You’ve found a property within your price range and are now ready to make an offer and tackle the legal steps.

Making an offer and signing the contract on the dotted line

We get that it can be daunting to make an offer on a property. We can help you with drafting any special conditions you wish to submit with your offer. Common conditions include making your offer subject to finance, requiring a building or pest inspection, seeking early access to the property before settlement, selling your current home as a condition of proceeding with the purchase, or requiring that the vendor does certain work to the property prior to settlement.

The vendor's lawyer or conveyancer prepares the Contract of Sale and Vendor’s Statement, also known as a Section 32. We’ll review these documents, make sure your offer has properly been reflected in the contract, seek further information about the property where necessary and raise any red flags with you before signing.

Then we'll make sure that the contract has been signed and properly exchanged and work with you to make sure the deposit has been paid.

Pre- settlement steps

We will make sure any special conditions have been fulfilled (or that they are on track to being ticked off before settlement).

Then we will prepare the documents for settlement which are required to verify your identity, make sure that any stamp duty concessions or exemptions available to you are properly applied, and to give your lawyer the authority to proceed and arrange for the land to be transferred into your name at settlement on the online settlement workspace.

We will calculate and provide you with the amount required to settle and work with you and your financier to make sure the funds required are in the right place at the right time.

You should make sure you have insurance, gas, internet and electricity sorted out and effective from the settlement date and that you inspect the property in the seven days prior to settlement to make sure that the property is in the same condition it was in when you signed the contract (subject to fair wear and tear).

Settlement

At settlement we will require that the vendor's mortgage is discharged and that any other matters affecting the title (such as caveats or notices) are withdrawn or dealt with in accordance with the contract. We'll ensure the settlement funds have been applied correctly in the online settlement workspace and that the vendor has contributed its proportion to the rating period for any rates and outgoings (and that arrears are paid from funds due to the vendor). We check stamp duty has been properly assessed, that your correct name and address will be registered on title and your manner of holding is recorded on title in the way you have instructed us.

We'll let you know as soon as we can once settlement has been completed and it's time to celebrate! 

Following settlement, we will notify the council, water authority, and Owner's Corporation (if applicable) that you are the new owner of the land.

• Pre-approval from your bank and details of your banker or broker.
• A pest inspector and a building inspector lined up, if you wish to make an offer subject to inspections being conducted.
• Make sure you know who will be the purchasing entity.
• Your original identification documents  (passport and driver's licence).