Things I wish I’d known before buying a house

Buying a house isn’t something you do every day, so when the time comes, it helps to have some inside information.

An Offer to Purchase (OTP) is a serious thing

This is a legally-binding document that contains a lot of jargon. Make sure you understand what you’re signing up for. Unfortunately tenants, property agents and sellers aren’t always to be taken at their word - rather make sure you understand all the terms in the OTP, and ask as many questions as you need to before you sign. 

Look closely 

It’s useful to know that if you like a house after your first viewing, you may enlist the help of a professional house inspector to ensure that you are fully aware of all the faults and damage that may exist but that you wouldn’t necessarily notice, such as a leaking pool or a faulty geyser. 

Take a picture, and a friend

Take photos of the house so that you have a record to refer to while making decisions. If you can’t afford a property inspector, ask a friend who has bought a house before to accompany you. 

Meet the tenant 

Meeting the tenant - whether or not they’re staying in the house after sale, may also be useful. They may have valuable information on the neighbourhood: is it noisy, if yes - what in particular contributes to the noise? They may also have information on safety in the neighbourhood. If they will remain in the house after the sale, it’s also worth knowing who you will be dealing with as the landlord. 

A few useful resources:

A home inspector may seem like an unnecessary expense, but it can save you money in the long run. Be careful to use a qualified home inspector. If you opt to do the home inspection yourself, here’s a helpful article. Also have a look at this useful start-to-finish guide to buying a home. For the more serious home buyer, it may be worth considering property inspection software.

You will need Life Insurance

Some debt - such as a home loan - will likely require that you take out Life Insurance as a condition of your contract. Often the debt provider will arrange this insurance which will then form part of your monthly debt repayment. It may, however, be more cost effective for you to take out your own Life Insurance to cover this debt - perhaps as an addition to existing Life Insurance coverage. This coverage is very important as it will ensure that your home can be retained by your family should you pass away before it has been paid for in full.
Read more about why Life Insurance is worth buying.

Want to get an idea of how much Life Insurance you need?

What about Salary Protection, Disability Cover or Critical Illness?

Our Life Insurance calculator is easy to use. All you need to do is answer a few questions about what financial responsibilities you may have, or are planning on having in the near future and you will get an indication of your requirements. We do this by making assumptions, now we all know that assumptions can be dangerous, that is why we let you edit our assumptions in the assumptions tab.

So why not give it a try, we will email you a PDF of your results for your convenience. We will also mail you a link so that you can continue with an online quote via our online quoting system which is incredibly easy to use but thorough enough to give you a price based on your individual risk profile and your medical underwriting.