Buying a home in NSW with lawlab as your conveyancer

Overview of our process

You've found the property you want and you need to make sure your legal interests are protected throughout the buying process. To start simply do one of the following:
- Complete our easy online client interview. Just click Start now.
- Ask your real estate agent for their assistance.
- Call us toll free on 1800 LAWLAB (1800 529 522) for one our trained friendly client managers to obtain your details.
We recommend you obtain building and property inspections for the property you are considering buying.
If you are borrowing money you will need written approval of finance. Where you have preliminary approval to borrow up to a certain amount on a home loan you may need to contact your lender to obtain written approval for buying this particular property at the negotiated purchase price. In the meantime, we will request a copy of the sale contract from the seller's solicitor/conveyancer.
Once you have written approval of finance, we guide you through the terms of the contract and explain anything you don't understand. Subject to any negotiations and provided that you are happy to proceed we organise for you to sign the sale contract. We will prepare your purchase for exchange which will then make the sale binding on you and the seller.
The 10% deposit must be paid before exchange can take place. If no agent is involved, any cheque in payment of the deposit should be in favour of the seller's solicitor/conveyancer's Trust Account. If there is a real estate agent, the deposit will be held in their Trust Account. In either case, the deposit earns no interest. Please speak to us if you are not able to pay a deposit as you may be able to use a deposit bond or deposit guarantee.
Unless you are buying your first home, you have to pay stamp duty on the contract and Transfer. You may also need to pay mortgage duty on any money borrowed. We need a BANK cheque from you in favour of Office of State Revenue. We recommend this is paid as soon as possible after exchange.
Next, we send your signed contract to the seller's solicitor/conveyancer and we wait for them to return the seller's signed contract in exchange. The contract is dated by the seller's solicitor/conveyancer.
Unless you have given up your cooling-off rights, you have until 5.00pm on the fifth business day following the date of the contract within which to pull out, losing only 0.25% of the purchase price.
After exchange, we order a rates search and an Outstanding Orders/Notices search from Council and a Land Tax search for you. We let you know of any unfavourable replies.
After exchange, we contact your lender (if applicable) to ask them to proceed with the preparation of your Mortgage. They will calculate the funds that will be available to you on settlement. Even though you may be borrowing the full amount, beware that there may be a shortfall in funds unless you have budgeted for stamp duty, insurance, rates/water usage and legal costs.
Just before settlement, once your lender is ready, we need you to double check and sign the settlement figures so that you know how much you have to pay and whether or not you have to make up any shortfall.
On the day before settlement, you should make a final inspection of the property with the real estate agent, if applicable, when it is empty. This is to make sure that all things included in the contract are left at the property. Call us if there is a problem.
That's it! Next call we make is to say that your purchase has settled! Congratulations! Your keys are now available for collection.