Eight questions to ask before you buy a home

Buying a home is stressful, and it's also becoming increasingly confusing. The local real estate market has been changing rapidly. Not only are housing prices swinging, and to a different degree in each area, but the models used for purchasing a home have changed. There are "acquisition groups," in which people of like mind or profession team up to buy a whole building or complex, for instance. There are new kinds of apartments, such as Manhattan-style lofts and "mini-penthouses" and "garden flats" offered alongside standard ones.

Wending one's way through the maze of offers and prices and temptations (buy an apartment, get a free 'fridge) can be difficult. Here are eight questions you need to ask before buying a home:

Before you even start your conversation with the smiling sales agent, find out what company is actually erecting the building. When you buy an apartment, you're entering into a deep relationship with the builder. The relationship may last months, if all goes well. If all doesn't - it may last years. Find out how many projects the company is building now, where they are, and where it has built in the past.

Don't let statements like "Nochi Dankner, know the guy?" dazzle you. Nochi Dankner isn't plastering your bathroom, nor is any other tycoon. If anything a tycoon may own more than one construction company, each of which may be in competition with his other ones.

Now, note that the contracting company may have subcontracted out the actual construction to another company: You need to find out which company is actually laying down the bricks and mortar.

Find out which architect has designed the building and which bank is financing the construction.

Armed with this essential information, you can determine whether the constellation of above companies/professionals meets the criteria of selling you a quality home, or if they're fly-by-night builders using sand and spit - and smoke and mirrors.

You have to be doubly diligent about securities and guarantees. Just look at those heartrending pictures of multiple-child families, who forked over hard-earned money to buy apartments from Heftsiba, but (in exchange for discounts and the like) agreed to forgo guarantees. Now they are left with no money and no roof.

When dealing with an honest contractor, you should get confirmation from a bank when you pay - and note that following the Heftsiba meltdown, payment is no longer effected through the sales agent, but directly to the bank that is financing the contractor.

When you pay more than 7% of the value of an apartment, the mechanism of the bank guarantee comes into effect: This means the bank guarantees your money if the contractor collapses. Since you didn't pay the contractor directly, but rather put money into a designated account at the bank, you'll get it back in full if the builder goes belly-up. Beware contractors who, for whatever reason, try to bypass that mechanism and offer you toothsome benefits - including impressive discounts - if you agree to pay them directly. Understand that a reliable contractor in robust financial shape wouldn't be suggesting such dodgy dealings in the first place.

Remember that before you strolled into the sales office, the contractor had been busily choosing subcontractors, closing an arrangement with a bank and shaping his marketing strategy. An answer along the lines of, "We can't guarantee when you'll take possession of the apartment" is intolerable, for the simple reason that it isn't true. Don't shrug this off: You don't want the lease of your current dwelling to expire while the builders are dawdling. Make sure there's an airtight timetable and clear penalties for the builder if he runs late.

Israel's building contractors sweat blood, gallons of it, until the planning and construction authorities let them lay the first brick. But you shouldn't have to care about what hurdles they have to overcome: The only question that should concern you is whether he has the piece of paper.

Without a legitimate building permit, the contractor isn't allowed to build, period. But note ye well that some builders sell apartments that they plan to build, based on agreements that are conditional on a building permit being obtained. Simply, the contract between you and the builder is only valid if and when he actually gets a building permit.

This is perfectly legal and it isn't rare, either. But if you enter a contract like this, you must understand that it could take a long time for the permit to arrive, if it does at all. Take the builder's assessment of time with a grain of salt: Nobody can tell when the local planning and construction committee will discuss the case, let alone approve it.

You can check whether a building permit exists at the office of the local city engineer.

Some sales offices show small-scale models of the future building. That's nice. Much more important is a cross-section of your future apartment.

Other salesmen come equipped with a video clip showing simulations of the building's exterior: Again, that's lovely, but what you really need is a blueprint of your apartment, and to understand how it's laid out. Does the porch face the direction you like? Is the living room large enough for your lifestyle?

Find out using blueprints - not promises - whether the building has extras such as a gym, a lobby with a security guard, a special room that tenants can hire for personal events, a sufficient number of elevators, and so on - and try to find out the magnitude of vaad bayit (house maintenance) payments.

In the last year, stricter rules were set down that force builders to clearly state the expected area of the apartment, in net terms. The crackdown follows years of dubious measurements that included, for example, the homeowner's share of space in the elevator shaft and stairwell - anything that would serve to make the apartment sound bigger. But law or no law, you can rely on Jewish genius to come up with ways to muddy the waters.

Make sure to find out how big the apartment is - in net terms. We cannot stress that enough. Find out the actual area, not including the porches, parking space, stairwell or dovecote on the roof. Be diligent. Sit down with the blueprint and inspect room by room, to make sure that the figure you're given is true.

Many contractors do view themselves as responsible for the quality of life in the building, even after people first move in. Make sure the contractor selling you an apartment is that sort of person. Serious, responsible builders realize that it pays for them to invest in the building even after construction is finished. Some even supply gardening and cleaning services for three months after the new owners take possession. Others have a management company run the building for a designated period of time. Find out where your contractor draws his lines of responsibility.

There's good reason we left the knotty issue of price for last. Your meeting with the sales agent might take all of five seconds, after he names a price you can't meet. But you might also find that mulishness combined with seriousness can do wonders with the math. Get several offers for apartments you like, then knuckle down to negotiate.