We read the offer with you, so you know what you're agreeing to
The agent will tell you it's a standard document. It usually is — but "standard" still contains the deposit, the bond deadline, the occupation date, and what happens if any of them slip. Those aren't details. They're the deal.
Four clauses decide almost everything — and how much it costs you. Here's what each really means.
The dates that protect your exit if your bond isn't approved in time. Usually set by the seller's agent — and almost always too tight. This is your single biggest escape hatch, or your biggest trap.
'As-is' puts every hidden defect on you. A seller's compliance certificate is not a condition report — it certifies a moment, not the house. Your only real protection is an independent inspection, before you're bound.
What stays is a legal test, not common sense. With no inventory and no photos taken at signing, handover disputes over the stove, blinds or pool cleaner have nothing to arbitrate against.
Who occupies when, and who pays whom until registration goes through. Dates that don't line up cost real money every month — and are easy to miss under signing pressure.
Everyone else in the room is paid by the seller. These two moves put someone on your side — and both only work before you sign.
Before you sign
The person who drafted your Offer to Purchase is paid by the seller, and only if the sale closes. An independent review report is the one point where someone reads every clause on your side — flagging deadlines, gaps and risks while they can still be changed.
The highest-return R3k–R8k you'll spend
The one document that tells you what you're actually buying is optional, unusual, and usually skipped. Commissioned as a condition of your offer, it turns a R150k+ surprise into a decision you make before you commit.
OTP review and inspections are provided by independent, appropriately registered practitioners who contract with you directly. We'll always tell you when a recommendation involves a referral partner, and any Scetra fee is agreed with you upfront, in writing.
OTP review report · R500
Send us your OTP before you sign. For a once-off R500, we read every clause independently and send back a written report with plain-language flags while there's still time to change them.
Request below and we'll reply with banking details and how to send your OTP. As soon as payment reflects, we turn your review around against your signing deadline.
No payment now. We'll reply with banking details and confirm turnaround before any fee is payable.
Your offer measured against the 15 sections a residential OTP normally covers. For each one: what your document says, and what's usually the case.
The clauses that aren't there. Absences are harder to spot than bad terms, and they cause more trouble.
Written out, in plain language, ready to copy into WhatsApp or email. Send them to the agent and keep the replies.
Electrical, gas, plumbing, beetle — whichever you've been given. Whether one is attached for each service the offer requires, whether it's still valid, what it covers, and what it leaves out.
Buying a flat, townhouse or estate?Send the levy schedule, conduct rules and AGM minutes too, and we'll cover those in the same report. If you haven't been given them, we'll give you the request to send.
Scetra is not a law firm and doesn't do legal work. This report tells you what your document says and what's normally the case. It doesn't tell you whether to sign, and it isn't an opinion on whether your agreement is valid.
That's a deliberate line. Where something in your offer needs a legal opinion, we'll say so and tell you to take it to a conveyancing attorney. We'd rather be useful and honest about our limits than pretend to be something we're not.
Email your offer to hello@scetra.com, or WhatsApp it. A photo of each page is fine.
Most buyers are working to 24 or 48 hours. Tell us yours and we'll work to it.
R500, payable once you've seen what we'll cover. Nothing before that.
You're about to spend more money than you ever have. Five hundred rand to know what you're signing is not the expensive part.
Independent inspection · the R150k question
We'll connect you with an independent inspector, so a hidden R150k–R220k defect becomes a decision you make now — not a betrayal you discover after transfer.
Book it as a suspensive condition of your offer. Request below and we'll share availability and a quote — the fee is paid to the inspector directly.
Work through this before you put your name to anything. It saves to your device, so you can come back to it right up until the moment you sign.
0 of 7 done · saved to this device
You still have 4 high-stakes items outstanding. These are where six-figure mistakes happen — sort them before you sign anything.
Once your offer is accepted, the finance loop begins — bond applications, the bank's valuation, and a suspensive deadline you agreed to. This is where deals bounce. Let's make sure yours doesn't.
Go to Stage 4 — My offer's been accepted