Looking at houses
We’ve been toying with the idea of moving when our lease expires. It expires at the end of August this year. We would like to live in a house, without neighbours literally on our doorstep. We would like to have a garage and a yard with some grass for Babyice to play on. You would think that’s not too much to ask. Rental properties seem to be EXTREMELY rare. I could find NOTHING in our price range and we were looking up to R5000 a month.
Rudi has been itching to buy our own house for a long time. It is a dream of mine to have my own house, but I know that we just can’t afford it right now. Realistically. We’ve been to see a couple of houses for sale. The ones we can’t afford by a narrow margin are quite small, but not too bad. There’s always something. No space for the dishwasher is a biggie. There never seems to be! Also…many of the places have very little storage space…in the kitchen and elsewhere.
We saw a house we thought might be in our price range. The house is SO run down. I wouldn’t live in it until it had been fixed up. It needed a LOT of work. We may have been able to afford the house, but wouldn’t have money to fix the place up. The upside to such a property would be that you can make it exactly as YOU want it. Make space in the kitchen for the dishwasher, etc. It was also on a very big plot, so lots of space to build on. The main bedroom had no cupboards. The kitchen looked…dingy…to put it mildly. The roof had been leaking so there were water marks and mould all over the walls and ceilings. There must have been tenants in that house for a very, very long time. I just can’t see us having enough funds to make the place liveable. Sure, someone lives there already, but they obviously have no standards whatsoever. One other nice thing about this house is that it is in the same street as Babyice’s day mother. Very convenient. Someone with the ability to buy it, fix it up and sell it at a profit has probably already snapped it up though.
We’re speculating about what we can afford as well. We haven’t actually applied for a bond at the bank, so we have no idea what we actually qualify for. I’m sure it’s not as much as we think.
We might just end up having to renew our contract here at this rate.
*sigh*
I know the feeling, the “sigh” feeling you have now. Don’t qualify for a decent amount for a bond, ending up renting anyways. “Hugs”
I hope that you two qualify for enough to buy your dream house. Good luck
Ja house hunting is wildly stressful – supposed to be fun, ends up being helluva depressing
Speak to the bank, get a pre-approved loan? Then you can use it, or not. 
That way you know what you qualify for……and makes it easier when you see what you want, to get it, as you have pre-approval! [and you won't need to sell your place - as a seller, easy access to sale is great!]
Good luck
Ai. Shame man. I really hope you guys get something that you’re happy with soon
It’s quite a nightmare; I’ve been toying with the idea as well and have seen a few places which are decent, but would also require a good amount of work. My fiance studies, so there’s no contribution from her side, which makes it even more difficult.
I think it’s a good idea to go to the bank and figure out what they’ll give you, at least that gives you an idea of where you stand, which could end up saving you a lot of time.
Buying property is a big thing, I can’t wait for the day that I own a little place of my own
I know the feeling. I so badly want a place to put my on stamp on. Maybe it is worth seeing if you can get a loan. Nothing to lose. Just make sure you stay close by
the best place to start is to see what kind of bond you guys can get. Get pre-approved… it helps!!
also – being strapped for cash… rather get something that doesn’t need work.
we bought almost a year ago… and we both LOVED a rather large townhouse that needed quite a lot of work… our parents said it was a BAD idea… we ended up buying something slightly smaller, but it needs NO work… i am so grateful that all we are paying is our bond – we would never b able to afford maintenance like tiling or repainting etc etc.
good luck!!
Good luck with the house hunting-hope u can get a really gr8 loan! if u get a place that needs fixing have a bloggers party and ivite everyone over with their old clothes and a paint brush hee hee!
@beagle_momma – I have to agree with you; the temptation of buying something and slowly working on it over the years is very high, but the reality is very different. I, too, will buy something rather smaller that doesn’t need a lot of work. Well, that’s the case if I don’t win the lottery, which I do plan on doing
Its a daunting prospect… Moving I mean. I stayed in my flat for 13 years because it was big, well situated & affordable. Would have loved for the knucklehead to have a garden of his own.
13 years, wow! I moved at the beginning of this year into a place, which will be sold at the end of this year, which means I will be moving again. It was the first time I’d really moved so I didn’t know better, now I’m dredding the move at the end of this year
I’m sure you’ll find something great though, sometimes we just have to slow things down and have faith.
Try to buy from a developer in a new development. That way you have no transfer fees which is huge. Also the building is guaranteed for the first 5 years, so anything that goes wrong, breaks, cracks will be fixed for free.
When you get your bond, don’t stretch yourself to the max. Make sure that if interest rates go up you can afford to pay at least 10% more on your payment. So many people lose their homes because they stretch themselves too far and can’t cope when there is an interest rate hike.
I hope you find your dream place soon.
I have two articles, which have some incredible information and comments attached to them for anyone looking at buying. Some of the comments are priceless.
Apologies for link dropping.
http://bit.ly/9jNwhy and http://bit.ly/avS5ot
Definitely worth the reads
I know how you’re feeling! Gary and I have wanted to get something of our own for ages but there doesn’t seem to be anything in our price range in the areas we’d like to stay… Holding thumbs for you and sending you lots of good luck!
@SHARON True no transfer fees etc, however, the building work these days is just shocking! I’ve now lived in two newly developed homes, both of em was built with cheap bricks and it ended up being freezing cold in winter and I found that it did was difficult to retain the heat inside the house.
The newly built places do come with that guarantee and they do fix up faults that we reported etc, they affordable and has all the spec you looking for, however, do expect mould, cracked walls, cold, no pipes for wires to run through roof, expect the house not to be built according to plan, but hey, at least it’ll be your home….I’d go for a older house if I were you….