It is advisable to contact a bank, mortgage broker or lending cell before even looking at houses in order to ensure you will have the neccessary funds available to purchase property. Please note that if you commit to purchasing a house but you are unable to obtian the required funds you may lose money if you have already signed a Contract.

While looking at property it is important to ensure that the owner and/or agent have had a Contract for Sale drawn up by their Conveyancer/solicitor as this is required by law.

AFTER HAVING FOUND YOUR PROPERTY

• Once you have negotiated a price with the selling agent you will need to advise them that you wil be using us for this matter and provide them with our details.

• The Vendor's (seller's) solicitor will forwarded a copy of the Contract to our office.

• We will arrange for an appointment to be made and Julie will explain the Contract to you.

• We will contact the vendors solicitors regarding any special conditions that you might require i.e. pest and building report inspections or finance clauses and request that these be included in the Contract.

• Arrangements can be made by us on your behalf to order any pest and building reports.

• Contact is made with your bank and we liase with them throughout the conveyancing transaction in order to provide them with any documentation that they may require.

BEFORE EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS

• We liase further with your bank and ensure that you receive unconditional finance approval within the set time frame, usually seven (7) or fourteen (14) days.

• Once these details are sorted out we exchange Contracts with the the Purchasers solicitor.

• Upon exchange of Contracts you should pay your deposit to the Real Estate Agent. This is usually 10%, unless arranged otherwise, and can be in the form of cash and/or a deposit bond. This is payable to the Real Estate Agent who holds it in their trust account until settlement.

AFTER EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS

• We now apply for our usual searches and certificates in regards to rates, water etc and other queries regarding your purchase.

• At this time we also attend to paying stamp duty on your behalf, or prepare an exemption form for First Home Owners.

• We now arrange a suitable date, time and place for settlement, in consultation with you and the Vendor's solicitor as to when best suits you and the Vendor.

• Notification is sent to your bank with these details and cheque diretions, you may also be contacted should we require extra equity funds for settlement.

• We attend settlement on your behalf. in exchange for your purchase funds we receive the Transfer and Title Deed which transfers ownership of the property.

AFTER SETTLEMENT

• We contact you to advise that your matter has now been finalised.

• Either your bank, or Border Conveyancing should you be a cash purchaser, will now proceed to register these documents on your behalf.

• The Real Estate Agent receives an order on the agent via facsimile which release also allows for the keys to be released to you.

• Adjustments are made to the rates and water at settlement so that you dont incurr the Vendors portion. We notify the local Council and Water authorities of the change in ownership.

• We forward to you a letter confirming settlement, details of the break down of the settlement funds, and our tax invoice and receipt of which is paid out at settlement.