Buying a Home, A Guide to Success & Happiness
Buying a Home, A Guide to How You Actually Buy a Home (when you are over 50) and what happens when you are successful
You have found the perfect home, it has everything on your MUST HAVE list and a few extras from your WANT LIST too. Maybe, it just about has everything but you can really see it working for you and you want to buy it and live in it. How do you buy a house and what happens next?
Attend as many Open for Inspections as you can.
Buying a home means getting used to searching online. You can filter your search. Go slightly beyond and at least $50,000 under your budget.
Some agents will quote low to build interest and competition, some will quote accurately. You will be the best judge of this once you have explored a number of homes
Usually you do not need to book to go to an Open for Inspection. You just turn up at the advertised time. If there is no advertised home open by Wednesday then contact the Agent to check availability as the home may have sold but they haven’t marked it as Under Offer or Under Contract online yet. Send an sms as you are more likely to get a response.
Attending Opens and doing your research will come in handy when you find your perfect house and want to make an offer. You will know approximately a price, and importantly, you will know what else is available for your money.
Look at Sold prices on realestate.com.au to find out what the homes you have viewed have actually sold for.
Ask to be emailed a Section 32. This is real estate speak for the Vendor Statement,
Buying a home means learning the language of real estate. The Section 32 Vendors Statement is a very important part of the process. You must see this and read this disclosure document before you make an offer. Ask your conveyancer if they provide a Section 32 review service and how many Section 32 reviews are included in their fees. The review means that the conveyancer will read the document and note things of importance that you should be aware of.
Even if you have little interest in a house, the more of these you see the more comfortable you will be with the content of a Section 32 and the process.
Don’t ask the conveyancer to review every Section 32, just the one you are interested in buying.
Tell the Selling Agent when you find the home that you want to buy.
Let the agent know that you are interested and that you want to make an offer. They are not mind readers and please don’t play games at this time. Game playing and saying you are not interested may mean that they don’t include you in any updates about the home and you miss out.
- Get the Section 32 (they will usually email it to you fairly quickly).
- Consider your Must Have List
- Consider other homes that you have seen and where you think this one sits pricewise
- What are you prepared to pay to buy the home, what is your top offer price and that if it sells for a higher price then you will be glad you walked away
- Send the Section 32 to your conveyancer to review
- Find a building and pest inspector (preferably one independent of the agent)
It’s all about being prepared.
Ask the Agent what is their offer process.
Is it an Auction, a sealed envelope offer, how do they take offers?
They will make assumptions that everybody does this process the same way but it is rarely true. Each agent, each office, and each brand is different. Make no assumptions.
For your Offer, the Basics
- Price
- Deposit
- Settlement
- Special Conditions, most common special conditions are: subject to finance, and/or
- building and pest
- Conveyancer who you will use
Note: if it’s an Auction then there are no Special Conditions, No Cooling Off and the Deposit is usually 10% on the successful bid with the Settlement time preferred by the Seller announced prior. You can ask for an alternative prior to the Auction Day. They do not have to agree but it is worth asking.
When increasing your price remember to also consider Stamp Duty and other costs.
Success?
You will need to sign the Contract and the Section 32. If buying at an Auction then this is likely to be a paper Contract. Private Sale, may be an electronic document.
Note: the details on the Contract, the filled-in, agent added parts.
The agent will have the Contract and Signed Section 32 to your Conveyancer and it doesn’t hurt to check that the conveyancer has received it.
Pay the deposit, 10%
Action any paperwork received
Ensure that any paperwork you receive from your lender, conveyancer or agent etc is actioned as soon as possible, do not delay.
Keep any paperwork related to the Sale somewhere safe and contained for easy reference.
Buying Through Private Treaty (really, anything not bought under Auction Conditions
If you have bought under Private Treaty conditions then you will have 3 (Three) clear business days to ‘Cool Off’.
You will lose 0.2% of your deposit if you Cool Off.
Think about why you want to Cool Off. Don’t do it in a panic. Talk to your Conveyancer or Advocate promptly.
Inspecting the Home After the Contracts Have Been Signed
Extra inspections post-contract signing are entirely up to the agent. You are not entitled to reinspect, to measure up for anything, to show family through, the agent does not have to agree to the inspections, nor does the seller.
Do not expect extra inspections.
Final Inspection
Final Inspection, you are however entitled to a final inspection within 7 days of Settlement. Use this inspection to check appliances work and are the same as when you bought the home and that fixtures are still in place. The property should be in a similar condition on the final inspection as to how it was when you bought it.
Settlement
Settlement. Titles have been exchanged, your funds have been transferred to the Seller and you now own the property. Once the agent has been notified by the Sellers Conveyancer that Settlement has happened then they can hand over the keys. They are not allowed to hand them over prior to settlement so don’t get offended.
You can now move in.
This is a basic and general explanation of the process. If you have further questions then please book a MEET-UP. There is a fee for this service.
