling houses that I am in fact registered? So there were a couple of ways. The first way is to obviously ask them to see the Fidelity Fund Certificate because that is what they pay towards and it protects the public towards that fund. And then the other way is to phone the estate agency of Facebook, check that that estate agent where they're at. And the other ways to actually search the estate agency of Facebook, which is essentially www.eab.org.za. And all estate agents have to be registered and licensed with the estate agency of Facebook. It's not optional. It's an obligatory thing that they have to do. Okay, so now we've got, you were able to manage, you were able to establish that the estate agent that you're dealing with is in fact registered. What would be the second thing that you would want us to know? The most important thing I think for somebody to sit down and discuss with their family, depending obviously who they're planning to buy the property with or who it's for all those circumstances and actually analyze and sit and think carefully what are your needs? What are your wants? What are your requirements? We all know that I have a saying sometimes you can't even afford what you don't like. So you have to know what can you afford? What are your, firstly, just to go back to the basics and say, right, where do we need to be? What is our schooling requirement? What are our transport options? Where can we find value for our money? And then to sort of work backwards and say, right, we need so many bedrooms and so many bathrooms. And then that's when you connect with within a estate agent or you connect your search and you say, right, let's start looking at what we actually matches to our requirements. I think that's really important. And be able to sit, sorry, just to be able to sit and actually have that conversation because often people don't agree but it's all about fine-tuning what you need to that switch. And you know, Anette, I can imagine how much of a hassle it probably is if let's say you're dealing with a couple and they haven't had that conversation, right? And on the one hand, one is saying, no, we'll look at only two bedroom apartments and another says, no, I only want a simplex and minimum is three bedroom. And so even trying to, you know, suggest different properties that you may have in your books become so difficult because they haven't actually sat down and decided this is round about what we're looking for. So whether it's a two bed, two bath or a three bed, two bath, whatever the, you know their respective specs actually are. It does actually probably make the life of the estate agent slightly harder if somebody hasn't gone through that process. Absolutely. And I think that like everything, I mean, you may want something and then realise afterwards that you actually don't need that. You may be able to sort of turn another bedroom into something or you may be able to convert. There's so many, you know, you leave yourself room for sort of open negotiation as well. And you may feel you really, really need three bedrooms but you may actually discover that you've got a loft and you can convert it. So you may need work from home environment but you can actually do it quietly, you know like we're all learning now, we all are learning what we need. And I think that it's, as you said, have the conversations and they can be very uncomfortable. And you could say, well, we want two or three, we're not sure, you know? So you can always have that option but look around and see where, often you cross the railway line, you cross the busy road, you get more for your money but then you've got to kind of toss up the pros and cons. And then that's how you end up in this situation. And I mean, I can imagine how much of a nightmare it probably is if you're also not clear about what your non-negotiables are. So in the same breath and understanding sort of the big picture scope of, you know two beds or three beds but also not being clear what the non-negotiables are could actually be quite a frustrating process for both the agent and also the buyer. Absolutely, it's nice to have worked that all out and then say between and either or and then have that quite strongly kind of worded. And then it just makes your search a lot, lot easier. And then you start to see where the value is. And I think that's important because if you're starting at looking at such a huge range, you actually get overwhelmed. And I think that's the big thing. Frustration and overwhelm is what you actually want to avoid and focus on getting the value. And I think that is really the ultimate thing that both parties essentially want. I think as an estate agent, you probably want to give the most value to your clients and as somebody who's buying you also want to be able to get the best value out of the whole process for yourself. If you are joining us right now from home, I'm joining the line by Annette Evans who's the general manager of the Institute of Estate Agents of South Africa. And we're talking about the five secrets that every estate agent wants you to know. And this conversation is of course aimed at buyers. So in the event where you are buying and you're not quite sure what an estate agent would want you to know, then this is a conversation for you. Now, Annette, we've already got the first two. The first one being of course, user registered or licensed agent. The second one is establishing your needs. So understanding the type of property that you probably want, whether you want two bed or three bed, you definitely want two bathrooms no matter what