Surviving Israeli mortgage hell: a checklist.

Buying your first home in Israel? Welcome to Israeli mortgage hell! (As opposed to anywhere-else-mortgage hell).

Here are some points about the process that might be helpful to you if you’re going through it now too. Note that we bought our apartment from our landlady, so there was no issue of real estate agency, moving dates, or handing over keys. I’ve heard each of those things can be their own personal hell. I guess somewhere there’s a homeowners’ angel watching over us.

So here’s what we learned from buying our property in Tzur Hadassah:

  • From the beginning of the purchase negotiation, check (and double-check) that the seller’s name is actually on the Tabu document (land registry) and not the seller before them. That could take months to change if needed (and in so many cases, it is needed).
  • While you are at it, check that the seller’s correct teudat zehut digits were put on the Tabu.
  • Pay a little more to have a really good lawyer. Who speaks your mother tongue. By really good, I mean assertive, persistent, responsible and communicative.
  • Also, make sure you get a good bank mortgage representative. Ours has been a complete doll, even when the bank itself was dicking us around. It helps that she turned out to be a neighbor of ours.
  • Keep all your papers and documents in a secure folder, and take it with you every time you go into an office to deal with something.
  • Have copies ready of everything.
  • Structure insurance: Have the policy document ready in Hebrew. The bank won’t accept it in English and it can actually hold up your process.
  • Be persistent. And annoying. In this aliyah world, you get the immigrant discount: a deduction in the form of assumption you won’t get mad, push, or fight back.
  • If you are using the זכאות עולים, and you are pregnant, you’ll need a letter from your OB-GYN stating your pregnancy status, so the bank can include it in a submission to the government.
  • Have copies of your spouse’s teudat zehut with you on every bank visit if they are not accompanying you.
  • Include the cost of a lot of petrol for all the back and forth you’ll do. Alternatively, use a bank branch within walking distance of your workplace.
  • Take into consideration you’ll be spending a few hundred shekels here and there for things the bank will have you running around to get.
  • After agreeing to your bank you find they aren’t treating you right or are screwing you around (like ours did with us) go ahead – mention it to your rep, lodge a formal complaint, and ask for something. You never know what they can give you (and they are prepared with resources to do it with customers when necessary).
  • Don’t leave loose ends: Take care to make sure your name is changed on the Tabu papers once you own. You don’t want to cause trouble and waste time for when you sell your place down the line. Seems like people get excited when the first bank payments are finished and the place is officially theirs, and forget that one detail at the end.

Other than that, pray the sellers you are dealing with are decent people. Our seller was our landlady for three years who we totally connected with, so I’d say that was a major saving grace for us. Especially since she was located in the U.S. while we negotiated and processed.

If you’ve got anything to add, feel free to leave a comment… Like I said, we got lucky and didn’t have to deal with awfulness from our seller, handing over keys or moving, so go ahead and fill that in.


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2 responses to “Surviving Israeli mortgage hell: a checklist.”

  1. Ariel Vered Avatar

    From our vast experience, somebody who speaks your mother tongue is not an advantage. Most Israeli professionals speak English well enough for you to understand completely. I’ve met absolutely horrible real estate lawyers who were hired because they are “Anglos”. Huge mistake. The same is true of a mortgage advisor.

    I don’t know why you didn’t use a professional mortgage advisor. The cost isn’t even a fraction of the savings that you would realized already, not even to speak of the importance of proper advice in the long run. See what Globes has to say:
    http://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?QUID=1056,U1305718423308&did=1000645126

    The clerk being nice or not is completely irrelevant. If you had a decent advisor, you wouldn’t need to speak to the bank clerk more than five minutes. What is relevant is getting a good mortgage.

    There is no such thing as a good bank clerk. See this:

    1. elie Avatar
      elie

      Hey Ariel, thanks for adding here. I was super pleased with our lawyer, for whom Hebrew and English were mother tongues. I guess I should’ve clarified that.

      Don’t know much about mortgage advisors but it sounds like it could be beneficial to some. Our bank clerk was really great ; the bank in general was… a bank.

      Read more: Surviving Israeli mortgage hell: a checklist. | lizrael update

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