It's a deal!

You’ve found the property that makes your heart sing, your offer has been accepted but what happens next? Julie Savill tells the story from offer to completion

- Julie Savill

The fun part of buying a property is looking at lots of properties that we don’t buy. Odd that, when you think about it. It can be less fun when it all becomes real and we find one we want to buy. It can be an emotional business and there is potential loss to factor in if we don’t secure the deal; and myriad practicalities ahead.

As agents we look for a change in behaviour among our clients during viewings. We aren’t psychoanalysing you; we’re doing our job of trying to help. We talk – with complete respect – about our clients getting their ‘serious face’ or ‘money heads’ on. From then on we will redouble our attention to you. We might have done a lot of work to get to this stage. For many reasons we often do not actually get to this point. But when we do, we regard this as being where ‘the real work’ starts. Let’s look at the stages of the buying cycle.

THE OFFER

An offer is made by the buyer, negotiated by your agent and accepted by the seller. The price agreed usually includes agency fees and excludes the notaire’s fees. The fees vary according to the sale price; you might budget around 8% of the total purchase price, but remember it will be proportionately more for very low priced properties.

THE LETTER OF INTENTION

The detail of the deal is now established, including desirable completion dates and any specific requirements or considerations on either side. A pre-contract Letter of Intention to Purchase (LOI) may be prepared by the agent and signed by buyer, then seller. Although this is not legally required, it is recommended. It clearly states how the price net to the seller and the agency fee are constructed. The buyer is responsible for the total plus the notaire’s fees.

THE INITIAL CONTRACT