deb68

We are looking to purchase our first Australian home, and looking at either going down the agent route or going via a private seller.
The questions we have are these:
Is the private sale route a safe trip to undertake?
Whats the actual time period here to get the house as our own, compared to say a UK house purchase?
Would we qualify for the first timers house discount grant if it's a private purchase over a agent sale?

Lots of asks we understand but this is going to be our biggest single out lay here, we did it all back in the old country and are just wondering how it differs here, and if any of you have had good or bad experiences with either route we asked about.
Thanks in advance guys.

northernbird

I don't know about the private route but going through a real estate agent will obviously not cost you money and you will have someone doing the donkey work for you. Settlement time depends on a number of factors as it does in the UK but once all the offer is signed off and all conditions met then it can go through quite quickly, I can't recall as it was 5 years ago but I think ours was less than a month. You will still qualify I believe for the FHOG if you buy privately.

Bermudashorts

I am kind of struggling to understand why you would wonder about buying via an agent or direct.

Look at all channels and choose the house you like best. You would have a conveyacing solicitor whether the vendor uses an estate agent or not. It makes no difference to you.

HelenTD

There are some important differences when buying or selling property here. The settlement agent is not actually a solicitor and they do not provide legal advice
Useful info on settlement agents, especially the links on "Choosing a settlement agent and "Property settlement fact sheet": http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consum...and_forms.html. It seems like you can do the settlement yourself, if you want to save several thousand dollars and experience a bit of stress.

There are some things that settlement agents don't do, that you would have to check on yourselves, such as whether to do a property inspection report (looking at structure, plumbing, etc) or a pest inspection. Another issue that has arisen before is that people have bought a house that included an extension or some other structure that had been added to the property without a building license and the new owners have been ordered by the council to remove the extension.

Another issue is local geotechnical conditions, as in recent reports of subsiding houses in Secret Harbour and Mullaloo (limestone). There have also been some issues with acid sulphate soils in Stirling and elsewhere. Some housing areas might have been built on top of old rubbish tips, such as that housing estate in Melbourne. There is a proposal for a new sub-division in Gwelup on a site that contains asbestos waste. Some areas are very rocky, which might stop your plans for a bore or pool.

Property settlements can happen very quickly here and there is usually not a chain of buyers like in the UK. A while ago we went to a couple of auctions to get an idea of prices in our area, just like other neighbours, and a local couple bought the house there and then. They walked down to the auction, just to have a look (like us), had no intention of buying, but ended up putting in a bid and bought the house when they realised that it was going to sell at a very reasonable price. It's been rented out ever since.

Be very careful with the contract of sale. It is common here to put in a clause, such as "subject to finance", and/or "subject to a pest inspection", or whatever else concerns you. In a hot market, the seller might have a choice of several buyers and would probably reject the offer if it had all sorts of clauses in it, in favour of an offer with fewer or no clauses, but it's up to individuals to decide how much risk they want to take.

Two examples for you: a couple, early 30s, buying their 2nd property, put in a "subject to finance clause". Their offer was accepted and they started to get excited about moving. They went back to the house for a 2nd look and realised that the house was in a street with lots of HomesWest properties, mainly people with extended families living or visiting for long periods. Somehow they were able to trigger the "subject to finance" clause and managed to get out of the contract without even losing a deposit.

Other example: retired couple, late 70s, had lived in the same place for 40+ years, bringing up their 5 children (they had bought the block and built their house there). They decided it was time to move into a retirement village and put in an offer to buy one of the villas there. They put their house on the market, around about the time of the GFC, but it took a while to sell. They missed the timeline to buy the villa and the retirement village sent them a bill for about $100k for not meeting the terms of the contract time-wise. The couple had never bought a house, just a block of land 40+ years previously, so didn't know about the "subject to finance" clause.

Sorry for the essay, but it might help you and others. To sum up, do your homework and don't rush into buying a property here - remember Caveat emptor (Let the buyer beware). Good luck.

deb68

As always thanks Helen, great post and very informative.
Thanks.