I've missed my BLOG!

I'm going to start this off by saying, Telkom you suck! We've now been without ADSL or internet access for a week. Today I found out that the copper cabling for half of South Africa's major ADSL network has been stolen whch of course leaves me without a BLOG. So here's a quick 10 minute update on what's up and what's forthcoming as soon as it's all online again.

1. I have not forgotten about the FREE WIZARD Hamper. I still have a couple left so those of you who have not yet subscribed to my monthly newsletter, now's your chance.

2. As for property news and developements it's all on the way, we have some great guest writers, real estate specialists and developers that have put some great content together for the BLOG, this will be going live as soon as I have my new Iburst connection, YOU HEAR THAT TELKOM! IBURST!... Sorry!

3. Wizard Midrand will be launching their new referral program soon! Keep yourself in touch!

Well that's it for now from the WizardMan.
Blog you soon!

Absa Home Loans - WAKE UP!

Well, S.A is fed up and this is why I've decided to write this article on behalf of real estate agents, bond originators, buyers and sellers in South Africa. I seriously hope that this article gets to the right people in that "dreaded" ABSA home loans department because the wheels are slowly starting to fall off that bus!

I can honestly say that in sunny South Africa, ABSA home loans are by far the worst home loans division...

According to ABSA they've put in a new system that were meant to increase turn around time for bond applications. They have appointed a new head for their Home Loans division in Jhb and apparently hired new call centre staff. Well all 3 of those area's have not improved, in fact, they've sunk to an all time low. I've received many complaints and it appears as though hundreds of applications are still pending with ABSA. Can anybody help us?

Their call centre staff are below the industry standard. To try find out how far your bond applications are is a nightmare. They're not able to us who's dealing with the bond application which obviously means there is a huge lack of training and understanding of how the business operates. They JUST don't have that "umph" to be able to take it to the next step.

ABSA please this is a shout out to you and your home loans division... Wake Up, smell the coffee and get cracking or Nedbank, Standard and FNB are going to leap way ahead of you!

WizardMan "Currently Pending"

FREE "Wizard Hamper" - First 10 Signups!

WOOHOO! It's the official launch of the South African property BLOG newsletter. I know what you're thinking. Another boring newsletter to add to my already massive collection of SPAM! You're WRONG I tell you! This newsletter, is going to be a newsletter with a difference. It's going to be a "informative", "exiting" and constantly changing monthly letter! With prizes, unreleased news and more...

It has taken me 3 months but it's here, and along the way I managed to find an awesome site, Zookoda, you guys ROCK! Do yourself a favour people and check it out! It's a great way to get a newsletter on your site and it's FULLY customizable.

Wizard Midrand have been kind enough to allow us to be the first to advertise their "NEW" referral program on our newsletter next month. It is open to "ANYONE", not just South Africans. There's only one catch, you need to subscribe!

As a little incentive, we've decided to offer the first 10 people who sign up to my newsletter a FREE "WIZARD HAMPER" valued at R150. I will be announcing the 10 lucky Bloggers next week.

SO WHAT YOU WAITING FOR?? SUBSCRIBE!

WizardMan Out!

P.S. It's the block just under "BLOG ARCHIVE" on the right side of the page!

Does your wife need larger breasts? Ask ABSA!

I went to LoanLink the other day for a good old fashioned home loan refresher course. They were giving us a breakdown of the different loans offered by the different banks , when I came across something called the Multiplan Loan from ABSA? Ever heard of it? Well neither had anybody else in the training room...

The Multiplan loan is a bond account with multiple loan accounts. It is a home loan option that allows you to split your mortgage up into separate accounts in the amounts of your choice, each with it's own repayment option and each with it's own interest rate! WHAT FOR?

Well lets say for arguments sake you had a loan account of R500 000.00. You need some change in your life, so you decide to split this loan account up into 3 segments, your home loan account, a breast enlargement account (for the wife of course) and a skiing account(for yourself while your wife recovers). What this means is that you have one loan account with two secondary accounts.

Each MultiPlan Secondary account can have its own:

* repayment term (not exceeding the term of the Primary account)
* statement
* interest rate options
* payment method for easy money management
* FlexiReserve facility.

At first I failed to see the advantages of this? What's the point? Why on earth would you want to split up your loan account when all mortgage originators and bank managers tell you the best way to get rid of debt is to combine it all into your bond account?

I thought about this for a while! Don't you think this is the perfect way to move money around? Think about it, 3 accounts, 3 different interest rates? mmmm I'll leave it at that!

FNB One Account - Is it the 1 Account?

The FNB One account. I'm sure you've all seen this on the news, on TV or even in the Cosmo( and no gents, I don't read the Cosmo)...

"What if you put your salary directly into your FNB home loan, over a couple of years it saves you thousands of rands AND IT DOES! You'll save a fortune on interest and if you're home loan was a bank account as well you'd have the best of both worlds."

The concept is incredible, it's what every home loan and financial advisor will suggest to you. Put your salary directly into your home loan so you can pay off that interest portion of your bond account. There's a catch to this One account though. It's a One account. What this means is that not only is it your FNB home loan but it's your FNB Home Loan account, your savings account, your credit card account and any other FNB account that you may have all joined into one.

The problem I have with this is how do you manage your money? How do you know how much you've spent on your credit card account, and how do you know if you've gone into your overdraft facility on your debit card? By consolidating all your accounts, are you giving FNB a chance to charge you more without you knowing? If you're not money savey, is this the option to go for, or are you going to get yourself further into debt?

If there are some FNB agents out there that read this BLOG, and there better be or I'm going to have to SPAM *@fnb.co.za ;-) please give us your comments, we're very interested to find out more about this...

For more information on the FNB One account speak to a consultant.