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Step 8 - Making an offer. |
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The most common is simply a verbal offer to the seller's real estate agent. Alternatively, a sales summary can be prepared by your solicitor and forwarded to vendor. A sales summary contains the date of the offer, the address of the property, the offered purchase price, the deposit amount and the balance to be paid, details of your finance, any special conditions and the proposed settlement date.
Once your private-treaty offer is accepted and you've accepted the sale contract, it's time to pay the 10 per cent deposit. This is typically given to the real estate agent, who holds it on behalf of the vendor in a special trust fund until the sale is finalised.
Deposit bonds are increasingly being used at auction and private treaty to replace a cash deposit. Home buyers buy the bond from insurance companies for as little as 1 per cent of the deposit. The bond is a guarantee issued by an insurer, guaranteeing the vendor payment of the initial deposit on purchase of the property. Borrowers initially pay only for the bond and delay payment of the full deposit amount until settlement, when they are required to pay the full purchase price. More>>
