Eight Recommendations When Buying A Home
With the benefits that the Government offers to acquire housing, many Colombians are thinking about purchasing theirs. That’s why FP gives you some tips to keep in mind, whether you want a new or used home.
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The first thing you should be aware of is that if you are going to acquire debt to buy a house, be in right conditions. For that, remember to verify your economic situation and if you can be a beneficiary of one of the Government’s programs to buy housing.
Once you determine that you do have and have favorable conditions, you can do a more in-depth analysis. For the general manager of the NIO Construction, Jorge Iván Márquez Parra, “the first thing is to check that the property you want to buy is free of foreclosures, mortgages or leases, it is necessary, but you must also verify that the characteristics of the home are not they will force you to invest in arrangements or put your investment at risk. ”
Step by step
1. Evaluate your economic capacity:
Before buying a home it is essential to perform an analysis to know how much you can borrow, that is, determine your debt capacity and establish what type of credit and in what terms can fix your mortgage.
2. Remember that there are two stages of payment:
the first, the initial fee that is an outlay close to 30% of the total value of the property and the second part is the remaining 70%. Therefore, you must calculate the date of delivery of the property so that you have the time necessary to collect that first payment.
3.
Evaluate which product is best for you: a mortgage loan or a residential lease, for example.
FP recommends reading “What are the alternatives for a mortgage loan.”
4. Review the interest rates:
It is essential that before signing a loan take into account the interest rates offered by each of the entities, so you can have savings with the decrease of them. Remember that there are two types of fixed or variable rates (UVR), check which one suits you the most.
5. Make calculations of the duration of your credit:
Do not forget that the longer you have more interest. And although having a loan that lasts for fewer months may involve payment of more expensive fees, the effort will surely be worth it because in the end, you will see savings.
6. Consider additional expenses:
When you carry out home purchase procedures, there are some other expenses that you must assume — for example, paperwork, notary or some adjustments.
7. Establish the use you will give to your property:
it is essential that you consider if it is going to be your home or if it will be an investment. If you buy to lease, the profit you will have will result from the payment of that lease, fewer taxes and maintenance costs.
But if, on the contrary, you think of living in it, you must believe that it is an investment in life.
8. Consider the location:
this, not only because of mobility issues and the accesses you may have but also because a house gains in value if it is located in an area that is in high demand, with good roads or if it is close to essential places from the city or in developing sites.
Other Recommendations
Another issue that is quite important is to think if you are going to buy a new or used home. For the expert Alfredo Barragan, one of the keys is to opt for the second option, because it can reduce the cost of the purchase.
Márquez also advises before buying should investigate about the foundations of the construction: ask who is the professional who prepared the soil study and inquire about the type of foundation (if it is piles, screens or floating plates) and if they meet with the seismic resistance standards approved by the standards established by the Ministry of Environment, Housing, and Sustainable Development.
When it comes to a new home, avoid future headaches and inquire about the builder, their previous projects and the reliability they can provide, visit their websites and beware of the ‘pirate’ builders.
Do You Know How Much Money Your Pension Pays?
When it comes to planning the future, knowing the pension system is very important because you can see how the money is being managed while you are quoting.
To understand it, it is necessary to remember that there are two pension funds: the average premium (public) or the individual (private) savings regime. The first is a large system managed by Colpensiones where active workers pay the pensions of those who are already retired; while the private one is individual savings and each affiliate owns his account, and his money does not depend on others.
The Colombian Association of Pension and Severance Fund Administrators (Asofondos) affirms that historically its profitability is superior to 8% real, and advises to save because the more you have voluntary contributions, the more significant the amount of the pension will be, and in this regime You will not depend on other people to reach your money.
Look at the different ways to secure fixed money for your future.
To find out where you are quoting, you can consult Old Mutual, Porvenir, Protección or Colfondos web pages which belong to the Association as mentioned earlier. Since many people do not know where they are affiliated, it is very likely that they do not understand what they do with that money while they can not use it.
Here we tell you what they did with it and their returns in 2018. First, it is good to know that the funds of the individual savings regime are companies that manage the resources of the members to increase their savings and make the pension much higher when you reach your old age.
When you are an affiliate you have the possibility of deciding how you want to invest your savings and achieve higher profitability, all this by the multi-fund scheme and you can choose according to your risk profile, your working time and age.
This change began its operation in 2012 through Law 1328 of 2009 because not before this a person of 20 years invested their contributions in the same fund as a person of 50 years despite their objectives and risks were different.
You maybe had no idea, but we tell you that you have several options to choose a pension fund that you have are: conservative fund , where people are already close to retirement age (10 years or less); Moderate fund which is recommended for members who are in the middle of their working life and who have a medium level of risk tolerance and finally the highest risk level, aimed at young contributors who are starting their working life and they still have many years ahead to get their pension — all of the above segmented according to the level of risk.
Some people have doubts about its profitability. However, Asofondos shows that the AFP managed to give their affiliates returns of more than $ 28.5 billion in the last two years.
“These figures confirm the benefits of the multi-fund scheme under which pension savings are managed, with benefits such as those observed in 2018 for the oldest members, in a situation of high volatility,” said Santiago Montenegro Trujillo, President Asofondos.
Where does this profitability come from?
Pension funds have rules to invest the resources of their members. In general terms, they can do so in private equity funds, highly liquid stocks, international market shares, CDT, among others.
According to the most recent information from:
The conservative fund had 78.98% invested in debt securities; the moderate fund invested 47.21% in this portfolio, unlike the higher risk fund, which was 67.54% in the equity securities market. That type of decisions, adopted by experts in investment issues of each AFP, is what makes the difference between one fund and another.
The diversification and variable investment of this private regime the long-term savings may have ups and downs, but the investment will always be much higher
If you do not know how to obtain the pension affiliation certificate,
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