Before You Get Overexcited – Think About Childbirth

Hard to believe though it is, there is a strong link between midwifery and buying a property.

We all enjoy the excitement at the start. It’s great exploring new suburbs, finding your dream home and negotiating the price to a mutually-agreed conclusion.  The best bit is showing your friends and family photographs of your new place.

But seven-or-so weeks later, if you are not organised, things can become very painful; the last thing most people want to do is have an emergency Caesar operation.

Here are six tips on how to make settlement on your new home purchase as painless as possible.

1. Choose a good conveyancer/solicitor

These are the people who will ultimately make sure that your purchase goes ahead on time. I have seen some good and some not-so-good over the years.  How communicative and responsive are they?  If the vendor is dragging the chain, do they have the personality ensure things stay on schedule?

2. Choose a good mortgage broker

Your broker is more than the person who arranged your loan. If she is organised, she is the interface with the banks; making sure that their $1m is ready for you on settlement day.

All large organisations get things wrong every now and again, do you think that your broker has the experience and personality to get a behemoth to turn things round quickly? I recall having a very heated conversation with the head of mortgages of one national bank to ensure that a family did not have to sleep overnight in their removal van.  The bank fixed things and arranged same-day-settlement.

3. Select a good bank

Australians have little love for the banks. But some are better than others at settlement.  I recently had an issue where the client was struggling to make their funds available for settlement (through no fault of their own).  I knew their branch manager well, so he and I were able to work closely to get a $2.2m purchase settled on time.

4. Think online

In the Olden Days, buyers had to travel to their solicitors with a deposit cheque at least a couple of days before settlement. Increasingly property purchasing is taking place on-line.  The property industry has already moved to “e-conveyancing”, where settlement funds are transferred electronically.  But how the banks work with their customers electronically is a bit hit-and-miss.  Thankfully the Reserve Bank is working on a project called the New Payments Platform where funds will be sent and received within seconds, and both parties will know that the funds have cleared straight away, even at night or on a weekend.

5. Factor in a bit of redundancy

Moving home is reputed to be one of the most stressful things we have to endure. With all the will in World, sometimes things go wrong. If you can, you may want to arrange the sale of your current home a week after the purchase of your new home to take into account slippage.

6. Be Organised

Solicitors and conveyancers are professionals, they work within a tight legal framework. So when they tell you they need this signature or that cheque by a certain date – there is a reason for it – don’t mess them around.

When it comes to property purchases, some people can be like horny teenagers – with little or no thought of the consequences. Without proper planning, things can become very painful.