Your journey to
buying a property
with confidence

The first step is really a few steps:

• Secure your finance – if you will be getting a loan to help buy the property, make sure you get preapproval for the amount you want to spend.
• Find a property to buy – consider where, what, and how much you want to spend, then jump online (realestate.com.au and domain.com.au are the most popular sites) and shortlist the properties you want to look at. You’ll then need to go and look at the properties in person, until you find one to buy.
• Engage a conveyancer – it is a good idea to engage a conveyancer early so they can be on standby once you find a property. There’s usually a bit of paperwork to complete, so it’s a good idea to get this out of the way to avoid any delays.

As a buyer, the typical process for making an offer, and negotiating the contract of sale, includes:

• First, determine market value and consider asking price – Once you’ve found a property, look at recent sales of similar properties in the area to get an idea of its market value. Using this as a benchmark, next consider whether the seller’s asking price is fair or above market value. This will be a useful guide to help you decide how much to offer – you don’t want to overpay, but you don’t want to under-offer and risk losing the property to someone else.
• Second, negotiate price – Determine the maximum you are willing to pay for the property, and keep this in your back pocket. This is your “bottom line”. Considering your market research, the seller’s asking price and your bottom line, float a reasonable offer past the agent to gauge how flexible the seller is on price. You can then decide on a formal offer to submit to the seller (which you do through the agent). If the seller doesn’t accept your offer, you can proceed to make further offers until you and the seller agree on a price, or you reach your bottom line. Remember that the seller may also be receiving offers from other buyers, so be as efficient and reasonable as possible so you don’t miss out.
• Third, conveyancer to review contract – If the seller accepts your offer, get your conveyancer to review the contract ASAP. The agent is legally obligated to continue to submit all other offers it receives to the seller until you have exchanged contracts. Once your conveyancer has reviewed the contract, advised you of its terms, and negotiated any required amendments with the seller’s conveyancer, you can sign and exchange contracts – congrats!

Your conveyancer’s role is to handle the legal side of buying a property. They will:

• Review the contract of sale, negotiate any required amendments with the seller’s conveyancer, and advise you of the terms of the contract.
• Assist with undertaking certain due diligence tasks, such as standard searches, ordering reports and building/pest inspections, as well as any other due diligence appropriate for the property you are buying.
• Facilitate the signing and exchange of the contract of sale (ensuring you and the seller are legally bound under the contract).
• Order settlement search certificates (such as rates, water, body corporate) and handle the calculation of property cost adjustments (i.e. splitting the cost of rates, water, body corporate fees etc. for the period each party owns the property).
• Coordinate all parties involved in the settlement, and manage the electronic settlement platform so all tasks are completed in time for settlement to proceed when scheduled.
• Assess (or arrange the assessment of) the stamp duty you will need to pay on your purchase.
• Complete the settlement on your behalf, including making sure your funds are paid to the seller, and legal title to the property is transferred to you.

A cooling-off period is a grace period for you to change your mind about buying a property after you’ve signed the contract of sale. It allows you to get out of the contract without losing your full deposit.

You will not always have a cooling off period – it depends on the rules of the state/territory where the property is located. In general, a cooling off period:

• Only applies to residential property.
• Does not apply if you are buying the property through a company or a trust.
• Does not apply if you buy the property at an auction (or on the same day as an auction is passed in) – in QLD this also extends to the 2 business days after the auction date (for registered bidders), and in VIC extends to the 3 calendar days before and after the auction date.

The length of the cooling off period, and the penalty you will need to pay if you pull out of the contract during your cooling off period, differs between states – see the table below:

• Purchase price – the price you will pay for the property itself. This will be paid in two instalments: (1) the deposit (usually 10% of the purchase price) is paid when you sign the contract; and (2) the rest is paid at settlement, usually 6 weeks after you sign the contract.
• Adjustments – the seller and buyer split the costs of owning the property such as council rates, water rates and body corporate fees, so they only pay for the time they own the property.
• Legal fees and costs – your conveyancer will charge you: (1) professional fees for the legal work they do for you, and (2) reimbursement of the unavoidable third party costs they need to incur on your behalf (i.e. searches, settlement certificates, land titles fees, etc.).
• Transfer/stamp duty – this is the tax you need to pay the state government on the purchase of your property. The tax rates are different depending on the state/territory where the property is located (you should visit the website of that state/territory’s revenue office and use their free calculators for the most accurate estimate).
• Due diligence inspections – inspections of the property by trained experts to check for any deal-breaking red flags, such as building, pest and strata inspections.
• Settlement costs – the costs of the actual settlement, including land titles registration fees (for your priority notice/caveat, transfer, and any mortgage) and electronic settlement fees (charged by the online settlement platform).
• Insurance – depending on the type of property you buy, you will need appropriate insurance.
• Moving costs – if you will be moving into the property, the cost of moving house.

It depends on the circumstances…

• If you haven’t signed a contract of sale, yes.
• If you have a cooling off period, yes (but only during the cooling off period) – you will get a full refund of any deposit you have paid, minus a small fee (set out below):
  

  State/ Territory	Fee
  NSW, QLD, ACT	0.25% of the purchase price
  VIC	0.2% of the purchase price
  SA	$100
  TAS, NT, WA	Depends on the individual contract terms

• If you do not have a cooling off period, or your cooling off period has ended, the seller will be entitled to keep your full deposit (unless you have a contractual right to pull out, such as the seller breaching the contract – in this case, you will usually be entitled to a refund of your deposit).
• If the contract is conditional upon a certain condition being satisfied (e.g. you obtaining finance or a satisfactory pest and building inspection), and you are unable to satisfy that condition, yes – and you will get your full deposit back. Note however that you must take all reasonable steps to satisfy these conditions, or you may not have grounds to get out of the contract (and will lose your full deposit).