Pretoria Real Estate - Property in Pretoria Sucks!

Apartment living. It's all over! It's been around for years and that's where real estate and property world is going and has been for the last 300 years! Over the last 2 years I've travelled from New York to Toronto, from Hamburg to London and from the South of France to Rome and condos and apartments are the way of living.

Pretoria on the other hand, the capital of South Africa and the most beautiful city in South Africa are on a par with India as far as I'm concerned and it's really starting to grate my cheese...

We have 3 universities in Pretoria. It's a student town and there are loads of young people living here. Yet, we insist on building face brick houses in security complexes. PEOPLE, DEVELOPERS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND PRETORIA:
Face brick security complexes selling for R800 000.00 is not going to satisfy the young entrepeneurs or the students in this city!!! When will you realise this...

My goal this year is to build awareness in the Property market in South Africa and we're going to start with Real Estate in Pretoria because it's my home town.

We need apartments, nice, fully equipped modern apartments for single youngsters and young couples. Surely we can build nice apartments and sell them for under R800 000.00 an apartment.

I can tell you now, from working in the home loans industry for close to a year now that the average Pretorian looking for comfortable living and looking to get into the property market cannot afford more than R650 000.00 bond with our current interest rates being 14.5%. This is what's missing here right now!!

So to all you developers in Pretoria I'm telling YOU! THIS IS WHERE THE MONEY IS!!!

Drop the face brick, drop the simplex living with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and absorb the way of the FUTURE!!!

CONDO LIVING IS PRETORIA!

The Bond Originator from Hell - Part 1

7.59AM - the phone rings and the THE VOICE screams....Are you a moron!!!! I said I wanted -2% below prime, are you ...$#5#7&&* deaf. If I had dialed 911 in new York I would have got better service from you, you, you,.... useless bond originator from hell!!!!

.....and here I was just finished a delish best in the west cappuccino from TriBeca at Brooklyn Square aligning myself with this new days energies!! Boom, with a scramble I looked at the file and saw that a rate of -1.85% below prime was the deal at 100% loan to value and on vacant land. Man had I really screwed up!!!

So sucking in my ripped to shred manhood (Yes, I am a man!) I called my red faced, blood pressured client and gently told him....in my best and most polite English (Yes, I am an English Man!) to go get knotted.

So, here's the truth manne!!!!!!!

Whatever rate you get today, you can improve on all the time as you pay your bond - just go and ask regularly at your branch for a better rate. (Even if the bank does not value your relationship, you can value theirs!!)

The bigger your investment out of your pocket, the better your rate. (You see size does count!)

If you use your bond as a current account, then you actually dont want a great rate??????????????? UHM?

The Transfer Process (You the Buyer)

Welcome to 2008. I'm pleased to announce that I've managed to get off my lazy butt and now I'm ready to entertain. I wasn't too sure what kind of article to start 2008 off on and I thought I'd start it with the question we were asked most this December.

What is the process behind a transfer of deed sale. I.E. When I buy your property, what's the process behind the scenes that changes the property details from your name to my name.

It is the estate agent's responsibility to ensure a superior performance in the process of the marketing, sale and transfer of the property in the Deeds Office is performed by a conveyancer. A professional estate agent needs to understand the basic conveyancing procedures performed by the conveyancer.

Conveyancing

The term "conveyancing" describes the legal process whereby a person, close corporation, company or trust becomes registered and lawful owner of fixed property and ensures that such ownership cannot be challenged.

The conveyancer is a person who has passed the national conveyancing examination. By law this is the only person who can register fixed property transfers.

The seller usually appoints the conveyancer in the transfer process. This appointment can be negotiated between the parties of sale agreements. You'll very often find that when using a bond originator, it's often best to ask them which attorneys they suggest as they generally manage to get discounted rates with selected attorney panels. Make sure that the estate agent does not force you into using their attorneys. Chat to the seller and come to some sort of agreement. After all it is you the buyer that is paying the transfer fees and not the seller.

Agreement of Sale

The first step in the process of property transfer is to ensure the existence of the Offer to Purchase or Agreements of Sale. This means a valid contract between you the buyer and the seller. A written Offer to Purchase signed by a purchaser and accepted by the seller, after all suspense conditions have been fulfilled, constitutes a binding DEED OF SALE. Oral contracts do not stand.