happens, but just being very clear about your needs. Whether you want schools around your area or perhaps one of your non-negotiables is that you must have his three different molds that are within close proximity to where you stay. Being clear about those kind of boundaries does make the search that much better. What would you say the third thing agents would want us to know as we search for our property? Very importantly, it's about costs and affordability. That is something that I find I get a lot of calls about from the public and people didn't necessarily understand what they were taking on. And I think it's about being very aware of what your costs are. So you have, luckily in this country, we have a very defined and clear national credit act, which is actually wonderful. But ultimately what people need to understand is what could be those costs that they weren't anticipating. And they would be obviously your monthly bond costs. And then also what's very important, I think is to understand learn to value because when you take out your bond and the higher the amount and percentage and learn to value all this terminology you're gonna learn, but ultimately as a learn to value goes up that means the more you're borrowing the higher the interest rate is because the banks they actually penalize you. So the better you are at saving and preparing the better your benefit will be. So it's worth knowing about that. And also the fact is that you are going to have to more or less budget for 30% of your gross income. So that could be your monthly repayment. So that's a very much of a nutshell. So if somebody was to buy for 500,000 they would essentially have to pay 5,000 round a month. They would have to earn three times that as a joint monthly income, gross monthly income. And this is something that I've emphasized and other guests have also emphasized in it when it comes to cost and affordability is that first of all, the amount that you might qualify for and we'll get to that shortly might not necessarily be the amount that you can actually afford. So I mean in theory, if for example you qualify for a million rent bond, getting a million rent bond and servicing that million rent bond and the running costs of that particular property you might find actually become substantially higher than what you initially thought it might be. So sometimes understanding that you might qualify for a certain amount, but when you run your numbers you also have to be quite honest in terms of the state of your finances factoring in other costs of that property. For example, perhaps water and electricity is substantially higher because it's a bigger house. Perhaps rates in that area are higher than where you're staying or if you've never bought then you're not paying rates you're probably just paying your rental. So levies might also be significantly higher or higher than what you initially thought. So we certainly have emphasized the importance of understanding the different running costs of owning a property and ensuring that you also just factor that in on your home buying journey. So not just only looking at the monthly bond installment because the reality is that's not the only cost factor to consider when you're looking at a home. So you don't want to find yourself buying the home that you qualify for and of course being granted that bond but then ultimately not actually being able to keep up financially once you move in and essentially carry on. That's so true. And I think that is one of my highlights to people is you've got to think job stability, your age because when you're younger you may be able to sacrifice more, earn work harder but as you get older you may have different priorities and you're dead obviously because that's the point that you mentioned is that your gross income doesn't determine your debt. So you've got to look at what you repaying every month and how much you actually can then top up or how much you can reduce in order to pay that bond. And I must say that the biggest benefit of owning a property is that as your interest rate as your bond payments go down your rent would have gone up but you're quite correct. The cost to consider are your rates and your levies and electricity and internet and things that you may never have paid before because it's always been an inclusive rental. So I think people can be a bit stunned by that and also knowing what it's actually gonna cost to purchase the property because you've got the bond cost and things like that and that's my next point really about the actual costs that you have to pay to buy. And before we get to that Anish, we're gonna take a quick break. If you're watching us at home you can get a cup of coffee quickly or even invite more people to join in on this live. I am of course joined by Anit Evans who's the general manager at the Institute of Estate Agents of South Africa and we're talking about the five secrets that every estate agent wants you to know on your home buying journey. We'll be back shortly just after this. Welcome back to the Private Property Podcast. I'm your host, Zaman Dunwo Kumalo. This evening we're talking about the five secrets your estate agent wants you to know on your home buying journey. I'm joined by Anit Evans who's the general manager at the Institute of Estate Agents of South Africa. And of course some of the issues that we've already touched on are some of the things that the agent definitely wants you to know. The first one is to use a registered and licensed estate agent. That's very important. So you don't want to be working with somebody who's