What is the buying steps in WA?

Anyone knows about the buying steps in WA, e.g. cooling off period, % of deposit etc ??

 

1. Place a written offer via a "Contract of Sale" also known as an "Offer and Acceptance".

Optional to have a Lawyer review before signing but highly recommended. Can refer one who is excellent who I use personally and for clients. Most settlement agents (local term for conveyancer / solicitor) are not Lawyers in WA and can come in handy to have a lawyer on team.

To be included on the contract of sale;

a. Nominate finance period (min 21 days) and B&P (covered of in annexure A&D)

b. Nominate settlement agent.

c. Nominate settlement date.

d. Nominate lender / broker and LVR

5. Deposit is 5% on established and 10% on OTP

6. No cooling off period

Get a local broker to "project manage" the whole process for you

 

I do.

You can negotiate verbally but a formal offer will be in writing on a standard Contract for Sale of Land or Strata Title by Offer and Acceptance. The 2011 General Conditions are included in the contract, so you should read all of them too.

For my last deal (tenants in common 50/50), we did a $10,000 deposit to be paid with 5 days of acceptance on a property costing around $500k.

We put Finance to be approved within 21 days and Settlement within 28 days from Finance approval.

All of these are negotiable.

There were also special conditions included by the agent including Termite Clearance.

There is no cooling off period in Western Australia.

It is important to remember that the law in Western Australia does not require that contracts for the purchase of property contain a cooling-off period. If the contract does not include a cooling off period, you cannot get out of a contract to buy a property because you have changed your mind.​

Real estate purchase price, deposit and finance term

Typically you would include a Finance clause, Termite clause and Building and Pest clause in your offer and acceptance. The equivalent of "cooling off" is that you don't get finance or the building fails the Building and Pest. If the property is a potential development site, you could include a Due diligence clause and then pull out if the numbers don't stack up. Last time I didn't get finance (during GFC), my deposit was returned.

Lots more useful information here:

Real estate contracts - sale by offer and acceptance

and here:

What is the Offer and Acceptance Contract? - reiwa.com

 

My purchases have all been established and in the $450k to $500k range. I typically pay $5k for a deposit. The most I have paid is $10k. That equates to roughly 1% to 2% for the deposit.

 

Correct you are @Perthguy. My PA gave me a bumsteer. No more coffees for her haha!

I have held blocks of land for as little as $500 and this was back in the early 2000s when come settlement time it had increased by many thousands of $$$$ on initial purchase price . In fact prices actually doubled in a 2-3 year time frame!!!

Not a bad COCR.

 

This is completely negotiable - I'd put down as little as possible. For established where you're dealing with normal people rather than developers, you will be fine putting down next to nothing. (edit - this means $1k, rather than $10.)

 

Agreed - most I have ever paid for deposit was $10k and that was at an auction. On 'private treaty' offers I usually put $1k or $2k.

 

Yeah ok I was wrong for once, well misinformed

I always advise clients to put down as little as poss but have seen numpty agents get the full 10 or 20% from clients to put in their offsets, I mean trust account.

 

lol. Deposits don't get treated very seriously in Perth like they do in Melbourne or Sydney. I only put $10k down on the last deal because there was another offer on the table and I wanted to get the attention of the seller and show her we were serious.

 

Thats a clever strategy. Problem is you never know if it actually worked

 

Well, the offer was accepted, so ...

 

Deposit can be anything. I usually do 1k for 500k properties but it's safer to use a figure that matches the agents commission for his piece of mind

 

Thanks so let me summaries, so we have to submit our formal offer by paper, then when we do pay the 1k or 2 k or as little as possible deposit, after the owner accepted our offer or else?

 

You pay it after acceptance.

 

I also use a sunset clause and a due diligence clause depending on the property. May not fly if there are other serious buyers that are also interested.

Deposit is 0.25% or 0.5%. Can be higher if your have a high LVR finance clause to show the vendor that you are serious.

 

what is sunset clause and a due diligence clause about?

 

My last Offer was to pay the deposit within 5 working days of acceptance.