I’ve found a block of land – now what?
We will explain the contract to you, ask the vendor’s solicitor to make any necessary amendments and have you sign the contract.
If you are borrowing money to help buy the land, we will need to give your finance provider copies of certain documents. If you let us know how we can contact the person you have been dealing with, this will help us to avoid unnecessary delays in getting your finance approved.
Normally, you will need to pay 10% of the purchase price to the vendor’s real estate agent before we commit you to buy the land. Sometimes an agreement is reached for a smaller deposit to be paid. If you are not able to pay a deposit, please contact our office to discuss the option of paying a deposit by way of a deposit bond.
Exchange of contracts
Once your finances are in order and the deposit has been paid, we will confirm with you that you are happy to proceed. If you are, we will exchange the contract signed by you with the contract signed by the vendor (which their solicitor will have). Then the property is off the market.
You will have five working days to “cool off”. If you change your mind for whatever reason and decide you no longer wish to buy the property, you can back out (as long as you have not agreed to waive your cooling off rights). If you cool off, you will forfeit to the vendor 0.25% of the purchase price but you will get back the balance of your deposit and be free to walk away from the contract.
Between exchange and settlement
During this period (usually four to six weeks) we will conduct enquiries into the title of the property you are buying. Several of these enquiries are to council and the water authority to ascertain whether or not rates are paid up to date.
We will prepare a transfer and arrange for it to be stamped by the Office of State Revenue before settlement.
We will also be working with your finance provider (if applicable) to ensure that everything is in order for settlement to take place on the appointed day.
The last week before settlement
We will calculate the amount which you owe the vendor (including a daily adjustment for council and water rates together with any other agreed allowances) and make arrangements to collect the money from you and your finance provider (if applicable).
You will be able to have a final look at the land to make sure everything is in order before we complete your purchase. We will remind you as settlement gets closer. You should then contact the agent to make a time to go back to the property for a final inspection.
If everything is in order, we will make arrangements for your purchase to be settled. If there are any problems with your final inspection which the agent cannot resolve, let us know and we will contact the vendor’s solicitor to work things out.
Settlement
Today is the day you will own your new land. Once we have searched the title one last time, we will attend settlement and ensure that the correct title and transfer documents are handed over. Then we will give the vendor’s solicitor the balance of money owing on the property.
We will call you to let you know that settlement has taken place.