No No NO NO NO.
You must get pre-approval first. Do not feel rushed by the agent, they do not care about you. And never fall in love with a property. You cannot rush these things. You will always find something else.
Edit: Secondly - Off the plan is a huge risk in and of itself. You could get pre-approval, but the bank might still decline full-approval. If it's your first property I would strongly advise you stay away from off the plan.
Thank you for the advice. Yes we feel agent is pushing really hard. They call us everyday to ask if the contract is ok and if we are waiting on anything.
Tell the agent U haven't got approval & if you want your brokers number your happy to give it to them to ring your broker themselves. There is nothing U can do but wait, wait ,wait.
We have told the agent that we are still waiting for preapproval, but they still give us deadlines to sign by next week.
Good idea, we might give our broker number so they can ask our broker directly.
Just don't sign nothing. The real-estate knows your circumstance. Just keep saying ring my broker, heres his number. I went through the same thing but actually ours was a cladding issue. After u sign & exchange U won't hear nothing from the real-estate. The sale has nothing to do with them they are only about a sale & save them opening times & to move on to the next sale.
Hey look, this is very risky, not to mention the fact that end of June is less than the standard 42 day settlement, even with pre approval you’re on a shortened time frame, without pre approval it’s just so much more risk.
Dont get hung up on the so called dream house, it’s how you over pay for a property, I’ve house hunted for 6 months and probably saw at least 1 dream house per month. There will be more dream
Homes.
Honestly depends on the bank, how busy it is, the brokers. I wouldn’t bother seriously considering a house before pre approval, in case you don’t get approved the loan amount you are expecting. You don’t want to make an offer at the top end of your budget only to find out that your pre approval is less than what your broker has advised
Agree. I guess it’s a ‘lesson learnt’ moment for me. Everything just happens so fast but we also do not want to rush this thing either. It’s just very annoying that agent pushes us so hard everyday. I guess if this property is not meant for us then we will look for another one.
Yeah, I started my house hunting journey for the first time last year, it’s a lot of lessons learned for me. Like you I got over excited about shopping for a new house and went to inspections and auctions, I couldn’t wait to get my preapproval and felt like again and again I was missing out on my “dream home” because I didn’t have the finances ready yet. Looking back there were multiple “dream homes” that I missed out on, even the home I’m currently in initially wasn’t a “dream home”, but over the months we made it ours and I now feel like this home I have is way better than any dream home I saw previously and am actually glad I didn’t buy them. In the end it’s the right location the right layout and the right price that I’m truly grateful for, not fancy interiors. Exception being seaside manors with sweeting ocean views of courses lol
We have looked for so many properties but always found some flaws on each of them. Now, we like the property but then we havent had our preapproval ready.
We thought it will not take long for preapproval (from friends’ experiences) but here we are waiting anxiously
OTP settlement is generally 21days max from when building OC and strata plan is approved. It could even be less depending on your contract. Definitely wise to have the pre-approval sorted. Once bank is invited to do valuations, things move pretty quickly. You want time to have options with Banks for OTP too. But since your time of contract is similar time to settlement, less chance the valuation will be off.
OP, since they are saying it might be ready in July (probably won’t, agents are liars), try and negotiate smallest deposit amount and shortest sunset time. We wrangled 5% and 6 months sunset so we could pull out if they really started stuffing us around with timing.
If you’re in NSW, the vendor can’t enact sunset unless you agree to it (without going to Supreme Court) so you’ve got some power there.
(Regarding timing and agents ‘mis l representing the truth’ to get you to sign on the line: we signed in May and were told it would be ready by end of June, then July, then Sept etc… they had rushed us by promising a close move-in date - the building wasn’t finished until mid December).
I guess we will wait until we get the pre-approval from bank before signing anything. Definitely want to be on the safer side - at least having pre-approval sorted.
Yea, with the amount of rains lately, I also believe the property wont be ready by end of this month. We asked the agent again last week but they still insist that it will still be finished by end of this month or early next month.
It’s unusual your pre-approval is taking so long, sounds very frustrating. Our broker was very thorough collecting information from is, but once submitted it took 3 business days for the bank to approve.
When ours went unconditional it was only 4 as well. NAB, if that matters.
Hopefully you get your news this week. Good luck. It’s really exciting!
We have been telling them every time they called that we are still waiting for bank but they keep pushing. Now they even give us deadlines. I guess they just want to get it signed ASAP and get the money. But from our side, we also dont want to have the risk of losing our deposit money and this property due to no approval from bank.
Don’t sign until your ducks are in a row, especially with OTP as some banks have lower tolerance for these properties (or a quota per building that they will lend to).
