Settlement explained

When you're buying a property, there are four hurdles to get through.

One — your offer is accepted. Two — you exchange contracts. Three — you go unconditional. Four — settlement.

Each one gets easier than the last. But there are important things to know at every stage.

Offer accepted. The seller has agreed to your price and terms. Great — but nothing is legally binding yet. Until contracts are exchanged, either side can still walk away.

Exchange. This is when both parties sign the contract and you pay your deposit. Now it's real. In most states you'll have a short cooling-off period — usually a few business days — where you can still pull out, but it'll cost you.

Unconditional. If your offer had conditions — finance, building and pest — this is where they need to be satisfied. Once they are, the contract becomes unconditional. You're locked in.

Settlement. Ownership officially transfers to you. Your conveyancer coordinates everything — the bank transfers funds, stamp duty is paid, the title goes in your name. Usually thirty to ninety days from exchange. If everything's in order, you collect the keys. One thing I tell all my buyers is roughly 90% of settlements occur on the day. So there is still a small percentage that do experience some delay. This is important when organising things like removalists, renovations, or anything to do with the property. Take me for example, when I bought my recent property, the vendor was overseas and had to physically sign something, so it ended up delaying settlement for about a week.

Now — here's where we see people trip up. Once the offer is accepted, it feels like the hard part is over. You relax. You stop checking your emails. Your bank asks for a document and you get to it tomorrow. Your conveyancer calls and you'll ring them back later.

Don't do this. The period between exchange and settlement is short, and it needs your full attention. When someone asks for something, send it straight away. Every delay risks pushing out your settlement, and that can cost you real money — or in the worst case, the property itself.It's a few weeks of being on top of things. Do it properly, and you'll be picking up the keys before you know it.

One more thing before settlement. You're entitled to a final walk-through of the property — usually a week or so before settlement day.Some buyers expect the property to be in pristine or better condition than when they purchased it. This is not the case. You're simply confirming the property is in the same condition as when you exchanged. And that any repairs the seller agreed to have actually been done.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, everything's fine.