From listings to living: navigating the real estate market with confidence

Confidence comes naturally when you're doing something you've done many times before. If you're buying a home for your family, it's unlikely that you've done this many times before and it's only natural to feel a bit stressed out at times. As the old saying goes, knowledge is power, and knowledge also creates confidence! Jawitz Properties has put together a guide to the property purchase process to empower you to move forward confidently.

Calculate your way to financial confidence

Before you start looking for your dream home, you need to know what you can afford. This is made easy with Jawitz Properties' range of calculators and the ooba bond preapproval tool. The Jawitz Properties bond affordability calculator on the website will show you how much you can potentially borrow from the bank. Simply input your gross salary and total monthly expenses and you'll know at a glance what price bracket you should be looking in. The bond repayments calculator will boost your confidence by showing you exactly how much your monthly home loan repayment will be, based on the amount that you plan to borrow.

Work with a property practitioner to choose your home confidently

Browsing agency listings and property portals is a great way to get a general idea of the properties available in the area that you're interested in. However, working with an experienced property practitioner is the best way to find your dream home - for several reasons. Firstly, looks can be deceiving and you may inadvertently overlook a property that could be perfect for you. If you've told a property practitioner what your real requirements are, they can show you homes that will meet your needs and budget.

Secondly, having a property practitioner on your team could mean knowing about new properties that come on the market before other people do. Also, working with a property practitioner inspires confidence because although you may never have purchased a property before, you're in the company of a qualified professional who knows all the ins and outs of the real estate process.

Sign a sales agreement confidently, knowing what comes next

Signing a sales agreement is a huge step in the journey to becoming a homeowner! If you've made an offer lower than the asking price, you may be in for a nail-biting wait to see if your offer will be accepted. The good news is that if the seller is not satisfied with your offer, they are likely to provide you with a counter offer. Once the document is signed by both you and the seller, it is a legally binding contract, meaning that you can enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that, provided you can meet any suspensive conditions in the contract, your journey to homeownership has begun.

Understanding and navigating the transfer process with confidence

You've signed the paperwork and arranged your home loan - now you need to wait (usually around three months) for the transfer formalities to be concluded. There's no need for those wait to shake your confidence though, because every buyer goes through the same process. The first step is for you to appoint a bond attorney and the second step is for the seller to appoint a transferring attorney and finalise matters pertaining to any bond they may have on the property.

Thereafter, both you and the seller will need to sign the transfer documents and the transfer attorney will obtain clearance from the municipality to verify that all the seller's rates and taxes are paid up to date. At that point, you will need to pay transfer duties (if applicable) and the transferring attorney's fees. The final step in the process is for the transferring attorney to lodge the required documents at the Deeds Office. Once the Deeds Office has given their approval, it will be time to fetch the keys for your new home.

Let our Jawitz Properties team give you the confidence that you need - whether or not this is your first property purchase. Let's connect and we'll walk you through the process one step at a time.