not licensed or registered. The second one is to establish what your needs are. Are you looking for a place that's close to certain schools? Are you looking for a place that's closer to home? So you sort of break down the geographical location of where you want to live. Are you looking for a three bed or two bed or three bathroom, whatever the issue is. What are the type of properties that you're looking to? So establishing what your needs are is actually quite important. And with that goes what your non-negotiables are. Because I think sometimes you might want a three bed two bath, but maybe your non-negotiable is something out there that you also need a garden. And not every unit that's like that has a garden. So understanding what your non-negotiables are is also quite important. The third one Anit suggested was the cost and the affordability. Understanding what costs are associated on your home ownership journey. But more than anything, understanding what your affordability is. And of course, with affordability, it isn't just about what you qualify for. There are other factors as well. So being able to understand what the learning to value of your particular bond that you're going to be getting is also so important. So Anit, let's maybe then look at that fourth thing that you think that as buyers we definitely need to know from an estate agent's perspective. I think one of the top points would be actual understanding your credit history. A lot of people don't know much about credit history. They don't understand. And one of the points I've got in highlight, in bold, that I always mention to people is don't make too many inquiries on your credit history. Obviously, if you've never heard about your credit history, you won't even know what I'm talking about. But every time you make an inquiry, it kind of goes down a notch. So it's a snakes and ladders approach, because ultimately, you want a good, strong, solid credit history. That means you pay everything on time. You're always open to discussion with your creditors if you have any agreements or arrangements to make. And also that if you get one free credit search essentially per year, and there are 13 credit bureaus in this country, but different organizations subscribe to them. But usually, your history is quite available. And then you have to monitor it and maintain it very carefully. So what that means in essence is if you kind of went on holiday in March and you forgot to pay something, then it's going to show that in March, you didn't pay something. They're not going to understand that it was an oversight. They're going to see it as a possible potential that you have an issue with paying the bills. And when you apply for a mortgage, that is a mortgage bond that can be negatively affect you. And I'm actually so glad that you brought this up. Surprisingly, I mean, you're mentioning that you get that one free report per annum. I got my one free report, I think yesterday or two days ago, I got the report. No, two days Tuesday, so it was yesterday. You see, this lockdown actually makes you forget how days work. So I got mine yesterday. And it was the first time I went to the credit bureau to actually access it. I mean, in previous instances, when I would work with a bond originator, it would sort of come up. And then I would see, oh, this is what my profile or report looks like. But I'd never proactively source it and then go through it to understand, OK, what's actually happening here? What are creditors seeing when they actually look at my profile? Are there any issues that are there that I think aren't supposed to be there? Luckily, they weren't. So even understanding how to read that, I think that's probably a show on itself, just unpacking the credit report and the credit score. What happens if you've got a low credit score? Because I know that oftentimes when that score is low, it does pose a particular challenge in the home buying journey. So definitely we'll be covering that, because it's such an important one. And I think oftentimes we don't think about it, especially when I look at maybe a lot of us millennials, you're in your 20s, maybe even your 30s, you're not sitting thinking, oh, I wonder what my credit score is. I think it's low. How can I get it? You know how can I get it up? If anything, it's one of those things that you only start thinking about when it affects what you're trying to do. So in the event you're trying to buy a home and the reason why you can't access that bond or the bank is only going to extend, let's say, 70% go 80%. And the reason they cite is a bad credit history or bad credit score. Only then are you aware that, oh, so this is actually a thing. And by then oftentimes it might be a bit too late for that property to try and salvage the issue. So knowing early becomes such an important thing. So thank you for that, Aleta. I think it's definitely something I think viewers would find quite valuable for us to be able to have the conversation and unpack how we can go about dealing with our credit score and getting them to the right place so that we can make sure that we're able to buy properties. Yes, absolutely. It is a critical thing. And then of course, Annette, what would be the fifth thing? I think before we get to some of the questions and comments from our viewers at home, of course, if you do have any questions or comments that you'd like to ask Annette, do send them through and we'll deal with them shortly. The fifth thing, Annette, that you would like us to know from an agent's perspective when it comes to our home buying journey. Something