 Hey, everyone. So my name's Adrian. I'm the CEO of Remax in Southern Africa, and I was asked to talk to you a little bit about Buying, you know the steps to buying the good the bad and the ugly So let's unpack that just a little bit so we can park the bad and the ugly to one side And you can have a great experience when purchasing your home So for me it starts with why but why are you doing it? Why are you wanting to get into this and I think it's a deep-rooted question But one that you or you and your spouse and family should really answer, you know Is it because like for Vicky and I in our previous home? We wanted to buy this particular home because it was within 500 meters of a school that we wanted to send our kids to so we were planning in advance They were still lighties and we we wanted to send them to this particular school because the school had a great name and great Education and good principles and so forth So that was our reason, but it may not be your reason In fact, we've subsequently moved because now that the kids are older You know, we wanted a little bit more elbow room and the distance to school Wasn't as important for us, but for you it may be completely different. Maybe it's transport related Maybe you need an apartment and not a house that has got all the high-tech stuff in it right Wi-Fi and fiber and all sorts and you know fridges that order food on its own Whatever it is for you. Okay, so and or maybe maybe you're just starting out And maybe you don't have have a kid yet, but you got a Jack Russell and you know Jack Russell's needs space Okay, I got lots of energy. So anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that each of you has different reasons So identify what those are so that when you start the search process You start searching for something that makes sense to the needs that you're looking for and in these times We find ourselves in right now in corona It's going to be interesting to see what the purchasing patterns look like over the next 18 months I mean already you having people move out of the urban Areas like the metro areas more into suburbia Because a lot of people are working from home and may continue to work from home for 75% of the time. So Again first determine why it is you're doing what you're doing So here's the thing and a real estate agent will always tell you when asked a question When's the right time to buy they'll always say now and I can tell you that that's the wrong answer because the best time to buy a home is always five years ago I mean that's how this game works. It works in cycles You have highs and lows in 2008 we had a financial crash And there was a bit of a dip and then the market picked up again And now we have a pandemic and who knows where the curve is going to bounce or whether it's going to do But I can tell you that it operates in waves But those waves continue to operate in an upward trend. So over a period of time You will Net a good return If you make a sound investment and if you buy smart and I guess that's what we're talking about here How do I know that? History shows it. History shows from 95 to 2015 an average house price that had increased and yes While they're a little in fact there aren't many dips here But while if you had to to zoom in to one one or two years, you'll see a couple of little dips again I spoke about 2008. It was a little dip, but over an extended period of time Buying a home and owning a home will net you a return and in our current environment That we find ourselves in now for many It's become affordable to buy a home In fact, even more affordable to purchase a home than to rent with interest rates having come down Significantly over the last just a few months and certainly over the last couple of years I would definitely start looking at whether this is something you want to To participate in and get your foot in the game get your foot in the door rather So let's talk about some of the steps to buying your first home And I'm going to run through these With you and hopefully you make some notes and you can pick up some tips if it if it's too quick for you I'm sure you can replay this Later when they make it available or otherwise hop on to our remax website go to ask Dot remax dot co dot z a and you can find all sorts of information on there or ask us some questions And we'll engage with you directly but steps to buying your first home one and I'll definitely start with this one What can I afford? Okay, to the search when you start looking for the actual property three Using a trusted advisor and why that's important then Making the offer and how to go about that and how to put yourself in a position of strength five Show me the money in other words. You're gonna have to go and get the loan Okay, what's the best way to approach that and then six? Yay, everything sorted and it's moving day although that has its stresses as well So maybe I'll have one or two tips for you on that so let's start at the beginning step one. What can I afford? Now it has to start there because what you don't want to do is Go through the search process and go through the motions and find what in your mind is a dream home And then find out that you can't afford it And I mean that in the nicest way what I mean by that is the bank isn't willing to loan you an amount based on your profile So I would start with this, okay? You can hop on to some websites. We use an originator at the bottom of the slide You'll see better bond they can help to get you pre-qualified or you can just hop on their website and go and fill in the affordability Calculator it's a very simplistic calculator, but it'll give you an idea of What the banks will be willing to lend you from a home loan perspective if you want a more accurate estimate Engage with better, but it's a free service By the way, they don't charge for any of this even when you get the home loan They don't charge for it. Okay at all. So it's a it's a free service And I would recommend you do it because when you have that