In the part four of “How to buy a house” I have covered the stage seven, which is all about inspecting the houses you’ve selected, finding out all the necessary information about them and making your offer to the vendor via his agent.

Stage eight (final): inspections, deposit, settlement - and you’re home!

Once you’ve made your offer, it will be either accepted or rejected and it usually takes a couple of days to get the answer. If the offer is rejected you can try and submit a better offer on that house and see what happens. If the offer is accepted - congratulations, you’ve made some serious progress.

If the contract you have signed was subject to inspections - now is the time to make the arrangements. The contract specifies how much time you have to get them done and the best way would be to start looking for pest and building inspectors the very next day after the contract was signed, just to be sure you don’t miss the deadline.

Here is another reason for you to hurry up with the inspections: if you find out about some problems with the house and your 3 days cooling off period hasn’t expired yet it will be easier to end the contract because you won’t have to give a specific reason or to prove anything.

Once the inspections were done and reports arrived, read carefully and, if needed, speak to the inspectors to make sure you understand everything they say. If you are not happy with the results - there are two options. If there are many things that need to be fixed in the house, you can re-negotiate the price and get additional discount from the vendor (and don’t let them tell you that inspection reports are not bargaining tools!). The other option is to cancel the contract and concentrate on other houses.

If you’re happy with the results - you can go ahead and give your conveyancer “green light” to start the paperwork, speak to the bank, and make the necessary arrangements to pay the deposit. Usually the deposit is paid not to the vendors but to the real estate agent’s trust account. The next stage is the settlement (click here to read everything you need to know about the settlement process). Once that was finished - you will get THE KEYS. Congratulations, you have a home now!

Related posts:

1. Making an offer on a house - things you must know In any private sale making an offer on a property...
2. What “Under offer” and “Under contract” means The process of buying a house, like any other process,...
3. Making an offer on a house: Contract Note explained To make an offer on a house in most cases...
4. How to buy a house - Part 4 In the part three of "How to buy a...
5. How to find a great house for a good price by asking the right questions (part 2) In my previous article for first home buyers I started...