Window shop for house build and finishing ideas online

For starters, you can shop the property portals to see what the current market offers. Here you can virtually “walk” through other people’s houses, and see what they did and which clever ideas they came up with. Once you know that you’re open to the idea of building your own dream home, you can up your research a notch – remember Google and Pinterest are both vast sources of ideas.

It’s a good idea to have an ideas album in the cloud (like Google Photos) or a pinboard on Pinterest, where you can access it from your pc, tablet or phone. Here you can browse and add to it while waiting at the doctor’s office, during your lunch break or while your other half is watching a boring show on TV. The best part is that you can pull out your phone any time to show your friend, realtor, or builder an idea you like.

Meet agents – choose a realtor who gets you

This is not a popularity contest, it is YOUR FUTURE. Choose a property practitioner who gives you the facts as they are, unambiguous. Someone who calls a spade an effing shovel so you’ll know exactly what you’re signing up for.

It’s really not unlike interviewing a business consultant. Your agent should be someone who cares about your needs, your desires and your ideas – and be willing to take the journey at your side. It is vitally important that this person is someone you can form a bond with. Find an agent who’ll explain the details while being respectful about what you might or might not already know. The same goes for pricing, your agent should be considerate of your personal budget.

Your agent almost certainly will not have all the answers, heavens forbid (we have architects, engineers, attorneys and experienced builders for the heavy stuff). Still, they do need to be passionate and prepared to go the extra mile and bend over backwards to get you to the people with the answers.

Money Matters: Mortgage Pre-Qualification

Most of the online property platforms are equipped with basic mortgage bond and transfer costs calculators. These are valuable resources for you to play around on and do a whole lot of research with regard to your affordability. You can enter various purchase prices and check what the monthly repayments would be.

The next step in the process would be to have a Pre-Qualification done by a “Bond Originator”. These are financial advisers who specialise in residential mortgages, who would typically ask you for payslips, bank statements, an income & expenses statement and consent to do full credit checks.

At this point, they pick up on any old skeletons in the closet and give you a chance to resolve issues before they can negatively impact your formal applications at the banks. These would often be medical bills (maybe a pathology lab account for blood tests that you didn’t even know about) or old credit card disputes that had long ago been resolved yet some clerk forgot to clear the red flag.

Your Bond Originator will issue a Pre-Qualification Certificate. This document shows exactly how much you’re likely to be bank approved for, thus turning you into what’s commonly referred to as “a Pre-Approved buyer”. This same Bond Originator can also help you with your bond applications with the banks, at no charge to you.

A huge benefit of working through one of these professionals is their power to negotiate through dedicated consultants at the banks. They also handle millions of rands in bond applications daily, giving them the banking equivalent of “buying power” and an excellent position from which to negotiate on your behalf.

See half-built sites of the builders on your shortlist

Walking around a building site of someone else’s house can be very exciting to some, and a bit boring to others. Sometimes it’s boring to the buyer and very exciting to the agent 🙈, simply because the agent made that sale and is as excited as the buyer about the project.

It is important though, not because anybody expects you to have expert knowledge of the building process or workmanship, nope. Mostly because the builder invites you in, already showing a measure of pride in his work in all its unpainted and unpolished nakedness.

It is important to go with your agent so you can ask questions as they come up, for it is said that the biggest lie we tell ourselves is “I don’t need to write that down, I’ll remember”.

See finished, or “almost finished” houses by the same builder if possible

We get very excited when we have an almost-finished house to use as a showhouse! This is simply because the time that a house spends in the twilight zone of being “almost finished” is so limited. Before we know it the proud new owner brings his furniture and we have to move on to the next unfinished project to use as a show house. To be witness to this last finishing process is very exciting, you learn a lot about your builder’s eye for detail, his attention to final touches and his quality control.

Once the interior is painted you can also get a good feel for the size and spaciousness. Together we can pace out the living area and place your furniture in the theatre of your mind, even if it is on a slightly different floorplan. This is a valuable exercise to create a feel for what it could be like to live here.

We love hearing “now THIS is a braai!”,  “oh gosh, my inherited dining table won’t fit, we’ll have to make ours a bit bigger” or “Ooooooh, I want a walk-in pantry like this one too”.

Meet your building contractor

Aaaaah, the builder. These are some of my favourite people, simply because they tend to be so straightforward. A good builder is a true artisan, not necessarily a smooth-talking salesman, so brace yourself for the possibility of a diamond in the rough. I am often amazed, though, at their practical ideas and suggestions when we approach them with a concept, plus it’s refreshing to have someone tell you the truth without sugarcoating. These guys usually have a good inkling of costs too, although we try to never ask them to quote on the spot. They can give us pretty good ideas of what our wishlist might add to the ballpark price. I’m referring to more technical issues here, for instance:

• we might know that a wide stacker door is an expensive piece of hardware, however, what does it change to the other building costs (such as a lintel or a beam)?
• Would enlarging the master bedroom have huge cost implications on the roof structure?
• Is a prep bowl in the braai room or a laundry point in the garage practical for the plumbing layout?
• What other costs will be added if I have a sliding door from the master bedroom to the garden? (such as extra paving our outdoor lighting)

For this reason, more than others, it’s vitally important that you do a lot of looking, thinking and window-shopping before you meet the builder – this arms you with an arsenal of important questions.

