You’ve found the place. You want it. And you’re about to sign the largest cheque of your life on a document most people skim. Three things need to be done before you sign a property contract, and every one of them is cheaper than the mistake it prevents.

Not sure your finance is actually ready? Email startnow@sorenfinancial.com before you sign anything and we’ll tell you where you really stand — approved, conditional, or nowhere near it.

1. Get a loan pre-approval before you sign a property contract

People still rock up to auctions, bid on the morning, and call a lender afterwards. I’ve never got used to it. If you’re the highest bidder at auction you’re legally obliged to sign, and there is no cooling-off period. Can’t settle? You lose your deposit, which is usually 5% or 10% of the price and is spelled out in the contract.

Private treaty isn’t a free pass either. In NSW a residential sale carries a 5 business day cooling-off period after exchange (10 business days off-the-plan). Walk away inside it and you forfeit 0.25% of the purchase price — $250 for every $100,000, so $2,500 on a $1 million property. Walk away after it and you’re up for the full deposit.

Cooling-off period and the 0.25% figure confirmed at nsw.gov.au, September 2026.

So before you bid or sign, have your broker confirm with the lender what you can borrow and get the approval in place. And budget for everything else: lenders mortgage insurance if your deposit is under 20%, stamp duty, lender fees, legals, removalists, insurance. Our stamp duty calculator covers the duty, and this piece on avoiding LMI covers the one most people forget.

2. Get legal advice on the contract of sale

The fine print is dull and the language is deliberately dense. That’s exactly why you pay a solicitor or licensed conveyancer a few hundred dollars to read it. They find the things that change the deal:

• A settlement period of six months when you needed six weeks.
• Tenants with another 12 months on their lease, in the home you planned to move into.
• A list of exclusions that removes the designer light fittings you fell for at the open.
• Easements, covenants or a planning proposal that affects what you can do with the place.

In NSW the vendor can’t market a property without a contract already prepared, and it has to include prescribed documents — the title, a section 10.7 planning certificate from council, a sewerage diagram, and any dealings registered on the title. Your solicitor reads those, not you.

Buying in Victoria instead? The equivalent is the section 32 vendor statement, which the seller must give you before you sign. Same idea, different name, and it’s worth knowing which state’s rules you’re under before someone hands you the wrong checklist.

3. Get a pest and building or strata inspection done

Yes, they cost money. Yes, you might pay for two or three across a search that doesn’t land. Treat it as insurance on the biggest financial transaction you’ll ever make, because that’s what it is.

Skip the building inspection on a house, or the strata report on an apartment, and you can inherit termite damage, dodgy wiring, rising damp, structural cracking, a leaking roof, or a strata scheme with no money in its sinking fund and a special levy coming. Any one of those can run into five figures.

There’s an upside too. If the report finds something real and you still want the property, that’s a number you can take off your offer with a document behind it. Knowing is leverage.

Every expensive property mistake I’ve watched a client make came from signing before they were ready, not from paying too much. The price you can usually live with. The clause you didn’t read, you can’t.

Mansour Soltani, Director, Soren Financial

What about a 66W certificate?

A 66W certificate is issued by your solicitor and waives your cooling-off rights, making your offer unconditional. Agents will push for it, because it makes your offer the safest one on the table — and in a competitive negotiation it genuinely helps you win.

Just don’t sign one until your finance is formally approved and your inspections are back. You’re handing over your only way out.

Got a contract in front of you right now? Send us the numbers at startnow@sorenfinancial.com and we’ll tell you today whether the finance side stacks up.

Last updated: September 2026. Reviewed by Mansour Soltani, Director and Credit Representative 527161, Soren Financial. General information only — not legal advice. Get your own solicitor or conveyancer across your contract.