very interesting is that you have as an owner, so once you're now the owner, and that's your aim, obviously, it's to actually prepare for your rights and responsibilities because you are now, you're your own landlord, there's nobody else to do. So you have to remember the gutters, the geese, whatever needs to be done, whatever maintenance, whatever, maintain the condition because let's say, for example, I mean, it happens where you buy a property and then you say, right, I'm gonna do something different. It's I'm gonna relocate. Now you wanna put the property back on the market and you haven't actually maintained it. So it's a big, big thing and that should be part of your dream but it's an obvious one. But I think that that's part of your plan where you want something that you can maintain that fits in with your lifestyle. If you're not a person that spends a lot of time at home and you're not sure how you're gonna maintain it, make that plan because you need to retain the value. That is your biggest asset. It's the most of money you're probably gonna spend for at least probably a decade for most people and you need to know your ownership and your rights. A lot of banks do programs for helping people and sort of I wanted to touch on the flist but I'll bring that in if you kind of wanted to know anything else. But yeah, it's very, very important that once you own the property, you may not earn the title deed because the bank has a land on that but ultimately it's your property and you're the one who's gonna benefit by the value going up and you're gonna lose up by the value going down. And I think you mentioned the flist is definitely going to be a topic for another day because we could spend quite a lot of time just unpacking that that's of course the government subsidy that helps you when you're buying your first home if you earn within a certain amount. So it's often targeted at slightly lower LSM. So essentially the government gives you a grant to be able to help you in your home buying journey. That is certainly an episode that we're going to be having in the coming weeks. It's such an important one that so many people typically don't know about and can be so useful. The process as much as maybe it might be admin intensive for others, once you get through it you're going to get the grant you'll be able to buy your property or certainly will help you in buying your property. And it's like us to deal with some of the questions and comments from our viewers at home. And of course you can keep sending more questions and comments when you're watching us at home. And the first one comes from Paquiso.dezi who asks, what steps should I take if I want to purchase a property cash as a first home buyer? Okay. Well, that's a very, it's a fantastic position to be in. I know. I think it's, what do they say? Location, location, location. So have a look at, you know, don't rush anything because now you're going to, you have, you know you have to be able to afford the bond costs, the transfer costs, bearing in mind, okay, you're not going to have a bond cost but let's say you wanted a small bond. There are considerations to having, there are benefits to having a bond because you're keeping your cash perhaps available at some stage and it helps you to climb the property ladder as well, you know. And then secondly, I think the really important thing is to know that you're getting that value out of your property that, you know in the property that you buy in the area that you want to buy. So I think be patient, don't rush into something. And I'm a spreadsheet girl. So I'd be having the spreadsheet out. I'd be saying, okay, I can buy for that, buy for that. And then maybe in four years time I'm going to move out. So what would my rent be? And things like that. So there's a lot of things to consider. I don't know if that answers your question but hopefully it goes a little bit way to making it clearer. I think probably one of the things that we'd say is that the transferring attorneys be wherever you want to be buying, it would be handled by the seller. So the money that you'd have would also, you know go into that particular account. So there's probably a bit of reservation about how that money essentially moves around. Because typically you wouldn't have the money because the bond, I mean the bank would have extended that bond facility too. So the transferring attorneys would be dealing with the bond registration attorneys. The bank would actually be sending the money over as opposed to you, you know wiring the money from your account to the transferring attorneys trust account. So I think perhaps there is also how he may have wanted to just understand the movement of the money itself because in this instance, as the buyer you physically have the cash also leads in a bank. And I hope you're not, you know, keeping that money. Essentially you'll have the money and as opposed to the money, you know coming from the bank's perspective. I think that's an important point is to actually know, you always know who you're dealing with. There are rules in this country where they're gonna check who you are. The speaker, the financial intelligence centers act, they wanna know who you are, where you got the money from, you know they do their checks to make sure that you are a, you know, an upright citizen. But I think to check where you're going to be putting the money in I think I would definitely have conversations. I mean wonderfully now we can pick up Zoom and say, hi, I'm gonna Zoom people. There are, you know, there's always a risk when you move