Mpowered Properties

25/09/2017

Top Reasons To Buy a Home In The Summer
Forget the ‘normal’ four seasons: as usual, in South Africa, we’ve skipped spring and went straight into summer!

Besides the return of our green grass and colourful flowers, both home sellers and buyers are coming out of the woodwork during these next few months.

If you’re looking to buy a home in the summer months as well, don’t despair as there are quite a few advantages of buying during this time of the year.

Here are the main 4 reasons why you ought to buy a home in the summer:

Reason To Buy a Home In The Summer #1: increased housing supply
Without a doubt, the months of September and October normally see quite the influx of new properties coming onto the market.

After all, a lot of home sellers believe this time to be the most beautiful period of the year to showcase their homes.

Add to this the slowing South African economy thus far, and most real estate agents will confirm that we are very likely to see record numbers of properties being listed this coming summer!

In other words, if you’re someone who’s looking to buy a home in the summer, you’ll have plenty of homes to visit and choose from before making up your mind!

Reason To Buy a Home In The Summer #2: lower selling prices
As mentioned above, the big influencing factor will be the availability of properties in any particular area.

Obviously, if there are only a handful of houses available, you’ll definitely see price competition.

However, the majority of SA suburbs aren’t experiencing this type of buyer frenzy.

During these next few months, correctly-priced properties will undoubtedly sell quickly, whereas overpriced ones will remain on the market for longer periods of time.

With plenty of properties available to home buyers during this time, you’ll see plenty of bargain shoppers, who will try their luck with lower offers.

Also, the buyers, who realize they’ve got ample choice to pick from, won’t be too fussed if they don’t get their (lower) offers accepted on the first property.

There’s always the next one!

This type of thinking by the home buyer will lead to overall lower selling prices in an area.

Reason To Buy a Home In The Summer #3: less buyer competition
It might initially seem counterintuitive!

‘Everyone’ is buying during this time of the year, which should mean higher prices, no?

Not quite!

In-line with the lower selling prices explained earlier, home buyers who have plenty of choices to select from won’t necessarily react too emotional if they miss out on an opportunity to buy a certain property.

After all, there are a lot of other properties on the market, so why bother overpaying for one specific one?

Reason To Buy a Home In The Summer #4: property is in full view
While this might not be as applicable in some provinces, others do see quite the difference in the presentation of the properties during winter months vs. summer months.

Imagine having to face the cold temperatures or drizzling rain when viewing a property.

You, as the home buyer, might not be in the greatest of moods, but neither will the property!

The property only has one chance to make a first impression, and if the weather is overcast, rainy and cold, how is that stunning (summer) garden supposed to impress you?

Meanwhile, most of the rooms might be quite dark and dingy as there’s no decent sunlight during the viewing!

During summer months, all these problems are unlikely to be present, as you can actually properly see what you’re buying, especially in terms of the outdoor spaces!

So, tell us your thoughts on home buying in the summer? Is that something you prefer as well? Or don’t you really mind which season it iss? Feel free to comment below!

04/09/2017

No.1: Level of cleanliness
Let’s say that there’s good news and bad news when it comes to home cleanliness.

On the one hand, visiting home buyers will obviously have noticed that the house is (relatively) messy.

And you bet your bottom dollar that they’ll judge you for it!

The first impression has been made!

Do you like to be welcomed by a clean, tidy home?

Of course, you do!

Doesn’t that put things in perspective how important preparing one’s home for sale actually is?

However, the upside here is that even though interested home buyers are trying to overlook the mess, funnily enough, it makes the buyers feel better about their own cleanliness at home!

No.2: Bright-coloured walls
This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to anyone!

Lumo-yellow living rooms, bright-blue bathroom walls or teenagers with dark purple coloured bedrooms will scream for an immediate approval/disproval by the visiting home buyers.

Any bright colour in any room will invoke a reaction unless you’ve got neutral or white colours throughout.

All those years, you may have loved the look of those walls, but going into the marketing phase of your property, you may want to reconsider giving them a quick neutral colour!

Hopefully, it won’t be something you’re going to be looking at for too much longer!

No.3: Furniture placement
Big room with barely any furniture?

Small room stuffed with furniture?

Either way, home buyers will mentally rearrange the furniture in your home, and given the layout, they’ll picture their own furniture.

That’s exactly why empty homes don’t sell easily!

No.4: Different light sources
What was your impression of visiting your friend’s home which turned out to have decent lighting?

You probably don’t necessarily remember it, however, if her home would have had a dark entrance hall or kitchen, you would have remembered!

Similarly, when home buyers enter into a home and the lighting level isn’t bright enough, exactly that negative impression will be created.

Whereas people don’t really pay a lot of attention to the fixtures or chandeliers (unless it’s a feature in the entrance area or dining room), the light into a room, whether natural or created by your spotlights, will make a huge difference.

