For anybody, buying a first home is usually exciting but quite overwhelming. It means that you have worked very hard and saved your hard earned money to finally get your own home.
First-time home buyers in most cases don’t know or understand the meaning of mortgage terms and real estate in general and are likely to be preyed on by opportunistic real estate agents who take advantage of their ignorance to inflate property prices.
The amount of paperwork required in order to fully purchase a property like closing a mortgage loan is usually overwhelming in all ways and the amount of money required to purchase a home in Kenya nowadays can be intimidating. Here are some of the key factors that should be on a typical first time home buyer’s checklist.
1. Pick Your Preferred Location
You should consider important factors about your location like the price of the home, price of land in that area and the appreciation rate which are determined by the location, area infrastructure, proximity to social service and amenities. This means that you should do very thorough research before buying a home. If you want to buy a property in developed areas like Kilimani, Syokimau, Runda and many other developed areas, then you will have to pay more money.
2. Choose a Good Real Estate Developer
You need to do thorough research here, you can check on the background and reputation of the developer online or asking the previous customers of the developer. You can also visit his/her website if he/she has one to know his portfolio, associates and even history. Reviews are also very important when picking a developer because they give genuine feedback on the developer.
3. Identify Your Must Have Features For Your Home
You need to identify all the features you need for your home like the number of bedrooms, general layout of the house, size of the house, general landscape and any other features like a servant quarter or parking slots. Such features make a major difference in preference for home-buyers and gives you exactly what you pay for.
4. Payment Plan
You need to agree with your developer on the perfect payment plan that all of you will be comfortable with. There are many options of payment plans that you can choose from like cash payments; which in most cases is cheaper than any other form of payment but not secure. Other options are paying in instalments, loans and even mortgages.
5. Sales Agreement Review
After agreeing on your perfect payment plan, your developer will give you a document that outlines the sales terms. Before you sign it and submit it, you need to go through it thoroughly with your legal representative and if it is as you had agreed, you can then sign it.
6. Get Your Finances Ready
After signing all the sales agreements and remitted initial fees, you need to keep up with your installments. If you payment plan was cash payment, then get your cash ready, if you preferred mortgage or loans , then ensure they are all approved earlier enough before signing the sales agreement so that you are not the one dragging the handover process.
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