Many estate agents with five or more years of experience have, at some stage, come across a situation where shortly after a sale has been signed and transfer of the property has been concluded, the buyer has to move on to a new city or country for work related purposes.
“This,” says Bill Rawson, Chairman of the Rawson Property Group, “is often caused by the buyer being promoted and, in my experience, in these situations they almost always dislike the idea of reselling their home, if only because it is highly unlikely to realize a profit if sold so quickly.”
In this predicament, the new home owner, says Rawson, now has two options facing them: they can rent their home out and then rent a house in the area where they are moving or they can approach the bank for a second bond for a second property.
Traditionally, said Rawson, banks look askance at applicants looking to bond a second property. However, this tactic has been successfully handled by some, particularly when the rents on their first home were satisfactory (e.g. covering say 65% of their monthly bond payments) and where the new salary of the promoted home owner/bond applicant is significantly higher than their previous salary.
If the buyer also approached the bank to buy one of their repossessed properties in the area where he is moving, said Rawson, it will greatly increase his chances of getting a bond and might well result in his getting a good bargain in the process.
“Websites such as myroof.co.za,” said Rawson, “gives buyers the sort of information they need for a successful properties in possession house search.” (Myroof.co.za is supported by three of South Africa’s major banks.)
Ironically, said Rawson, he has known cases where five to ten years down the line, the owner of two bonded homes has thanked his lucky stars that he was pushed into this situation – because both have appreciated in value and the owner is forced to recognize that, had he not been committed in this way, his income might have been spent on less endurable and less satisfactory assets.