Why do you think real estate agents like to turn on every single light in every single room, regardless whether it’s sunny outside or not?

No.5: Pleasant scents
Having lived in your home for many years (or decades), you won’t necessarily notice the different scents across the house.

Hopefully, it’ll be nice food-related aromas coming out of the kitchen or flower-scented smells as you walk around the back patio!

Too often than not, however, the homeowner might have a certain preference for the spicier Asian cuisine, which will undoubtedly leave lingering scents hanging around the house.

And those aren’t always be welcomed by the visiting home buyers!

Having pets roaming around the house and backyard might affect the scents as well – especially if the backyard hasn’t been properly cleaned up after the “dogs’ visits” shortly before the home viewing!

It wouldn’t be the first time that the agent, together with the interested home buyers, need to zig-zag in between the ‘souvenirs’ while trying to ignore the smells!

Plenty of home stores nowadays which offer scented candles and diffusers to tackle those potential issues!

Get yourself a set of 5 and spread them throughout the house, from the kitchen, living areas, bedrooms to the bathrooms!

A huge potential problem diverted for relatively no money!

No.6: Any art or books
Being welcomed into a home by family pictures or interesting art is definitely something home buyers notice.

They may not necessarily stop and analyze the art work itself, but subconsciously they feel they’ve entered into a warm home.

However, having said that, if the art is rather generic, it will leave a somewhat negative impression!

Also, haven’t you noticed that a happy home tends to be one where people read books?

So don’t start packing those books, but leave your book shelves filled with all of your great reading materials!

It might be exactly that what convinces that undecided home buyer!

02/09/2017

http://immoafrica.us6.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=e55db6122c2b7ef0cd18ece6c&id=17dfedce6b&e=adfb8ea392

There are a number of very important questions to ask the agent before buying a home! This article talks about which ones you cannot skip!

01/09/2017

What amounts to the full price of buying a home? Not just the bond repayment, but all the extra fees and costs involved before setting foot into the house!

01/09/2017

Happy Spring day to you all. Dust off your winter blues and shout.. HAPPY SPRING DAY TO YOU ALL. 🌸🌷🌸🌹🌺🥀🌸🌷🌹🥀🌻

20/08/2017

When you go house-shopping on a Sunday afternoon, you will very likely be going from one show house to the next, and easily visit 5-10 during an afternoon session.

Do you have an idea of questions to ask ahead of time, or do you ‘wing it’ depending on the conversation with the agent?

Why not go in prepared with a list of questions to ask the real estate agent?

This way, you know for sure that all possible questions have been asked at every single show house!

Plus, the agents will see you’re a serious buyer who came in prepared!

Besides getting a feel of the house as you walk through, you would also like to know more details about the house itself, as well as its marketing activity.

Either of which will very likely influence your decision to stay interested or move on!

The best way to be prepared would be to have a list of questions ready to ask.

Here are some of the most popular questions to ask the real estate agent during a show house:

Question no. 1: What’s the reason for selling?
Right off the bat, this seems to be the first question that interested home buyers ask.

Maybe they are downsizing or retiring? Perhaps crime has become an issue in the area?

Whether the real estate agent will answer this question truthfully in the event of negative factors remains to be seen, but the way s/he reacts might already give you some clues.

Question no. 2: How long has this property been on the market?
Even though this information can easily be found online, it’s nice to hear that agent put the information in context.

Maybe the home sellers might be sticky on their price and refuse to sign any offers below a certain amount?

All of these elements will very likely affect your call whether to make an offer yourself.

Question no. 3: Have there been any offers?
Have the offers come in within the first week of marketing?

A month after going live, maybe they’re still waiting to see the first offer!

The agent might reveal some extra information which will steer you away/closer to formalizing an offer?

Whatever the answer might be, some tidbit info will be useful, so make sure not to skip this question!

Question no. 4: Is this the original asking price or have there been price reductions?
Another great question to get a better feel of what’s been happening price-wise!

Maybe it was initially listed at a higher price, and have the sellers been slowly-but-surely dropping the price?

In this current market, more often than not, the urgency has very likely changed and now suddenly things need to move!

The agent will be able to place all of these price movements into perspective for you!

Question no. 5: What are the rates and taxes?
Although the rates and taxes information might be provided on the brochures, in case they tend to be on the high/low side, an agent will be able to provide you more information.

Perhaps you as a home buyer aren’t used to seeing such high utility costs, whereas those are relatively lower where you live now in that sectional title unit!

Definitely something to keep in mind when putting a budget together!

Question no. 6: When is the seller looking to move?
Getting a property registered nowadays can take anywhere from 3-4 months, depending on the complications (or lack thereof) during transfer.

Perhaps the sellers are in hurry and would be willing to consider early occupation?

Or the youngest child might not graduate from high school until 6 months from now and they would prefer to a prolonged registration.