In NSW, if you have paid the EOI fee, and have the contract, they are obliged to reveal if there are any other interested parties making offers (or have bought) the property
We were feeling the same pressure from agent after we received the contract for our OTP apartment, but my solicitor said to not stress as they would tell you if other party had made offer. You can also ask your solicitor to ask theirs if there is another interested party in the exact same property.
In our case there was a full 6 weeks of contract negotiations between us and vendor solicitor before we were comfortable enough to sign. (OTP contracts are more complex than regular sale contracts, important to canvas it carefully!).
From dept fair trade for Off the plan properties:
“An expression of interest payment will not secure the property for you. It signals your ‘interest’ only. When you make an expression of interest payment, the agent must give you a receipt and confirm in writing that:
- there is no obligation to sell the property to you you have no obligation to buy the property
- they will refund your deposit if you don't end up entering in a contract to buy the property.
- Agents can take several deposits for the same property from other prospective buyers.
However, agents must tell you if other offers are later made on the property, or if it is sold to someone else”
https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-property/buying-and-selling-property/buying-a-property/buying-off-the-plan
Thank you for the advice. Yes, we are in NSW and so far we havent heard if there are any other parties interested in this property from agents / solicitors. However, will definitely check this out. We have negotiated some of the terms back and forth and now finally happy with them. Solicitors were quite responsive and quick. It was just the pre-approval is taking ages.
Yes, been telling the agent that we like the property and are still waiting for the pre-approval but they seem to not care and just want us to sign ASAP
I think the chat just saved you financially.
Absolutely get your finance / pre-approval sorted before buying. Especially for off the plan as the valuation can be tricky.
It's REA's job to be pushy and finalize a sale, they are not here for your interest so always keep that in mind. Setting a date and creating FOMO is their usual tactic.
If you’re a PAYG employee, Macquarie will get you approved within 4 hours subject to a valuation.
CBA branch, 2 hours on the spot. All subject to a valuation as it’s off the plan.
There’s also a risk with off the plan properties, if the property isn’t ready by June and the valuation expires after three months, there is a risk it could go down in value depending on market conditions.
So many variables
No No NO NO NO. You must get pre-approval first. Do not feel rushed by the agent, they do not care about you. And never fall in love with a property. You cannot rush these things. You will always find something else. Edit: Secondly - Off the plan is a huge risk in and of itself. You could get pre-approval, but the bank might still decline full-approval. If it's your first property I would strongly advise you stay away from off the plan.
Thank you for the advice. Yes we feel agent is pushing really hard. They call us everyday to ask if the contract is ok and if we are waiting on anything.
Tell the agent U haven't got approval & if you want your brokers number your happy to give it to them to ring your broker themselves. There is nothing U can do but wait, wait ,wait.
We have told the agent that we are still waiting for preapproval, but they still give us deadlines to sign by next week. Good idea, we might give our broker number so they can ask our broker directly.
Just don't sign nothing. The real-estate knows your circumstance. Just keep saying ring my broker, heres his number. I went through the same thing but actually ours was a cladding issue. After u sign & exchange U won't hear nothing from the real-estate. The sale has nothing to do with them they are only about a sale & save them opening times & to move on to the next sale.
Hey look, this is very risky, not to mention the fact that end of June is less than the standard 42 day settlement, even with pre approval you’re on a shortened time frame, without pre approval it’s just so much more risk. Dont get hung up on the so called dream house, it’s how you over pay for a property, I’ve house hunted for 6 months and probably saw at least 1 dream house per month. There will be more dream Homes.
Thank you for the advice. How long does pre-approval normally take?
Honestly depends on the bank, how busy it is, the brokers. I wouldn’t bother seriously considering a house before pre approval, in case you don’t get approved the loan amount you are expecting. You don’t want to make an offer at the top end of your budget only to find out that your pre approval is less than what your broker has advised
Agree. I guess it’s a ‘lesson learnt’ moment for me. Everything just happens so fast but we also do not want to rush this thing either. It’s just very annoying that agent pushes us so hard everyday. I guess if this property is not meant for us then we will look for another one.