Conveyancing Procedures

On receipt of the signed Deed of Sale, the conveyancer will conduct the following procedures:

1. Conduct a Deeds office search to verify the details of the property
2. Prepare the documentation that the seller and you the purchaser will need to sign
3. Liaise with the municipality for valuation certificates and rates clearance forms
4. Electrical Certificates
5. Purchasers (your) bond instructions which they will receive from the bank

Costs

All costs relating to the transfer of fixed property need to be paid prior to registration of transfer and will include the following:

Transfer Duty
Value Added Tax
Rates and Levies
Conveyancing Fees
Bond Registration Costs
Bond Cancellation Costs

Deeds Office Procedures

The conveyancer will lodge the documents they have prepared with the Deeds Office for registration. If there is a mortgage bond to be registered, or a bond to be cancelled, the conveyancers attending to the registration thereof will lodge their documentation simultaneously with the transfer documentation.

Two examiners in the Deeds Office will then examine the documentation to ensure that they comply with all the relevant legislation and regulations. If all the documents are found to be in order and ready for registration they are executed by the conveyancer approximately eight working days after lodged in the Deeds Office.

On registration the purchaser becomes the lawful owner of the property, Approximately one month after registration the Deeds Office releases the Title Deed reflecting the new ownership, which in turn is passed on to the new owner. If a mortgage bond was registered the Title Deed is retained by the financial institution.

Timing

The period of time it takes to register a transfer depends on the cooperation of each party involved. Most transfers if everything runs smoothly happens within 6 - 8 weeks.

That's the end of our first article for 2008. I hope you all enjoyed it.
WizardMan Out!

A Debt Free South Africa for All...

South African Property Market 2008

So with tonight being the last night of 2008 it's time for the SA Property Market 2008 prediction :)... Sounds like fun, lets see how accurate we are. For those of you sitting at home waiting for some new BLOG posts, lets hope this keeps you somewhat, entertained.

Roundup of 2007
There's been some major changes and impacts in the South African Property market over the last 12 months. We've seen the rise and fall of some of South Africa's supposed fraudulent bond originators especially the story of Rudco Finance which the SA Property Team followed extremely closely. I just want to say though, that it's great to finally see South Africans standing up for their finances. It seems gone the days where fraudsters would just walk over us. A good positive to take into 2008.

Of course, who could forget the introduction of South Africa's National Credit Act. This amazing introduction by the government and financial lending boards has brought a stop to the reckless lending of credit. There was a stage when South Africans were in such financial debt, and didn't realise it. Well, we do know. And financing your property is no longer as easy as filling in a form.

We of course had the lovely problem of inflation, which after reading the Sunday Times news paper this morning does not seem to have been fixed yet. South Africa, under immense pressure, with an inflation rate sitting at around 6% is now feeling the brunt on our home loan interest rates. Interest rates have increased 4.5% over the last 6 months with talk of another 0.5% increase in the next quarter.

So after writing this article, I've decided that instead of predicting 2008's behaviour, I'm going to leave you with some tips, especially for the youth, and those looking to invest in property for the first time, in South Africa, and wherever you may be!

Tip 1 - Don't over expose yourself with too much credit! Credit is good, but make sure you have at least one account with a reputable store like Edgars.

Tip 2 - Don't buy property to your limit. I know we all want that 3 bedroom house in Clifton, but start small and work your way up! A site like myroof.co.za or privateproperty.co.za are great sites, no need to pay estate agent commission fees either.

Tip 3 - Use a reputable bond originator and someone whose a GOOD and RELIABLE financial advisor! - See Wizard Home Loans.

Tip 4 - If you're in Debt already and you are listed, make use of services such as The Debt Doctor, who provides free financial advise to those who can't afford to pay for it.

IF YOU WANT A GREAT BOOK WITH GREAT ADVICE - Buy the Suze Orman book advertised on this site - http://www.wizardmidrand.com/home-loans/debt/debt-doctor.html.

So that's that folks. Have a wonderful New Years and be SAFE!!!!

WizardMan Out for 2007!

THE TURNING OF THE SCREW - A TITO PRODUCTION

So in this movie old Tito Mboweni played by Basil Fawlty announces - a 0.5% increase in the repo rate pushing up benchmark prime and mortgage rates to 14.5% - and the whole cast and audience whoops with delight!!!! YES, YES, YES.

So Basil took the spirit out of Christmas shopping for many borrowers ...laughed the News24 audience.

Polly the analyst asked our knucklehead Manuel if the majority of his analyst friends also expect this to be the end of the tightening cycle???? Manuel said he asked his buddies at Lehman Brothers and the answer was, QUE!!! You guessed it, no-one really knows.

SO, thank heavens for good old SYBIL, level headed, slightly cloudy but, sensibly she thinks that having spoken with her close, close friends over tea at ABSA that with inflation taking its leap into our lives and with some belt tightening we will see house prices on average continue to dip and yes, the end of the increase in interest rates cycle is doomed! Doomed, did you hear what I said BASIL.

The End!!!

Have a safe and blessed Festive Season folks!!!!!!!