Step One

Talk to your Bank or Financial Advisor about your budget and obtain a pre-approval. Although a pre-approval is not necessary to look at properties, by having one it saves you a lot of time once you’ve found your property and gives you a lot more bargaining power when negotiating a price.

Step Two

Now that you are actively inspecting properties, make notes on each of the properties you view. It’s best to write down the features that are important to you and how you felt about each house. Open House Inspections are a great opportunity to view houses at your own pace.

Step Three

So you’ve decided on a property, now it’s time to talk to the Agent and offer a price. The Agent will take this to the Vendor and if necessary liaise between you and the Vendor until there has been an agreed price. At this point, you will sign a contract and pay a deposit. Once this contract has been dated, the house is UNDER CONTRACT

Step Four

As a buyer, you have cooling off period of 5 business days where you can terminate the contract for any reason. If this happens, you are entitled to a refund of your deposit within 14 days of termination of the contract, but a termination penalty may be deducted, equal to 0.25% of the purchase price. During this period, it is advisable to conduct a building and pest inspection. Most contracts become unconditional upon you securing finance and you being satisfied with a pest and building inspection.

Step Five

Once you have received a satisfactory building and pest inspection and have secured finance, your contract will become UNCONDITIONAL. There is nothing further for you to do except wait for settlement. During this time, your Solicitor will conduct searches and change title documents. Settlement date will depend on your contract, most contracts will have a 30 day settlement but this can change according to your circumstance and will have been negotiated when signing the contract.

Step Six

You will be given a date and time for settlement, this is when the Solicitors will meet and agree that your property has been sold and all the paperwork has been organised to change the title etc. It’s now time to move in.