Buying a property sight unseen, buyer beware!

According to Peerless Property Management CEO, Martin Bester, as a first option, you may wish to consider renting before buying.

Bester, shares his recent experience and advice regarding purchasing a property, sight unseen.

Renting: 

Renting allows you to familiarize yourself with an area and settle in, before making the ultimate decision of purchasing a property, however, there are instances where this might not be necessary or even an option. For instance, you may be familiar and comfortable with an area already, you may even have a particular property in mind, and you may even wish to conclude a sale before relocating for certain reasons.

There are several tools available to the prospective buyer, such as Google Earth, Google Street View, etc., that allow you to view an area without, physically, travelling there, and many listing sites offer valuable information about an area's sales trends and amenities. There are other sites and forums available, with information of interest such as crime stats, traffic trends, community programs, etc., that provide information on a particular area.

Jenny Berk from All Seasons and Waterproofing,  says very few people actually inspect the roofs of houses they want to purchase. "Even if it has crossed your mind, who carts around a 6m ladder to an open house? In addition, not everyone is able to get up on a roof," she says.

Berk advises the following: 

• Take the time to check out the roof, by dividing the roof into sections, inspect and take photos of each section.
• Take closer photos of any defects you find, clearly identifying where they are on the roof.
• On a tile roof, you're looking for broken tiles, cracks in the mortar, and mortar missing from the ridge.
• If your roof has different levels, inspect the waterproofing where the two meet. Is it cracked, flaking, or peeling? Are there hips and valleys? Check out how those joins are done.
• Also look for any anomalies such as dips, particularly around chimneys.
• Pooling water is the first no-no of any waterproofing on the roof.
• On a roof with sheeting, look at the quality of the sheets. Can you see any rust, any indentations, or any sign of roof sheets bending?
• Check the rubber seals on the self-drillers and scan for any that may have been drilled in too deeply. Also, check that the self-drillers are in the right place (and that they're all there), click here to read more. 

Bester goes on to say that another problem associated with renting before buying is that one will end up moving more than once, in a relatively short space of time, which is costly, disruptive, and taxing.

"This leaves some in the position of using these tools, but not actually viewing the property in person, before making a decision. Whilst this is not advisable, as mentioned, there may be mitigating factors which leaves one with little choice.  To that end, once the remote homework has been done, you may now be ready to settle on an area and start searching properties available within your price range.

"Yes, the property advertisements include photographs and details of the property, which are valuable, however, the sales agent and or seller is doing just that, selling, so the advert should not be the be all and end all in the transaction. Photographs may be outdated and details misleading, so try to view properties listed by more than one agency, for comparative purposes," he says. 

There are professional companies that undertake unbiased property inspections, but bear in mind that these do attract a cost, and if all you are doing is kicking tires, then this might not be a viable option. However, if you have settled on a particular property, and are ready to sign on the dotted line, consider this option, it may save you money, time, and disappointment.

Bester says another option, is to suggest, by means of a suspensive, or even resolutive, condition in the offer to purchase, that the transferring attorney retains, in trust, a portion of the sales proceeds, for a period of say 30 days after date of occupation, so that you can perform a proper inspection of the property, test all the installations, such as locks, windows, doors, plumbing and electricals and look out for patent or latent defects, not immediately visible and or declared in the, now required, property condition report.

"You may then, after negotiation with the seller, have certain issues remedied from the proceeds of the retainer. Moreover, if the seller is confident about the condition of the property, then agreeing to this condition should not be an issue.

"Once the sale is concluded, it is difficult, time-consuming, and even costly, to backtrack, and more often than not, the issues, if any, found during the 30-day retention period are, relatively, minor to the overall transaction," he says.