Sale Pre Exchange
Contract for Sale:- In order to list your property for sale yourself or with an Agent you must first have a Contract for Sale. The Contract is made up of prescribed documents which come from the local council and the land titles office. Depending on the council it normally takes around 5 business days to receive the documents, there is also an option to pay urgency fees if required.
Offer and Acceptance:- Once you have accepted an offer the Agent will issue a Sales Advice to our office and the purchaser’s Conveyancer. This will provide our office with all the details we need to complete the Contract. We will contact you upon receipt of the Sales Advice to confirm all the details.
Exchange
Deposit:- Normally the deposit is 10% of the purchase price; however the purchaser may request a lesser deposit or a Deposit Bond. We will discuss these options with you if they arise. The deposit is paid on or before exchange of Contracts in one of the following ways: transfer into the Agent’s Trust Account, providing the Agent with a cheque, providing our office with a cheque. The deposit will then be held in the Agent’s Trust Account as stakeholder pending settlement.
Exchanging Contracts:- Contracts are drawn up in duplicate and one copy is signed by the purchaser and one copy is signed by you, the Vendor. The Contracts are then checked to ensure they are identical and they are dated. The Contracts are then swapped so that each party ends up holding the copy signed by the other party.
Cooling Off Period:- Each Contract has a cooling off period of 5 business days from the date of exchange, however this only applies to purchasers. If a purchaser “cools off” they must pay a penalty of 0.25% of the purchase price to you. It is common practice for the cooling off period to be waived so that the Contract is binding on both parties after exchange of Contracts. We will request that the Vendor’s Conveyancer sign a Section 66W Certificate which will waive the purchaser’s cooling off rights. There is no cooling off period if the property is sold at Auction.
Settlement
Adjustments:- The purchaser’s Conveyancer will draft a Settlement Statement which adjusts on council rates, water/sewer access rates, water usage, strata levies and anything relevant to the property. We will then check and approve the statement and will provide cheque directions to the purchaser’s Conveyancer which will include a council or strata cheque and a cheque for your discharging mortgagee. The outcome is that each party only pays for rates and levies for when they own the property.
Pre-Settlement Inspection:- The Purchaser is entitled to a final inspection of the property prior to settlement. The Agent will contact you to arrange this. The property must be left in the same condition as when Contracts were exchanged.
Attending Settlement:- Settlement is usually attended by four parties: the Vendor’s Conveyancer, the Purchaser’s Conveyancer, the incoming mortgagee and the discharging mortgagee. You are not required to attend settlement.
Post Settlement
Immediately after settlement we will notify you and the Agent that settlement has taken place. We will forward an “Order on Agent” to the real estate agent which authorises him to release the deposit to you and the keys to the purchaser.
Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
