Making your first offer

In most cases, the Real Estate agent will come back and complete the contract of sale for you.

The most important information you need is:

☑️Purchasing Entity: I.e. your full legal name, including middle names.

☑️Price

☑️Deposit (remember the deposit is split into 2 parts)

☑️Finance and building and pest terms

☑️Settlement Dates

☑️Lawyer details

What are the best terms to make my contract competitive?

Really it is going to depend on the seller’s situation as to what makes the contract more competitive.

BUT in Brisbane, we find fewer days for finance, building and pest AND settlement…

The more competitive your offer is going to be!

Most first home buyers will put 21 days for finance, 21 days for building & pest and 45 days for settlement.

If you want to make your offer stick out, consider putting 7, or 14 days for finance and 30 days for settlement.

Provided your mortgage broker has arranged pre-approval these terms will be very achievable.

Signed a Contract of Sale on a Home?

In some cases, the Real Estate agent will ask you to sign the contract of sale to show the sellers you are serious about your offer.

This doesn’t mean they have accepted the offer but is usually the second step in the negotiation after you’ve made your initial offer by email.

If you need some help in filling out the contract of sale, check out our guide here.

Read More: Signed a Contract of Sale… What’s next?

If you don’t put forward strong contract terms in today’s market, you could cost yourself THOUSANDS. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a Property Mogul to master amazing contract terms.

Really it is going to depend on the seller’s situation as to what makes the contract more competitive.

BUT in Brisbane, we find fewer days for finance, building and pest AND settlement…

The more competitive your offer is going to be!

Most first home buyers will put 21 days for finance, 21 days for building & pest and 45 days for settlement.

If you want to make your offer stick out, consider putting 7, or 14 days for finance and 30 days for settlement.

Provided your mortgage broker has arranged pre-approval these terms will be very achievable.

In fact, the resources here will show you specific steps you can use to master contract terms.

(No law degree required)

How to make an offer on a house?

You might be surprised to know you do not need to sign a contract of sale to make an offer on a property.

I have had offers accepted on a house in writing via an email (before taking the time to fill out the contract).

You do not need to sign a contract of sale to make an offer on a property. I get my offer accepted by the agent (and the sellers) before taking time to fill out the contract of sale.

I have personally used this template to purchase properties in the past; it’s worth keeping your offer short and to the point including:

☑️Purchasing entity, i.e. your full name, including middle names.

☑️Price

☑️Deposit

☑️Finance and building and pest terms

☑️Settlement dates

☑️Lawyer details

With this particular property, they were asking for offers over $750,000. I started with an offer of $690,000 and settled with the vendors at $705,000—I actually beat another offer the vendors had at $710,000 because I had shorter finance and settlement terms.