 When we go from that stage, what kind of mistakes do first-time home buyers typically make when they're now at that stage? So they've done all the the the the beginning bits And they've got all those ducks in a row and they've now found this, you know dream property as it were What kind of mistakes do they then make at that particular point? You know Dama for me, I think Sometimes as first-time home buyers home buyers actually don't understand their own needs 455 of the private property podcast and your host is a man don't walk with my law page this evening I'm joined by an under-missing trial the founder of idwala property groups talking about mistakes first-time Home buyers make I think this is one of those things that we always want to be able to a lot about some of the mistakes That's that I made in the regular viewers will know all too much the the mistake that I made when it comes to attorneys And I paid quite the price for it But luckily I think I had a bit of a contingency plan But their attitude is not everybody's going to have that kind of contingency plan So I want to make sure that you at home do not make those mistakes as a first-time buyer Don't do me so good evening and thank you so much for joining us on the show Good evening Zama and a good it's always such a pleasure to thank you for having me And and I think you know when we talk about first-time home buying before we look at the mistakes I think how can first-time home buyers make sure holistically that they can have a good home buying experience because there's just so much that You know the that that they can read up on they watch the show and it can easily feel like a bit of an information Overload at some point along the line Zama thank you so much for having me on the show. It's always such a pleasure to be in conversation with you I think you just say you know for a first-time buyer to actually save him or self from a lot of grief and Many mistakes that can be done the first and foremost important things to actually get yourself hooked up with a Registered property practitioner a property professional an area specialist who knows about the area and Who actually is an expert in the field? So before actually going into the step-by-step coaching I think you have to find the right coach for the journey and then we will go into the step-by-step obviously as the show progresses I mean one of the key things the Musso is Working with people who have you said if you said you want to work with the register property practitioner You want to work with people who know what they're doing And I think one of the key things of one of the key players that you can also work with of course a bond originators I always recommend especially first-time home buyers that Work with the bond originator. There's so much work that they they cover There's so much groundwork that they cover on your behalf just take us through the the importance of working With a bond originator or rather even the benefits of working with that because you can of course buy a property without working with one But it certainly does have a benefit For sure for sure as I'm in fact I was gonna first start with you know a home buyer Knowing exactly what they're looking for but let's jump into this second part of it of finding a proper bond originator Or someone who knows from a finite a financial expert who knows what they're doing Because it It does not help to say oh, I want the at two million brand property in such and such a suburb And yes, you don't qualify for it or having a desire to buy a home, but you haven't done the spade work I always say that A home buying process actually starts six months or in fact even a year before you buy a property You need to know your affordability. You need you need to prepare probably I would say About six months in advance, you know, look at your financial situation get hooked up with the bond originator Who will tell you okay? These are the accounts you have you're saying you're looking for a bond this much This is how much you earn Let's look this is what these are the accounts you need to close these are the accounts you need to have up to date And when you've done this you will qualify for such in such an amount This is how much your bond repayments would be and you know all these things These are things that you cannot really do on your own You need to find someone who walk you through through the steps. So firstly look at the accounts you have If you've got a car you pay in credit cards personal loans look at your accounts your unpaid everything You know take yourself through the step give yourself a year Or six months if that's all you're going to need because it is pointless Just saying oh now I just want to buy a house everything takes preparation So it is very very important that you know You do get in touch with the bond originator or in the state agent who knows what they're doing You know and they will definitely take you through through the process And also it also helps as well to know the financial implications of buying a property Because you know people just say oh, I want to buy a property There are things like transfer costs that people don't put into consideration bond costs You know all those fees that people suddenly they get a shock suddenly they found this property They're not prepared they haven't put aside a deposit or they haven't put aside A bit of savings to cater for transfer costs So as I reiterate that it is very important first and foremost find a property professional Who will take you through the process and then everything else starts from there the process It's step by step. They will tell you you are self-employed. So this is what we're going to need from you Are your six months bank statement your two year financials? This is how you prepare your letter of drawings You know all those things like that. Are you are you? Employed we need your three months bank statements. Are you do you do over time? We'll need your six months and we have to look now. Okay, you've got unpaid now You need to clean your act now you see all these unpaid there will be to your detriment That will cost you your credit scoring And if your credit scoring is like this, you might not get the best Interest rate from the bank. So let's fix this. Let's fix one two three four five And if you fix the following things you will get you know, your bond grant and at a very good rate Because you are a worthy client to financial institutions. So yes, that is very very important zama I'm in conversation this evening with an under me some trials here on founder of it while our property group looking at mistakes first time What these