pre-qualification what a pre-qualification means is that you can You can take your offer to a seller Confidently knowing that as soon as you thereafter go and apply at the bank for a loan It's a ninety nine point nine percent chance that that loan is going to be granted now Imagine the confidence that you'll have when making that offer in front of the seller You'll also put yourself at the front of the queue with respect to all the other buyers Assuming of course that there isn't someone else offering a cash offer So step one determine what it is you can afford use a bond originator to help you to get a pre-qualification in this market right now More than 50% of home purchases right now are first-time buyers Do not miss this opportunity that exists at the moment step 2 Search well eventually you've got to go and look for the property right and where you're gonna start You're gonna start in the newspapers No, you're not you're not gonna start in the newspaper. Let me tell you those days are gone Okay, by the time one of our agents or any agents advertised in the newspaper that properties already at least a week If not older, okay, and many of these properties are a lot older than that There's no ways that remax can put its 58,000 listings in the newspaper week in week out So this is what you do and I'm sure you know this already I'm preaching to the converted here, but you're gonna go on to some of the property sites You're possibly gonna hop on to our remax.co.za website Then you're gonna go and do a search and you're gonna narrow it down or you're gonna hop on to private property Where they aggregate all the listings and you're gonna put in an area You're gonna put in some criteria, obviously, you know within a range that you can afford Or maybe it's the features like beds, baths and beyonds and you're gonna put that in and it's gonna bring up a search list He has a tip for you You may want to register on some of these sites because new listings come on every single day and Unless you're one of those that hops on to the site every day you can register yourself and The site will actually alert you to any new listings in your price range and in your featured list range So it'll narrow it down. It'll save you a whole bunch of time and I recommend that you do that So that's the search portion. You may also and I would recommend actually Registering yourself a one to a better term or contacting. Maybe I should say that Contacting a real estate agent putting your name down and giving them the criteria of the home you're looking for why? Because when the market is hot when homes are selling and in these last two months remax has sold a Ton of property. We've had two record months in these last two months So if that's the case, I would recommend that you put your name down with an agent so that when they take a listing Even before it hits the website, which you think is the which most people see for the first time They can contact you directly set up an appointment and get you to see the home So get your foot in the door before the masses do. Okay, so there's my tip on search Three use a trusted advisor Note, I didn't say just use a real estate agent because there's real estate agents And there's real estate agents use a trusted advisor A referral is always best someone that has used a real estate agent before had a great experience. Maybe it's a friend of yours Generally those referrals are the best source I'm obviously going to promote remax here and if you hop onto our remax website You'll find a whole lot of trusted advisors, but generally you're going to get From a referral the best source, right? So now you're working with someone and they're taking you through the different homes Be honest with them Okay, when you're going to say look, I'm looking for a whatever three bed two bath home in a particular suburb And they're going to start to take you to house one and to house two and to house three and to house four Obviously after narrowing your search and every time a new listing comes up They're going to take you to another home when you walk through that home Be honest with them If it sucks Tell them and be specific Tell them you don't like the way the the lounge looks. You don't like that. There's not enough lighting You don't like that. It's not north facing. You don't tell them the things that you don't like Don't feel bad. It's not their house. Okay, so tell them why Because otherwise they're going to take you to other suckier houses that look just like that one so Make your life easy when you go through the homes Let them know even though it's three bed two bath and has the features Let them know the things you like about the home that you saw and more specifically the things you didn't like So that they don't continue to take you to homes that may look similar So that's my tip when it comes to uh when you start the actual process of house hunting and using a trusted advisor Because if you don't You know, then you're not going to end up with the dream home That you'd hoped for okay, uh, or you're not going to find it because they're going to keep taking you to the same homes Right, so hopefully you you go through this process. You've got your Uh, pre-qualification certificate. You've done your search. You've now checked the whole bunch of houses And you've narrowed it down to something that you like and you actually want to put an offer in Remember and you can now put an offer in with confidence because you've got your pre-qualification You don't first have to run to the bank So the offer can be complicated. Okay, that's why they have conveyancing attorneys that assist in this process But before we get to the actual offer to purchase There are some determining factors to know when putting in the offer Try and determine and you'll know because you've been searching now for a while And if not talk to agent whether this is a buyer's market or a seller's market You know when there's lots of properties on the market for sale Well, generally it's