Before purchasing a home there are several important avenues to explore which will assist in making a level-headed decision based on fact.
AREA – Which area would you like to live based on the distance you’d have to travel to work, school and amenities, like shopping and medical centres? What is more, ensure those schools and amenities are of an acceptable standard to you. Are there any nuisance factors, like noisy restaurants or unruly loiterers on the streets at night?
PRICE AND NEED – How much can you afford to pay? Let’s say you’re married and planning on starting a family. You buy a one bedroom house because you can easily afford it, but you may have to move again soon. Whereas if you buy a bigger property you can live there longer before you need to move. The trick of course is to make sure that you can maintain bond payments in the event that the interest rate goes up; making it a bit of a balancing act.
VALUE – Ask your estate agent for a comparative market analysis of the property’s value. A property’s value is determined solely by the market, i.e. what other people were willing to pay for a similar property in the area.
CONDITION – Just as you won’t buy a second-hand car without knowledge of the work done on it and its service history, so too with a house. You must find out as much possible in terms of the house’s maintenance and current condition. A competent estate agent will have run through a checklist with the seller, which the seller then signs and validates as correct. A buyer can ask an agent to see this list.
Ensuring you’ve got as much information as possible before purchasing a property lessens the rick of ‘buyer’s remorse,’ which is often associated with purchasing houses.
Jan le Roux is the CEO of Leapfrog Property Group.
