Purchasing a property in Maitland: Conveyancing Tips and Traps
Our tips to make purchasing easier
Tip 1 – Finance: Talk to a mortgage broker before making your offer. It is important that you understand your budget before making an offer on a property. Often banks will tell you that you have “pre-approval” but that doesn’t mean a lot when you make your application.
Tip 2 – Use local professionals: Research the area that you are buying in before making an offer. We always recommend using local people to assist with your purchase, including local pest and building inspectors, local mortgage broker, local and trusted property lawyer and conveyancer (read more about us here). Using local people will let you understand the area you are purchasing in and these professionals will have million stories about others who have purchased in the same area.
Tip 3 – Deposit: Have your deposit ready. Real estate agents will ask for 0.25% deposit as a ‘holding deposit’. If you have not signed the contract, you can get that money back. Once you sign the contract and contracts have exchanged with a cooling off period, if you rescind the contract you will lose that deposit.
Tip 4 – Negotiate: Get your trusted and local property lawyer and conveyancer to negotiate terms into your contract, including reduced deposit, extended cooling off periods, subject to finance clauses, removal of release of deposit clauses, subject to purchaser sale clauses, etc. These additional clauses can make your life as purchaser much easier and less stressful.
Traps to watch out for when purchasing
Trap 1 – Real estate agents: Dont’ forget that the real estate agent works for the vendor. The real estate agent will use their playbook of tactics to get a higher price for the vendor. Purchasers will often see me and tell me that the real estate agent said they need to exchange immediately to get the property, they needed to make a bid above a certain amount by Friday, they need to sign the contract of sale before getting legal advice, etc. Often purchasers are bidding without competition and rushed to exchange for no good reason. Take your time and book in a free consultation with us before making any decisions to see if we can assist.
Trap 2 – Inspections: It is a trap to make a decision about a property after a single inspection. We suggest making at least three inspections before signing the contract. During the inspections, test the inclusions including air conditioners, dishwashers, fans, etc. Try to view the property when it is raining (which is not always possible). In addition to your inspections, engage your own independent pest and building inspector to thoroughly inspect the property. After you get the report, call the inspector and talk about the property as often you will get more from that conversation than you will from the report.
If you would like to discuss more tips and traps for conveyancing, book in a free consultation here.
