Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa September 2018 | Page 26
ACQUIRING
Why You are not Investing in
Property
(and should!)
BY BARRIE SWART
W
hen we conducted a poll last year, 66.6% of South
Africans surveyed said that it’s always better to
own your own home – and a quarter stated that
they weren’t able to move from renting to owning, much less
consider investing in a portfolio of properties.
There are a number of reasons why individuals think they
cannot invest in property – some are valid, but more often than
not, they are excuses. Here are some of the biggest excuses I’ve
encountered when it comes to buying property:
“I can’t quit my day job”
Don’t quit your day job! You may feel that you need to devote
24 hours a day to your investments, but being self-employed
makes it so much harder to secure financing. Your day job is an
advantage, not a hindrance. You will need to invest some time
in research and viewings, but with the right agent and the right
broker you will be able to do a lot of the legwork in your spare
time. Once you’ve put the legwork in in the short-term, you
can reap benefits for life.
“I don’t have the cash”
This is probably the most common excuse in the book. I
wouldn’t advise anyone to save up a lump sum in order to buy a
property with cash in hand. You do need to become loan-wor-
thy though. You can ask family or friends to offer up surety.
You can invest with a group of friends or partners. You can
use your existing residential home as equity. You can borrow
to let (if you can find a property with good rental returns).
And most of all, you can plan to get the money. Cut back on
expenses and set a target date for when you will have the funds
you’ll need. Use the time it takes to get to that target date to
learn everything you can about the property market. You are
already ahead of most of the population if you spend less than
you earn, so make the most of it.
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
“I haven’t got a clue where to start”
Lack of knowledge is not a barrier in the Internet age. Buy a
book, attend a seminar, watch videos on YouTube or download
a podcast. Once you have the fundamentals you need, you can
start recruiting the partners you’ll need – a broker, a banker
and an estate agent will be happy to provide you with advice…
their goal is to see you own a property, and they will help you
get there.
“There just aren’t any good deals out there”
Before you think there aren’t good deals out there, you might
have to define what a good deal is. If you are looking for a
dirt-cheap property in a prime area with huge rental yields
that does not require any maintenance in an up-and-coming
neighborhood…good luck to you. Everyone is looking for that
magic deal, and everyone is unlikely to find it. Investment is a
marathon, not a sprint. Set your investment goals for the long-
term and find a property that matches. Do you want to buy
to flip, demolish or rent? Who do you want to rent to? How
much do you want to earn? Once you’ve set the goals, the deal
will pop up in good time.
“I don’t have the right contacts”
Sometimes all you need is a search engine and a classified site.
There are more home owners uploading private deals at lower
prices than ever before. Set up alerts, ask around, drive around.
You might just be able to nab a bargain from right under the
noses of property veterans who’ve been doing this for years.
You will always find a reason not to invest if you look hard
enough, but the opposite is also true. Sure, there are risks.
There are also massive rewards. Anyone can make a profit from
property – including you.
Source: Gumtree