For Buyers

Buying a property should be an exciting experience whether it is your first home, investment or you are upgrading or downsizing. We have outlined a simplified process below of what buying a property can look like. We hope that this combined with our frequently asked questions section can assist you as your buy your next property.

Buying a Property...

Finance: When you are looking to buy a property, if you are not paying with cash it is wise to firstly have a conversation to a bank, other lender or mortgage broker before you start looking to ensure that you are looking at properties and in suburbs that fall within your borrowing capacity and budget. Your broker, bank or lender should also discuss with you about stamp duty, lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) and any other costs that might be applicable to your purchase so you are prepared for the total cost.

The property finance world is complex, we recommend that you talk to different banks and/or mortgage brokers to ensure that you get the best deal. It is also worth mentioning, that different lenders have different criteria that is ever changing, if one won't lend to you or your borrowing capacity is slightly lower then you were expecting, it doesn't mean that will be every lenders position. We made the mistake years ago of not asking a second lender when our bank said we could not purchase a property because we were on probation for our new jobs. We learned years later that there were other lenders that would have given us the loan. We missed out on buying that property and this is why we always advise on shopping around where possible and gathering as much information as you can.

Types of Sale: The three main types of sale include the below:

Public Auction: Where buyers bid in an open air public forum so everyone is aware of what the current highest offer is.

Silent Auction: There are a few ways a silent auction campaign can be run and it includes an agent having multiple offers made but not in the public domain. Examples include Best Offers By campaigns and Multiple offer situations. It is not always the highest price that is successful in these situations as the conditions can be given more weight.

Private Treaty: Where an agent has a price listed or is able to give you an indicative price on where they are expecting to receive offers.

Property Solicitor / Conveyancer: Before making an offer you will need to find a property solicitor or conveyancer who will act on your behalf throughout the buying process. They can vary in costs but you want to ensure you have a good one as bad legal advice can cost you in the long run.

Making an Offer: Unless you are buying at public auction, different agents can have different expectations and process's for making offers so you are best to confirm with each agent what they prefer.

One of our values at Alumuna is keeping process's simple so if you are wanting to make an offer on one of our properties, we have a Make An Offer form that will be available at inspections and downloadable off our website. You simple fill it out, take a photo and send it to us via text or email. We will always acknowledge your offer then take it to the owner. If there have been multiple offers made of the property or we are expecting multiple offers, this will be communicated to you and a "best offers by" time and date will be set. We understand this can be a nerve racking time and we will keep in touch with you regularly throughout the process.

Going to contract: The successful offer will then go to contract where the details of the offer are put onto a standard REIQ contract of sale in draft form. The draft contract is then sent to the buyers, sellers and both their legal representatives. The solicitors/conveyancers will speak to their relevant parties about the draft and either request changes or approve the draft. Any changes to the draft are made by the agent, then re-issued. This goes on until the draft is approved by both parties. Once approved, the contract is finalised and sent to the buyers to sign then onto the sellers and this date becomes the contract date and all condition time frames count down from this date.

Conditions: When making an offer you will be asked if you have any conditions that will need to be met for the contract to become unconditional. If you require finance that will be a condition and if you would like a building and pest inspection done that would be a condition. Other conditions that I have personally used and seen used include due diligence clauses, body corporate records search, sale of another property etc. Your legal representation can advise you on these conditions and if they would apply.

Going Unconditional: Each condition of the contract will have a due date. On or before that due date, the agents needs to be advised by the buyers legal representation that the condition has been satisfied. If more time is needed, an extension can be sought but is not guaranteed. Once all conditions have been satisfied the contract of sale becomes unconditional.

Settlement: Settlement is very exciting because you become the legal owner of the property. Your legal representation arranges the legal paper work and any prorataing required of rates notices and water usage figures are calculated.

Some buying experiences can be really easy and strait forward and some can be complex, frustrating and even deflating at times. When you buy through Alumuna Property we will do everything within our power to make your buying experience more exciting than stressful.