money that I would never just trust say an email, I would say I need to speak to that person. Like we're doing now, you know I think that's, they are an attorney that should be getting the money and then it will go to the deed's office and then the property will be registered over to your name. And then because you've all said the house cash you should own the title deed. You will get it directly yourself which wouldn't happen if you had a bond. But definitely know who you're dealing with. That is a really critical point. I think that I can't stress enough. Yeah, and it really is important. I mean, if you're going to be, let's say buying a million Rand property you certainly don't want to be, you know EFTing a million Rand and next thing you know it wasn't necessarily to the right people or the person that you thought you were sending it to isn't who they say they are. So then just doing your due diligence it's just that much more important when you're dealing with your own money. When the bank is doing it they also do their due diligence on their end. So they're not just sending that money to the people that you're buying from. We've got another question here. Anesh, this one is coming from Homelander Sajair who asks, how is the property market going to be affected by this lockdown? Is it going to be cheaper to buy house? And that's a big question. I mean, a lot of people want to know should they rather just hold on a little longer maybe even wait a few months post lockdown before they make their offer to purchase or before they sign those OTPs. We're all trying to speculate about where the property market is going to be in the coming months. It's an interesting question. And one that I have had that conversation around with quite a few people and there's quite interesting perspectives. And one of them is residential property. Funny enough, they're not saying the demand is going to go up or down because they're saying people are learning to work from home. So it's actually going to make people need to appreciate their homes. So if you think about a lot of us are thinking why did we get in a car every day and drive somewhere where we can actually just set up a corner, have a room perhaps at home and work from home. So that's an interesting perspective. So we can't say right now. Yeah, I don't know how many people honestly want to be working from home. I think maybe a many of us would certainly want the option to occasionally be able to do it. But working from home full time is quite an anxiety inducing. I think I have to get in a desk to be able to work because I diligently didn't want home to be a workspace. You know, you want it to be your haven and you don't want to be thinking about work emails. So already if you're thinking creating a little corner that's just for work purposes would be such a traumatic experience. Who wants to be safe havens as much as possible. And before I let you go, there's one last question. Slightly technical, you know, and perhaps we'll also pose it to the banks when we have them in the coming few days. And this one comes from Malimah Diti, who asks, does the bank finance people who are non-citizens of South Africa? And if not, how do such people get to buy property or properties in South Africa? So, I mean, as you said, it's a technical question and things change, but essentially if you are a resident and you're earning and you've got an income and you're a resident, then that is you are counted as a resident. If you are say a South African citizen living overseas, then they may only count 50% of your income. So they have categories. But if you're living or working, have a salary or a resident, then they shouldn't be, you know, they've got every bank slightly different. So as you said, that's a technical question. And I mean, I think I would definitely say Malimah Diti is to go to the question, to the episode where we had a representative from APSA, we had it last week, the previous Fridays, because last week was a public holiday, where we actually had a conversation, you know, Q&A. So the questions I should like to ask your bank. And one of the questions that did come up was the financing of, you know, property financing for non-South Africans. And there's a really great answer around certainly APSA's perspective and how they find, but as on it says, different banks do apply different matrix to how they go about financing, but there certainly is that facility for non-South Africans. They just, you know, work it differently for different financial institutions. Another question, and if that's coming in, is from Stephanie Whitbull, who asks, how can someone check the value of a property prior to purchasing and ensuring the price charge by the owner is fair? That's a twofold question, because I think the two aren't necessarily related in some instances, because the value, actually I'm gonna let you answer it before, before I give my take on it. So I actually do, we have a property sales database, which we actually keep. And so very much what a state agent will do is they are not valueless, but they can offer you a comparative market assessment or analysis. And they should be able to say to you, okay, this went for this price because of this and this went because of that price. You know, there is what you call market value, which is a willing buyer and a willing seller, but not every sale or purchase is between a willing buyer and a willing seller. But that's why you do your research and you say, okay, you have to talk to people in the area and find out also where you see the property and trend in