Buying a property in Queensland

The process of buying and selling property in the State of Queensland is different than many others states of Australia, in many ways it is simpler and easier.

Once you find a property that you would like to purchase.

You inform the agent that you wish to make an offer for that property

When an offer is made for a property, the agent will create the contract for the buyer to sign it. In Queensland the agency is legally licensed to create the contract of sale for a property, unlike many other states where a solicitor is the only one that can legally create the contract, what this means to "you the buyer" is that instead of a verbal offer which may be verbally accepted and may or may not follow through when the seller signs the contract you are sure of them following through.

The first paperwork the agent must show you is a warning statement form 30c this informs you of your legal rights and informs you that you have a 5 day cooling off period in which to cancel the contract, for any reason, in fact for no reason at all, however there is a charge involved so that you are discouraged to flimsily enter and cancel contracts. The Seller has no cooling off period.

The next paperwork is the 27c selling agents disclosure to buyer this is to protect you and state to you things that may go unnoticed to you such as "all' the commission and fees or benefits the agent is receiving (if it is abnormally high it maybe a sign that the property you have bought is overpriced). Standard commission in Queensland is 5% of the first $18,000 and 2.5% thereafter + gst. The 27c also discloses any relationship between the seller and the agent such as family etc. for the same reasons.

If the property is strata titled the agent should now show you the body corporate disclosure statement if you haven't already viewed it. The body corporate statement is a legal statement to the financial condition of the body corporate, required by law so the you can view and access as acceptance "before signing a contract".

The contract will have a price that you are willing to pay and a settlement date the time you want to take over the property. The settlement date is sometimes an actual date, however more common is a number of days from the date of the contract. The date of the contract is the date when the agent receives the contract agreed on all terms and conditions and signed by both parties. In Queensland settlements are often 30 days, where most other states are between 60 - 90 days.
Often the contract is conditional, these conditions may include but are not limited to:

Building and pest examination, so that you can find out about what you can't see, usually 7 days gives the you time to organise an inspector to come and examine the property, produce a report and for you to study the results,

Finance If buying subject to the lending institution agreeing to lending you the finance you should always be pre approved before buying, because the seller will probably only want to wait 14 days to find out if your finance will be granted, before accepting another offer, if pre approved usually the financial institution will have no problem giving you the go ahead within 14 days. You should contact the financial institution immediatly and inform them you have bought a property and to get the money ready for settlement, the financial institution will request a copy of the contract and organise a valuation of the property, if all is correct in the application and valuation the money is then drawn for settlement.

Once you sign the contract and 27c and 30c and BC disclosure if applicable

The agent then presents the seller with the contract, they decide what to do,
they can either:

Accept it
Reject it
Choose to negotiate it

If the seller decides to negotiate the contract they sign the contract with changes to the terms they don't like, price and or conditions and returns the contract to the agent.

The agent passes it back to you, you now have 3 choices, either to accept, reject or to choose to negotiate and so on.

After price and conditions are agreed the buyer pays a deposit (a sign of goodwill that they want the property)
The agent should send a copy of the contract to you, your solicitor, the sellers solicitor and the seller. Your solicitor now takes over to work on your behalf and to transact settlement.

You should now immediatly contact the financial institution and inform them you have bought a property and to get the money ready for settlement, the financial institution will request a copy of the contract and organise a valuation of the property, if all is correct in the application and valuation the money is then drawn for settlement.

At settlement your solicitor pays all outstanding costs and fees works out credits for fees already paid and the outstanding monies are paid by you.

"Congratulations" it's time for a glass of bubbly.