IDENTIFY HOW MUCH YOU CAN AFFORD
Work out how much of your income you can afford to pay for a home loan. This should not be more than 28% of your salary.

IDENTIFY YOUR AREA
Decide where you would like to live. Investigate the traffic, people, schools, and proximity to hospitals. Decide if you will be happy living there.

FIND A HOUSE
Find a house or development that you like and sign the offer to purchase.

• Once you have signed a contract, its expensive to get out
• Once offer to purchase is signed, it becomes a legal agreement
• Manage the property and your home loan, always make sure that you have enough money to pay for your home loan
• update your budget to include the home loan and additional expenses
• Move in: arrange for a mover or do it yourself. Remember to have all your possessions moved to the new adress
• Apply for finance, approach your bank for a home loan

While it is good not to chop and change investments often, you might need to make changes to keep your portfolio balanced and to meet the needs of changing times and circumstances. Arm yourself with knowledge and speak to your adviser about sensibly adapting your portfolio.

Themba asks Sophie to think back to the Secret of the Leopard and her long-term goals. Sophie quickly remembers that she would like to buy a house one day. Themba asks Sophie if she knows what she needs to do in order to buy a house. She doesn’t. Themba asks if she would like to learn more about what she will need, and the costs involved. Of course, she does!

Themba tells Sophie that there are six main steps in buying a property:

1. Identify how much you can afford
2. Identify the area you would like to buy in
3. Finding a house
4. Apply for finance
5. Move in
6. Manage the property and your home loan Let’s discuss each of these separately.

IDENTIFY HOW MUCH YOU CAN AFFORD

How much of your income can you afford to pay for a home loan? You need to work this out first before you can find a house and apply for finance. No more than 28% of your salary should be spent on a home loan.

IDENTIFYING YOUR AREA

When you first start looking for a property, you need to decide on where you would like to live. If you have an area in mind, then it is a good idea to visit the area at different times of the day to see what the traffic is like, who lives there and if you can see yourself being happy there. Check what the schools are like (if you have children) and if you can get to amenities (transport routes, hospitals, etc.). Once you have signed a contract to buy a house it’s expensive to get out of it.

Visit any new developments in your area and talk to the estate agents to see what is for sale. Use your budget to decide what you can afford. If you are worried that you have not worked out what you can afford correctly, then the estate agent or a financial institution to help you. Check your credit rating, so that you know if you have any judgments against you or if there are any errors.

Confirm with the estate agent or developer what the costs for registration would be for the properties you like.

FINDING A HOUSE

Once you have identified the area you want to live in and found a house or development you like, then you need to sign the offer to purchase. Be 100% sure that this is the property you want because once it is signed you are bound, and it may be difficult and expensive to change your mind.

When buying a house, you can go through an estate agent, developer or a private sale. If an estate agent showed, you the house and they have a mandate then you cannot do a private sale afterwards.

APPLY FOR FINANCE

Approach your bank for a home loan.

MOVE IN

Arrange for a mover or do it yourself. Remember to have all of your post sent to your new address.