mistakes are they often cost us a lot of time But more than anything they cost us a lot of money We want to make sure that you at home do not make those mistakes Some of us have unfortunately made them and I think when we look at them I mean the the regular viewers at home will know this one because I always share The mistake that I made was that when I you know first bought my When I first bought property I actually was buying two properties simultaneously and they were both bank financed and as we now know You need to budget for the convincing attorneys and the bond registration attorneys And so I only knew of the transferring attorneys and not the bond registration attorneys And so by the time, you know when the first and the second invoice came in I knew I was expecting it like even budgeted for it I had the money in my account But the moment the third and a fourth invoice came in it was a shock to my system And it you know one attorney actually then pulled me up and explained that this is what's happening This you know these attorneys do x with this property these ones do y with this property And these are roles and responsibilities of the respective attorneys and it's important of course for us at home to understand that Because you don't want to find yourself in a situation where your first time home buyer you have got your deposit You've got your transferring attorney Amount but you don't have your bond registration amount Because that's also a period where you don't want to take on additional credits because it could affect your affordability Could affect the interest rate that you you know ultimately get and I think could even ultimately cost you the you know The the bank guaranteed a bond stage because exactly because the bank will find that actually your financial situation has now changed When they initially ran the assessment This is where your finances were and now your finances have changed So those are some of the mistakes that we want to make sure you do not make at all at home That you are best equipped with the right insights and tools to help you along the way And no no mr. Then when we then look at the the stage where You've already found You know the property that you want and suppose you've done the first viewing at that stage you haven't signed anything yet You've now just notified the estate agent that listen these I I've viewed this property and I actually am I want to make an offer When we go from that stage what kind of mistakes do first time home buyers typically make when they're now at that stage So they've done all the the the the beginning bits And they've got all those ducks in a row and they've now found this you know dream property as it were What kind of mistakes do they then make at that particular point? You know dama for me. I think Sometimes as first time home buyers home buyers actually don't understand their own needs You know, you find that someone is a single woman You know, there are things like security that they would need to prioritize and you find that Okay, you know their desire to own a home. They're not looking at the location where they're buying They're not looking at their basic needs because you know We we need to face the things like security are very much important, especially for for single women You know proximity to public transport. Let's say somebody does not have a car and and they need to go to work They need to know that okay. My needs now. I need to have access to public transport I've got a two-year two-year old son or daughter. I need accessibility to preschool Chris or nursery or whatever So, you know, or maybe I'm living a busy lifestyle as a single person I need a lock up and go lifestyle So it's all those things that you find first time home buyers They neglect and then as they move into the property they regret. Oh, oh hang on I didn't put this into consideration So my my point my main point is that you need to understand your needs What are your needs? What are you want? And then you take it from there. Am I going to go for a free standing property? Am I going to go for sectional title? Is it a flat? Is it a new place? Have I got a car? What are the what's the parking? Because sometimes you find especially sectional title flats a property is for sale and the parking is not included It's actually on a rental basis. It's not part of the sale and you find uh buyers get a shock of their lives They've purchased this property. Oh, no Hang on parking is not included. You actually have to acquire parking or Register for it or sign up for it from the body corporate. It's not readily available You put on a waiting list So it's all those things and also consider body corporate rules You find that it's you your helper your son and daughter There's four of you and then you go for a one and a half bedroom And then lo and behold you get that they say, uh, uh, the body corporate rules say for a one and a half bedroom flat Uh, you only supposed to be three occupants then we've got a problem So it's all those things that we really really need to To be advised, which is why it's so important to go with, um A professional an area specialist. We need to know how far schools amenities If you don't need a car that's perfectly fine Then you don't need to worry about things like that And also just find out what are you looking for you're looking for fixer upper How much are you prepared to spend on the fixer upper? How much are your reserves to fix the fixer upper or and what are the implications there of? So really really before saying you have found your dream home You have to analyze your needs. What are your needs? So even before jumping into the car with a state agent, I always recommend, you know, sit down Sit down with the property professional tell them. Okay. I am a single woman. I have a son and a daughter These are my needs. This is where I work. Um, this is how much I would really be looking at spending on petrol I've got two cars because sometimes you find someone has purchased a property and there's only one parking and and the agent maybe Could have You know, there could have been an oversight that is visitors parking cannot be permanent parking So before saying you found your dream home analyze your needs What are your needs because? That home that you're saying is a dream home might actually be a dream visually But according to your needs, it may not be your dream home. So for me first and foremost Analyze your needs. Are you an entertainer? Do you have pets are pets allowed in that complex? You know things like that. What is it? How big is your family? You know area location accessibility to amenities all those sorts of things So