that area, because every area has a different trend. And as I mentioned just now, you can cross a main road and today that property is not worth a lot. And then in two years time, there's a demand. So that's something you have to do your own research as well and ask, ask, ask, I always say, you can't ask too many questions. If you have a question, you need to ask that question. And I think it's also just about us getting comfortable with asking those questions, especially to our state agents and even to ourselves, you know, as we're having these, the different episodes, we've now become a daily podcast, simply asking these questions. There's no such thing as a stupid question when it comes to property, because we're really all entering it at the level that we all know. And there's always something that we can learn from each other. Sometimes what one, you know, property investor or somebody who's bought or sold the property guys might help somebody else. So really being able to share some of the tools, tricks and insights that we've all kind of picked up along the way does come in handy. And it's before I let you go, any other tip that you'd like? I mean, I've already covered the five and I'll go through them briefly and before letting you go, but any other tip that you'd like to give our buyers right now? Yes, I think what we didn't cover is the actual looking at the physical property, the sort of the actual, so you got to go through your house and say, okay, you get, when you're a seller, you have what you call a disclosure and you would need what you call certificates of compliance. But those are objective things, but you've also got to be subjective and say, look, you know, can I cope with that? Can I live with that? Will I need to pay for something to be done? Because I always say to people, we live in our homes. We're not trying to sell something to somebody that we picked up last week and we're trying to get a good price for it. We actually are quite emotionally attached to our homes. So people are wanting the best price for their properties because now they need to go and buy something else, but be realistic when you go and see the property and don't have to view it once, you can view it twice. If you, you know, once at night, once in the morning, you know, different times to see what the area is like and then you actually have to look at the property, you know, with all its warts and all, as they say. Yeah, and I suppose that also just really does go with, you know, what are you willing to compromise on? And when you kind of become slightly clear about what you're willing to compromise on and suppose you're getting more and more attached to a particular home, like you said, going back to view it again, it's not an inconvenience. I mean, this is, you're about to commit to a 20-year long, sometimes maybe even longer relationship. So don't feel as though you're inconveniencing the estate agent if you want to do it again. When I sometimes say, especially when you start getting very serious about a particular property, not only drive around, you know, during the day, drive around at night. You know, go drive around on a Friday evening, see how that area is like on a Friday evening. Does it become suddenly rowdy? And even going there, you know, on a Sunday afternoon, are you okay with it on a Sunday afternoon? But really trying to get a sense of an area at different times and whether whatever the atmosphere is like in that moment is something that you're comfortable with or okay with and a place where you see yourself certainly living in the next few years. Annette, thank you so much for joining us this evening. This has been quite insightful for our viewers at home. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me and thank you to everybody for giving up their time to listen. I hope they get some benefit from it to be there at the end. It's no, certainly. I think if anything, it's not even so much about giving up their time. It's about investing in the knowledge so that we can help each other on our property journey. That is Annette Evans, who's the general manager at the Institute of Estate Agents of South Africa. And we're talking about the five secrets that every agent wants you to know on your home buying journey. And briefly, those five are user-registered agent, establish what your needs are, be sure about what your cost and affordability is, understand your credit history so that you're clear before you get your bond, what your credit history actually is. And that last one is prepare for the rights and responsibility of actually owning a property. And she squeezed in that sixth one, which is, of course, understanding what you are willing to compromise on. So as much as there are certain certificates of compliance that are going to be ticked over, just be clear about what you're actually willing to maybe fix if you find that it's something faulty. So it's not something that you're gonna say decrease the value of the purchase price by X amount because you have to deal with it. So if you understand those things, then it should essentially make your home buying journey a bit better. And that's it for today's evening of the Private Property Podcast. I hope you found this very insightful. Continue sending your questions and comments below and we'll be more than happy to not just answer them, but also deal with them in these subsequent episodes. I've been your host, Zaman Dunwo-Kumalo, hoping you stay home and you're staying safe as we brave the lockdown South Africa that we're all in. Until tomorrow evening, good night.