Your property purchase team

Each week in Australia, there are more than 1,500 property auctions, and even more homes and properties are sold before scheduled auctions take place. Despite this, the property market in Australia is extremely competitive – it’s not unusual to miss out on purchasing the first few properties you select.

Do your research and be prepared. Organise a solicitor or conveyancer well before the auction date and have them go through the contract. Make sure you have written approval for your finance.

Smarter Real Estate Solutions has a great page of user-rated professionals and services on our supplier page to help make you decisions easier. Check them out to get the best possible support for your auction experience.

Smarter Real Estate Solutions support team

When using Smarter Real Estate Solutions, you are in complete control of your purchase – you choose what you’re bidding on, when you bid and how much, without the pressure of an agent or auctioneer. In saying that, sometimes you need a little extra support. Smarter Real Estate Solutions has a team of friendly and helpful support staff who are happy to take you through the platform, answer any questions you have, and provide a helping hand throughout your purchasing process.

Conveyancer or solicitor

One of the most important members of your property purchase team is your conveyancer or solicitor. A conveyancer is a specialist professional, or a solicitor who works on property sales. They’ll do everything for you from title searches, preparing your contract, walking you through the contract and conditions of contract, exchange contracts and help with settlement.

It’s important your conveyancer or solicitor is someone you feel comfortable with so can ask all the questions you need to clarify the legal process.

There are DIY conveyancer kits online, but we’d highly recommend an industry professional.

For sample contracts and paperwork, and links to DIY kits, visit our tools and document page.

Click here to suggest, find or rate a conveyancer in your area.

Building and Pest Inspector

Your building and pest inspector will form part of your team. They will provide you with a written report on the home or building you are looking to purchase and discuss their findings with you. Your building report will give you peace of mind and help you make a more informed decision – it’s also often necessary to have a building and pest report to secure your home loan.

If you’re buying an apartment or townhouse, the strata management group can usually provide an exterior building and strata report for a fee, otherwise they will cost around $300 to $1,000. Smarter Real Estate Solutions encourages our vendors to provide these reports.

To save you time, we ask all of our vendors to provide an independent building and pest inspection report on their property display page.

Click here to find or suggest, rate a builder or pest inspector in your area.

Broker or lender

While it can be tempting to borrow from the bank you’ve always been a member of, different banks and credit unions have different interest rates and different loan setups, so it is worth looking around to get the best deal.

A broker has access to a number of banks and financial institutions and will find the best rate available – usually at no cost to you. Different loans require different levels of deposit for approval.

Your lender or broker will also be able to talk you through fixed and variable interest rates, loan structures, and of course will sign off on your finance so you are ready to bid. It’s a good idea to start the process a few weeks before the auction so you have time to get pre-approval. You solicitor or conveyancer will not let you exchange contracts without written approval.

Valuer

A certified, practicing valuer can be commissioned to inspect the property and provide you with their sworn valuation on how much it is worth, supported by comparable data. All Smarter Real Estate Solutions auctions require a vendor to review an online property report to help them establish a realistic price for their property.

A valuation usually costs between $200 and $500, but may cost several thousand depending on the scale and size of the property.

Click here to suggest, find or rate a valuer in your area.

Buyer’s agent

Generally considered for the more wealthy buyers or serious investors, buyer’s agents are actually becoming more popular with lower-end buyers as they negate the need for the buyer to research and understand the property market and sales process.

Buyer’s agents essentially take down your criteria for the perfect property and do all the searching for you. Buyer’s agents can save you time and effort if you are prepared to pay for their service, and you find the right one.