Constandious Takura Munakandafa

The year 2010 was the most eventful for my wife and me. We assured ourselves, that this was the year to get our dream home. My wife was pregnant and we were expecting our first child towards the end of year. Like any visionary couple, we set goals for ourselves. We wanted to have our child in our first dream home. Hailing from Midrand, an emerging middle class suburb in the heart of the Gauteng province, countless townhouses are mushrooming whenever an open ground is discovered. One would be called a loser for not owning a property in such a developing area. We had so many options to choose from. We started as early as January 2010. Our strategy was to buy straight from the developer as we would have all the pride of being the first owners in addition to bypassing all the transfer costs. One thing we learnt as first time home buyers was how easy it was to get an Offer to Purchase for all your dream homes, but getting the finance was a real complicated and involving exercise. I have to admit, I hopped from one bank to the other with files of documentations that had my employment contract, current payslips, lease agreements, bank statements to mention but a few. Some banks were asking as much as 50% deposit. It was the most difficult period that stretched for almost a year months. My wife was heavily pregnant at that time and we almost gave up when she gave birth since family commitments had increased.