The Home Buyer
As a first time home buyer in South Africa, even before you decided in which area you want to buy, or how many rooms you want in your new house. You must apply for a home loan, unless of course you can afford to buy cash. The financial institution where you apply for your first home loan will want to know all sort of personal detail from you. Things like marital status, financial standing, remuneration and a dozen other questions. All this information is needed to put them in a better position to help you, the buyer.

Most South African banks offer home loans of no less then R100, 000-00. If you and your partner are both working and earning a salary, it is wise to jointly apply and in doing so you can secure a larger loan. After they have accumulated the required information and made known their decision, your next step will be to get in contact with the friendly people in the Real Estate fraternity. Estate Agents are fully trained and it is advisable to make use of the well known and respected Real Estate names in the business. They will be able to advice you on how to go about selecting the right option when buying your home.

If you as the first time home buyer do not want to buy a house by making use of the Real Estate Agents, there are quite a few other options as well. There are home owners that feel they can save some money if they should sell their properties themselves. If you are interested and would like to shop around, you can log onto various websites who will bring you into contact with private property sales. The financing of the property will still have to be done by the financial institutions, so it is not an easy way of buying a home; it is just one of the many options that the law on housing sales has made available for the use of the public. Once you have decided if you are buying your home with the help of an Estate Agent or make use of one of the other options available, it is only a matter of time before you will be called upon to come and view the home in the area that you have requested. The estate agent or owner will take you to the site, or to various sites, depending on the availability of houses in that area. The final decision is yours to make, before your agent can start with the processing of the documentation.

It is important to remember buying a home is a lifetime investment and if you have the right people around, with advice and the necessary knowhow, you cant go wrong. One aspect of choosing your home is location. Even though the excitement of your first buy can be overwhelming, it is always the future one must think of. Like for example, if someday you want to sell this same house, will the new owners be as impressed with its location as you are now right now?