going to be a buyer's market In other words, the more properties there are the more competition between those properties Which means the prices are usually pegged down the less properties that are on the market meaning The aunt is mainly available Means those sellers can probably push their price up And that's why you have this fluctuation in real estate on a on a continuous basis So determine what it is so that you can be realistic when you put your offer in And that's why I say using a trusted advisor is great because they can help you With determining what a realistic offer on a property actually is Again, know that someone with cash Nine out of ten times wins the race Simply because a seller lacks the certainty So the if you can't offer cash on a home specifically if you're a first-time buyer Get a pre-qualification because it's almost as good. So that would be my advice Then it comes to the actual contract itself Again can be complicated And that's why I say convincing attorneys can definitely help you and a trusted advisor That real estate agent who knows what they're doing will will refer you to one If you don't have someone that you already use because things that are going to get thrown at you are terms that you may not have heard before Like suspense of conditions and occupational rent and and the fixtures and the fittings and the contract and levies and and There's a whole bunch of stuff in that contract Which needs to be read needs to be understood and needs to be explained in order for you to understand Don't just enter into contracts and sign blank at the bottom. Make sure you know what you're signing That's why you work with someone that you can trust a convincing attorney that can assist and or The trusted advisor that I spoke of Step five show me the money So step five is getting access to the finance right now all of a sudden the seller goes. Yes, I'm happy with the offer Let's move ahead Now what well now you've already got that pre-qualification. This should be a fairly simple process But this is where I'm going to punt an originator again And I want to show you a practical example on the screen behind me So let's take joe blogs. Okay, joe blog just put that offer in and now Better bond is going to take that offer with the pre-qualification that they've got for you and they're going to go and shop around But joe blog says listen. I'm going to try and first go to my own bank directly So joe goes to his own bank. The loan he's looking for is 1.2 million rand Okay, it's a 20 year loan term And he goes to his own bank and this is a real life example And don't read into the colors of the percentages that don't represent any any particular bank But he goes to his own bank and the bank says to him listen We can give you that loan and the interest rate is going to be 10.56 percent based on your profile joe Now if joe had stopped there, joe would have missed out But fortunately joe took his offer to purchase to better bond and what better bond did was then took that same offer And shopped it around at the different Home loan banks and bank a said well Joe we can offer you 10 percent bank b said 11.25. So that's not a great deal Because it's more than what his own bank was offering bank c said 10.15 Still better But you know what's interesting is that better bond also goes to joe's own bank And his own bank through better bond came back with a rate of 9.75 percent It doesn't sound like a big number the difference between 10.56 and 9.75 seems minuscule But work that out over 20 years and joe would have saved 155,000 rand over a 20-year period you can buy a car with 155,000 rand You can take the whole family around the world or to disney world on 155,000 rand and that's just on a loan of 1.2 million That's why it's so crucial to shop around for a home loan And you may as well use an originator like better bond who does that for you For free their service is for free. So a really important step here where you can save a whole lot of money And then there's step six the bank comes back with a With that offer with a grant they say we're ready to finance you joe and joe is now Becoming and has become the owner of the home There's a whole bunch of technical things that happen in between and municipal rates clearances and beetle and electrical and etc So you still need that trusted advisor to help you, right? And there's still a conveyance that holds your hand through that whole process But at some point the house gets registered in your name and it's time to move So schedule that move and there's a bit of planning that has to happen behind that for those that haven't moved before If you hop onto our site again, it's on askremax.co.z. There's actually a checklist of things To check off when moving so like for example for me what was important. I want to make sure when I get to the other side That the beer fridge is on and the tv is working the other stuff can sort itself out But I for me i'm just kidding or am I i'm not sure if i'm really kidding But there are a few things that have to get ticked off right is the water connected is the dstv connected Have I ticked all the boxes literally of the boxes that i'm going to move When is moving day i've I scheduled it again go on to remax.co.z. There's a checklist like that That will at least get you started on your journey excuse the pun So I hope that made sense for you. I hope that some of those steps will assist you I hope that some of the things I've shared with you will help to To make the experience of purchasing is purchasing a home a great experience for you Again, if there's any questions that you have or anything else that you'd like to find out we have a Ream of information sitting on ask.remax.co.z from blogs and videos and explainer videos Down to a form that you can fill in where we'll we'll contact you with any direct questions that you may have I hope that was useful and I look forward to uh, I look forward to enjoying the rest of this conference And I hope you enjoy it too. Cheers you