quercus

This might be a complicated subject to do a search on, so forgive me if it's been covered before.

I'm interested in two properties. One, my fav but maybe too expensive, I need more info on before offering. The other is my second favourite and they have an offer in on it already, so I might lose out if I don't make an offer now.

My question is, can I offer on one but withdraw it if I soon have an offer accepted on the other? If my first one is accepted, how long before I have to put a deposit down?

I hope someone can give me a pointer here!

longreach

Under QLD law, you get a 5 working day cooling off period when signing for a property.

Also when signing, you normally get approx 2 weeks for which to go unconditional...at which point you are committed.

Once an offer has been accepted, the agent will normally want you to put a $1,000 deposit and sign the contract. This is when your cooling off period begins. Then, say 2 weeks later a further $10,000 following confirmation of finance and it then normally goes unconditional.

Nothing stopping you putting as many offers in as you like.

quercus

Longreach, that's just the information I was after. Thanks for that.

I've just been talking to a conveyancer and he thinks I won't get foreign investment review board (?) approval for buying an old property as i'm not yet pr. I had thought they were ok with it. Do you know anything about that?

longreach

Thats a possibility. It is geared towards new builds. More info here...

http://www.firb.gov.au/content/real_...esidential.asp

jad n rich

[QUOTE=quercus;6411863]Longreach, that's just the information I was after. Thanks for that.

(/QUOTE]


If you pull out under the 5 day cooling off clause there you pay 0.25% of the purchase price to the seller. Theres been threads on this before, where people have said they didnt know, but it is all clearly set out in the contract.

longreach

[QUOTE=jad n rich;6412111] Good point!

This is down to the seller. They may deduct a 0.25% penalty.

Read the contract here at http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/Depart...ct+of+Sale.pdf

longreach

And just to make clear, when I say offers I mean offers. Not going to contract! I wouldn't advise signing multiple contracts and then start backing out of ones you don't want.

gillysm

Although most agents here wont even consider an offer unless it is in a formal contract.

walaj

I know different state, different rules (NSW).

The offer we made on this place we put a time limit if when the offer would expire, it was accepted, then we signed the contract at our solicitors at 9am, by 11am the REA was telling us another offer with signed contract was ready to go with a higher offer. We did go higher & got the place, but the b%*)@)*$ were going to accept another offer even though we had survey done & sign our part, just had not exchanged with sellers contract to make it legally binding.

Thus, I would look into making offers before the signing bit. The seller/REA can be devious, why not the buyer?

quercus

The whole process looks like a pit of vipers for the unwary.

The FIRB will allow an older property but there are a string of conditions.

It's certainly useful to know about the cooling off period and possible penalty, but I was surprised to hear a contract usually has to be signed to make an offer. Nice for the legal profession!

Now I'm reconsidering building, but that would have a whole different set of complications. Hmm.

Thanks everyone who contributed to the thread. I'll mull it all over during the weekend. Have a good one everyone. Q

sammyg

when we put an offer in for our house we had to put it in writing (a contract with a 0.25% penalty if we pulled out within the 'cooling off period') - so i would suggest you can't offfer on 2 houses at once because what if thay both agree - you pay 0.25% to one of them to pull out - and, yes, we weren't allowed to put a verbal offer in, it had to be a written (contract) offer...don't know if this is standard procedure though.

gillysm

Yes, signing a contract with your offer is the norm in Qld. This is a standard REIQ contract, but you can put clauses of your own in like "subject to finance approval" and "subject to satisfactory building & pest inspection". The contract is done by the RE agent and when both parties have signed (i.e the seller accepts your offer) it is forwrded to the solicitors/conveyancers.