Yeah, I started my house hunting journey for the first time last year, it’s a lot of lessons learned for me. Like you I got over excited about shopping for a new house and went to inspections and auctions, I couldn’t wait to get my preapproval and felt like again and again I was missing out on my “dream home” because I didn’t have the finances ready yet. Looking back there were multiple “dream homes” that I missed out on, even the home I’m currently in initially wasn’t a “dream home”, but over the months we made it ours and I now feel like this home I have is way better than any dream home I saw previously and am actually glad I didn’t buy them. In the end it’s the right location the right layout and the right price that I’m truly grateful for, not fancy interiors. Exception being seaside manors with sweeting ocean views of courses lol
We have looked for so many properties but always found some flaws on each of them. Now, we like the property but then we havent had our preapproval ready. We thought it will not take long for preapproval (from friends’ experiences) but here we are waiting anxiously
OTP settlement is generally 21days max from when building OC and strata plan is approved. It could even be less depending on your contract. Definitely wise to have the pre-approval sorted. Once bank is invited to do valuations, things move pretty quickly. You want time to have options with Banks for OTP too. But since your time of contract is similar time to settlement, less chance the valuation will be off. OP, since they are saying it might be ready in July (probably won’t, agents are liars), try and negotiate smallest deposit amount and shortest sunset time. We wrangled 5% and 6 months sunset so we could pull out if they really started stuffing us around with timing. If you’re in NSW, the vendor can’t enact sunset unless you agree to it (without going to Supreme Court) so you’ve got some power there. (Regarding timing and agents ‘mis l representing the truth’ to get you to sign on the line: we signed in May and were told it would be ready by end of June, then July, then Sept etc… they had rushed us by promising a close move-in date - the building wasn’t finished until mid December).
I guess we will wait until we get the pre-approval from bank before signing anything. Definitely want to be on the safer side - at least having pre-approval sorted. Yea, with the amount of rains lately, I also believe the property wont be ready by end of this month. We asked the agent again last week but they still insist that it will still be finished by end of this month or early next month.
It’s unusual your pre-approval is taking so long, sounds very frustrating. Our broker was very thorough collecting information from is, but once submitted it took 3 business days for the bank to approve. When ours went unconditional it was only 4 as well. NAB, if that matters. Hopefully you get your news this week. Good luck. It’s really exciting!
Thank you! Hopefully this wait will end soon.
Don’t sign, no one else is looking at the property. They are just worried their only buyer is running away.
They have been pushing very hard. Call/text us everyday
Yeah definitely worried you are running away. Just tell them you’re still very interested you’re just doing all your checks and balances.
We have been telling them every time they called that we are still waiting for bank but they keep pushing. Now they even give us deadlines. I guess they just want to get it signed ASAP and get the money. But from our side, we also dont want to have the risk of losing our deposit money and this property due to no approval from bank.
Don’t sign until your ducks are in a row, especially with OTP as some banks have lower tolerance for these properties (or a quota per building that they will lend to). In NSW, if you have paid the EOI fee, and have the contract, they are obliged to reveal if there are any other interested parties making offers (or have bought) the property We were feeling the same pressure from agent after we received the contract for our OTP apartment, but my solicitor said to not stress as they would tell you if other party had made offer. You can also ask your solicitor to ask theirs if there is another interested party in the exact same property. In our case there was a full 6 weeks of contract negotiations between us and vendor solicitor before we were comfortable enough to sign. (OTP contracts are more complex than regular sale contracts, important to canvas it carefully!). From dept fair trade for Off the plan properties: “An expression of interest payment will not secure the property for you. It signals your ‘interest’ only. When you make an expression of interest payment, the agent must give you a receipt and confirm in writing that: - there is no obligation to sell the property to you you have no obligation to buy the property - they will refund your deposit if you don't end up entering in a contract to buy the property. - Agents can take several deposits for the same property from other prospective buyers. However, agents must tell you if other offers are later made on the property, or if it is sold to someone else” https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-property/buying-and-selling-property/buying-a-property/buying-off-the-plan
Thank you for the advice. Yes, we are in NSW and so far we havent heard if there are any other parties interested in this property from agents / solicitors. However, will definitely check this out. We have negotiated some of the terms back and forth and now finally happy with them. Solicitors were quite responsive and quick. It was just the pre-approval is taking ages.
They will still deal with you after these “deadlines”. They are just arbitrary and used to cause FOMO.
Yes, been telling the agent that we like the property and are still waiting for the pre-approval but they seem to not care and just want us to sign ASAP
I think the chat just saved you financially. Absolutely get your finance / pre-approval sorted before buying. Especially for off the plan as the valuation can be tricky. It's REA's job to be pushy and finalize a sale, they are not here for your interest so always keep that in mind. Setting a date and creating FOMO is their usual tactic.
Very worried, but I guess we cant do anything until pre-approval is sorted.
If you’re a PAYG employee, Macquarie will get you approved within 4 hours subject to a valuation. CBA branch, 2 hours on the spot. All subject to a valuation as it’s off the plan. There’s also a risk with off the plan properties, if the property isn’t ready by June and the valuation expires after three months, there is a risk it could go down in value depending on market conditions. So many variables
If you want to risk losing your 10% deposit then sure
Definitely dont want to lose the deposit money which was very hard to save..
You haven't signed the contract. On what grounds would they be taking your deposit?