Ask for the Building Agreement contract upfront so you can go through it in your own time

A Building Agreement is usually a standard contract used for that particular contractor’s projects, and it varies greatly between different contractors. It should also be accompanied by a Schedule of Finishes, a document that outlines the finishes and fittings you can expect (such as tiles, wall finishes, sanitary ware and lighting).

If you ask for the contract upfront and take an evening to go through it with a pencil in hand, you can clarify all the clauses you’re uncertain about before you commit. If you’re unsure, please get qualified legal advice before you sign, even if only for your own peace of mind.

This is also the time to scrutinise the Schedule of Finishes and read between the lines. For instance, if there’s no mention of a stove, does that mean they haven’t included a stove in the price and you have to purchase it separately? How big are the bedroom closets allowed for within the price? Is a garage door motor included or optional? These are often overlooked specifications that could later have an impact on your cash flow.

Ask as many questions as you can think of

This is one of those cliché moments where I tell you that “there are no stupid questions”, and I really do mean it.

Some of the questions our buyers have felt most embarrassed to ask, turned out to be very important questions. Realtors (even the bright ones like us 🤭) cannot possibly remember to tell you everything, nor would you want us to waffle on about stuff you might already know.

Our conversations are shaped by the questions you ask, and we may overlook something else in the process. Go home, take a notepad or open your favourite notes app, and jot down your questions as they come up, all of them.

We welcome it when we receive a list of questions because one of them might also remind us of something else to tell you. You might, for instance, wonder about paying the estate levies while your dream house building project is underway, although that question also brings up the issues of your rates and taxes on the erf, your municipal services account and interim interest.

We’ve compiled a list of questions we often hear, with answers as best we could. Check out our FAQs here.

Secure your choice fast

It’s so terribly disappointing when a buyer calls us and says “Okay we’ve decided, we want Erf no. 1234, please send us the contracts to sign”, and we have to tell them that their chosen plot is no longer available.

Once you’ve made up your mind, chat with your realtor to secure your choice. Some developers may accept Deeds of Sale subject to you selling your existing property first, while others may not for various reasons.

There are also sellers or developers who would consider a 3-day or 7-day reservation on a property to give you time to finalise your Deed of Sale with all the supporting documentation. Discuss your options with your realtor, they may not have the answers – although I’m pretty confident that they’ll know where to get them.

Relax and enjoy the process of buying a house off-plan

You’ll notice that we don’t tell you to “sit back and relax”, oh no, the more involved you are, the greater your peace of mind will be. This is partly because you’ll know exactly what the progress is at any given moment in time. Furthermore, you’ll be sure that all decisions made are with your preferred choices in mind.

You don’t have to be on-site or even in the province (or the country, for that matter) to be involved though. Your involvement could typically include (yet not be limited to):

• finalising and signing off on the floorplans (it may be fixed plans you had chosen from a list or customised concept plans to suit your budget and needs)
• completing applications when asked (NHBRC Enrollment, municipal connection forms etc)
• releasing progress draws (payments to the builder managed by an attorney from a trust account)
• If you’re not available to check on the progress in person, there are private home inspection companies you could contract should you have doubts.
• choosing floor tiles or paint colours
• selecting kitchen cupboard melamine or countertop colours and looking at light fittings

Consider your extras

During the process, you could also consider some previously excluded options that your budget may now allow. The most popular extras you might consider could include:

• paving in areas previously not allowed for
• additional cupboards
• floortiles or a ceiling in the garage
• fancy schmancy light fittings
• solar options for energy efficiency
• a carport for the boat, caravan or trailer and much more.

In the meantime, behind the scenes, your trusted builder is taking care of business for you:

• supervising and quality checking,
• liaising with the surveyor, architect, engineer, building inspector and NHBRC
• ordering materials and
• managing the subcontractors such as plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters and so much more.

 

You? You’ve made your selection, you’ve chosen your erf and you’ve carefully selected your builder, now trust the process and participate with enthusiasm, because it can be a tremendously rewarding project.

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Are you interested in the process of buying a house off plan on the West Coast?

Call us right away – let’s start a conversation.

More about your realtors: Sarel and Melanie

How much can I afford? Click for our Bond Repayment CALCULATOR