The more you know about the sellers’ intention to move, the better you as a home buyer can work around it.

All of these factors will influence the level and quality of your potential offer!

Question no. 7: What is this neighbourhood like?
Moving into a particular area might not be evident.

Plenty of things to find out – such as closest grocery store, mall, schools, highway connection, etc – and who better to ask than the local real estate agent!

Question no. 8: What are the neighbours like?
Having children yourself, it would be great to know whether the neighbourhood is kid-friendly!

Maybe the average age of the residents is in line with your parents’ age, in which case there might be a slight mismatch!

Plenty of young professionals nearby might point to a more active nightlife?

Another great question to ask the real estate agent during that show house!

Question no. 9: Which defects has the seller disclosed?
Even though there tends to be a disclosure report signed by the seller, there will always be some flaws which the seller nor agent will be aware of.

Recent repair work in some of the rooms might paint a different picture!

Have damp issues been fixed?

Does it have a flat roof? If so, when was the last maintenance done? Is there still a valid warranty?

Eventually, a home inspection report will become mandatory as part of the offer to purchase to protect all parties!

Question no. 10: Why did the home seller hire you?
Although this might not purely be a home buying question, as a potential future client (either as a buyer or seller), wouldn’t it be nice to already have a short-list of real estate agents to reach out to?

14/08/2017

http://immoafrica.us6.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=e55db6122c2b7ef0cd18ece6c&id=43723babea&e=adfb8ea392

The burden one takes on as a first-time homeowner can be quite stressful! These financial tips will come in quite handy when trying to make budget.

12/07/2017

https://www.facebook.com/lightersideofrealestate/videos/1410369442356169/

23/05/2016

Learning... Growing the MPOWERED team

13/05/2016

Most cost effective way to heat your home this winter
09 May 2016

Most South African homes are designed with tiled floors, open verandas and large windows to help keep them cool in the warm South African climate.

Oil heaters are most effective in contained spaces such as a single room. Open-plan living areas are simply too big for an oil heater to make a real impact.
However, what keeps the homes cool in summer makes them harder to heat in the winter. Have you ever stopped to think about which heating option is the most energy efficient and appropriate for your home?

Eskom shares some tips…

Money talks

Eskom asked an energy expert to work out the energy and costs needed to heat an average sized room to 18 °C and keep the temperature consistent for one month.

The study showed that the cost of heating the room from 11 ° C to 18 ° C was significantly more than maintaining a constant temperature and due to South Africa’s low electricity tariffs, electricity is always the more cost-effective heating option.

On average, heating a room with electricity costs R24.17, while it costs R50.81 to do it with gas.

Maintaining a room’s temperature for 24 hours costs R3.29 if you’re using electricity, but costs R6.91 if you’re using gas.

Heating and maintaining the room temperature for 30 days costs R122.87 if you use electricity, and R258.11 if you use gas.

Heating smart this winter

According to the energy experts, underfloor heating is the most ineffective way to heat a home. The floor has to be heated before the temperature of the room can be influenced, and even then, the warm air continues to rise into the ceiling.

In homes without roof insulation, underfloor heating will fight a losing battle.

Because most wall-mounted heaters are quite small in size, raising the room temperature means they have to be left on for a long time. A further disadvantage is that it radiates onto walls and heats up the bricks.

Gas heaters are not necessarily more effective than electrical heaters but given the high cost of bottled gas, electric heating is still cheaper in South Africa. The main advantage of gas heaters is that they radiate heat almost immediately.

As far as increased comfort, cost and power usage goes, the most effective heating option is an infrared heater, like the ones often used in restaurants. These heaters are the most energy effective because they heat up objects and not the air.

All things considered, the most effective heater for your home this winter is either an oil heater or a 2 kilowatt fan heater, both with thermostats. These two types of heater consume around the same amount of electricity to heat a room but have different advantages and disadvantages.

Oil heaters are most effective in contained spaces such as a single room. Open-plan living areas are simply too big for an oil heater to make a real impact.

They do take a little longer and a fair amount of energy before the heater's effect is felt because the oil and metal take time to warm up.

Fan heaters provide heat and comfort immediately and they can be directed to where the hot air is most needed. Most fan heaters come with a small container that can be filled with water to prevent the air in the room from drying out.

Heating hints and tips

- Insulation is the single most important factor when it comes to heating a home. An insulated room requires 51% less energy than an uninsulated room. Insulating your home’s ceiling is the simplest and most effective to prevent the warm air generated by the heaters from escaping.

- Only heat the rooms that you and your family are going to spend time in.

11/05/2016

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10/05/2016

Let go of buyer's that don't turn up for appointments, especially if they don't call to cancel. Your time can be much better spent looking for new stock. Running after unqualified, unmotivated buyers will drain you of enthusiasm.