before saying you have found your dream home, it may be a dream home In appearance, but it may not be a dream home in terms of your need So that is the very very first and foremost important thing I'm in conversation with nondomism to our CEO and founder of a dwelling property group looking at mistakes That first time home buyers make and I think one of the key things is you want to make sure that you don't make these mistakes because You unfortunately can pay quite a hefty price for it. No, no means. I want us to look at This particular mistake and and I've seen it. I've actually dealt with it very recently where a first time home buyer You know has seen the property. They were very excited. They you know, they signed the offer to purchase But then they want to pull out of the transaction For whatever reason right and and let's suppose they meet the suspense of clauses So this isn't one of those instances where you know suspense of clauses aren't met therefore the the OTP lapses, but they actually do meet All of it and at some point Relatively still early in the transaction. They want to change their minds You know, they realize that actually this is not what I want Or I've now watched the show and I realized some of the questions I should have asked that I didn't ask And and now I'm finding myself in this difficult position Take us through some of the mistakes that people make when it comes to the offer to purchase in particular I would say generally it's it's not going through The offer to purchase properly You know, there are things that are mentioned in the offer to purchase You know that you would really need to find out from from your your estate agent or the property professional Especially when it comes to underestimating the cost of ownership You know, you need to find out now you you've made an offer What are the rates rates of this property? You need to know what the rates are you need to know the levies You know, what I have found One of the reasons that people would want to pull out of of you know of a sale agreement Everything has been explained But they didn't get to the point where they understood how much the levies are and then suddenly You know, they've got the bond They've paid their cost and then suddenly they're calculating now every month. Oh my word You mean levies are 2 000 rand is that how much I have to be paying every month over and above the bond So it's very important when the the sale agreement is being explained to you You need to know these things. What will my rates be how much of the levies Is their home owners association that I would need to be paying to you know, and and generally the the municipal You know the municipal fees like Municipal utilities just to get an idea obviously people are not the same amount Maybe before it was three people now you're going to be five But it's always good to get a general idea and also another thing the cost of insurance You need to know all those costs. What what would the insurance be? alarm systems, you know people actually neglect these small things That actually come With ownership. So there is a cost to being a home owner and also just the general maintenance of the home. You need to be Very wise have a look now. Okay Okay, the yard probably it would cost me about 500 red every month all these things and I think people Generally pull out of sale agreements because suddenly they get the shock Oh my my bond repayments are going to be this much my levies are going to be this much the utilities are going to be this much So it's all you know also In terms of things that are not disclosed as well As you know, obviously about the ppra how You know the sellers are now supposed to be signing off and declaring certain things, you know the property Okay, if there is a plumbing issue, you need to declare such things certain defeats you need to declare So all those things if a purchaser finds out maybe on the second or third viewing That uh-oh, but I didn't see this this wasn't declared to me So these are all the things that actually can cost a sale that can cost a person to say I can't afford this I can't afford to fix this I can't afford to fix that or maybe there was a Broken part of the wall that was not disclosed. Maybe was hidden by a table So it's all those small things that really really can cost a first-time buyer to say hang on This is not what I bargained for. This is not what I budgeted for So it's very very important that everything is disclosed The forms are properly filled in. This is what you're buying And miss uh, mr. Miss uh, miss purchaser the reason we are negotiating the price Or discounting it by a hundred thousand in this area normally properties go for 1.5 million But this one has been put at 1.3 million because There are no tiles. This is broken. This is broken everything needs to be disclosed because Just because a property has got defects. It does not mean it cannot be sold What is important is that the defects are disclosed so that the person knows what they're buying And they know exactly what they need to fix So, um, I think also there's a fine line there because sometimes first time home buyers think They need to buy a perfect home You need to the key is to know what you are buying the key is not to get the house in a perfect condition But rather to get What you sign for if you're saying I sign for this house. There are no windows hence I am paying such and such a price that is what you are going to get So I think for me that is it's a very very important aspects that first time home owners need to understand that Okay, everything has been disclosed hence I am making an offer for such and such a price because this property is in such and such a condition If the condition obviously was not disclosed again, that is another story now for another day where you know Obviously, there's some sort of litigation the seller now has to say, you know, has to say I don't disclose this And or that but that's a whole other process But I think as a home first time home buyer you really really need to know what am I buying and this I'm paying this much for what I am getting Well, thank you so much for joining us on the show Thank you so much Zama. Thank you to all your viewers And that is an under me some tries to you and founder of a dweller property group wrapping up episode 455 of the private property podcast with was a month to work Well from myself and the rest of the team That's where we're going to leave it this evening to continue the conversation on our facebook page Has been a pleasure to be with you. I'll be back on your screens tomorrow evening at 7 p.m Until then hoping you're staying home and staying safe