Property Fraud Mitigation November 2019 Edition
Making a property purchase in Africa is the dream of many of us. We see visions of a beautiful, tranquil home surrounded by lush gardens, pretty flowers and the music of nature’s soundtrack of birds singing in the background. And when the warm sun on your back gets a bit too much, we imagine ourselves sipping ice-cold drinks and occasionally dipping into the swimming pool to cool off. That’s how we would all like to enjoy our retirement days after working long hours, long days and many, many cold years in the diaspora.
Unfortunately, sometimes the dream ends in disaster when due diligence into a property’s true owner has not been made. Worse still, there are professional fraudsters who specialise in exploiting the lack of proximity to the home market that diasporans have from the home market. So, it pays to have someone on your side to reduce the risk of becoming a victim of fraudsters.
At PropertyEnd; all the estate agents believe that being outside your country should not disadvantage you as a buyer. Neither should it create work with subscribing to / have signed up to a Code of X. They ensure that all agents are verified and regulated by their respective country authorities before listing properties.
Furthermore, to ensure ultimate integrity and peace of mind for you in the entire home buying process, we work with a panel of conveyancers, solicitors, property lawyers. The solicitors perform a Land Registry.
Apart from checking the legal title/ownership of the property, this check ensures that the person selling the property actually has the legal authority to sell the property. You may have heard of a strange story where a husband, fed up of his wife, decides to sell the house – forgetting that after the transaction is done, the seller, will also have nowhere to live. So to avoid being the butt of jokes at the pub feel free to ask your solicitor if the seller is of sound mind!
More seriously, it is the property solicitor’s job to hold your money in trust and ensure that the exchange of contracts takes place and that it is sent to your seller’s solicitor.
Again, this movement of funds from you to the solicitor; and ultimately to the seller, involves a risk.
To help you with this, PropertyEnd works with Heritage Pay, a specialist money transfer company who will liaise with your Solicitor / Property lawyer to ensure that your money is where it needs to be; on the day it needs to be. The money transfer service is personal too. For example, in the event that you are late in paying, Heritage Pay will provide your Solicitor/ Property lawyer with a “Proof of Payment” so that they have evidence that your payment is on its way. This is just one of the many ways in which PropertyEnd have thought through, the house-buying process in your country.
5 Things every first-time home buyer should know
1. Research, research, research
The first thing many of us do before we buy a new mobile phone, TV, or even a pair of running shoes, is research. We look up the product online, compare specs and read countless reviews before finally making our decision. You would think most of us would do that on the biggest purchase of our lives - a house. The thing is, we don’t.
2. Check your credit score
The major stumbling block in most property sales is financing, with only one in four home loans being approved.
What many of us do not realise is the importance our credit score plays in this decision. Your credit score will determine the rating the bank and other financial institutions give you after examining how you have handled credit in the past.
3. Work out your affordability
After you have found out your credit score, you can check your affordability. This takes into account your income and expenses to work out the size of the loan you could potentially get from the bank. Knowing how much you could possibly borrow makes the entire process far simpler.
4. Budget before you buy
As simple as this may sound, it can truly save you in the long run. When thinking of buying a home, take an honest look at your finances. Replace your monthly rent with the potential bond repayments, as well as costs like house insurance, rates and taxes, levies and property maintenance. All these costs add up and could put a strain on your monthly income. Budgeting for other costs like the bond registration fee and transfer costs can also spiral out of control.
5. Consult with professionals before you consider buying
Getting a home loan is a difficult business and can be made even more challenging depending on how you’re employed. A full-time employee with a constant paycheque is a far more attractive prospect for any lending agent than someone who is self-employed or earning commission-based.
