In any private sale making an offer on a property is one of the important steps. If you make an offer and it’s accepted - just keep your part of the deal and the house is yours. In case you’re thinking of verbal offer or writing an email to the agent “Listen, Joe, I want to offer X for the house on 15 Lime avenue” - that’s not enough.
The way it is done in Victoria is the buyer signs a Contract Note - it’s a proper contract on a house and once the vendor (the seller) accepts the offer, he signs the contract as well and the house is sold. Contract Note should specify the exact details of the deal a buyer offers to the vendor - how much the buyer offers to pay for the house, amount of deposit, settlement date (when the rest of the money is paid and buyer gets the keys to the house) and conditions of sale. This article here explains in details how to fill and sign a Contract Note.
When it comes to signing the Contract Note, you should know that by law you’re entitled to 3 days cooling off period - meaning if you change your mind, you can give a written notice to the agent and the contract is dismissed. Do not forget to read the fine print - it will still cost you money to get out of contract even using the cooling off period, the amount is either 100$ or 0.2 percent of the house price, which ever is the highest (for instance, for a house that costs 280,000 it would be about 500$). Even though the house is sold via private sale, cooling off doesn’t apply always apply. There is no cooling off (for residential properties) in case

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[...] First, there is a cooing-off period when you can cancel the contract for any reason. It starts from the date you have signed the contract and lasts for 3 business days, this post explains more about the cooling off period and exceptions to it. [...]
Pingback by Making an offer on a house: Contract Note explained | Home I Own, Aussie Real Estate Blog — September 16, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
[...] done your homework , you know what similar houses sell for in that area. Call or meet the agent, make your offer and wait for the vendor’s [...]
Pingback by How to buy a house - Part 4 | Home I Own, Aussie Real Estate Blog — October 11, 2008 @ 10:54 pm