It is law that a complete Contract must be available before a real estate agent (or yourself if selling privately) can advertise your property for sale.
Once you have decided to sell your property, Melanie will take instructions from you over the telephone (which usually takes approx. 10 minutes).
Melanie will then order all of the required searches/certificates for the Contract on the same day that she takes instructions from you to ensure that the Contract is prepared and emailed to either you or your Agent without delay.
Once an offer has been accepted by you, the agent (or yourself if selling privately) will advise Melanie of the details and she will then email a copy of the Contract to you for you to sign and send a copy of the Contract to the purchaser's solicitor/conveyancer.
An exchange of contracts should then usually take place within approximately 2 weeks.
EXCHANGE
Once the purchaser's solicitor/conveyancer has reviewed the Contract (and possibly asked questions or requested amendments to the Contract), completed the searches/enquiries, made sure the purchaser's finance is arranged and had the Contract signed by the purchaser - contracts can then be "exchanged" which will result in a legally binding agreement.
The exchange takes place after the contracts are swapped i.e. the owner is given the purchaser's contract and the purchaser is given the owners contract and the purchaser has handed over the deposit. This is now usually all done via email.
Completion/Settlement will then usually take place within 6 weeks, which is when your mortgage will be paid out and you will receive the balance purchase price and will have to hand over the keys.
Once an exchange of contracts has taken place, Melanie will complete all necessary documentation on your behalf and arrange for your Bank to release the mortgage, if required.
SETTLEMENT / COMPLETION
Completion (also known as settlement) is when the purchaser pays the balance of the purchase price, becomes the legal owner and collects the keys before moving in.
Settlements are now done online via PEXA and the balance proceeds of sale will be transferred into your bank account as cleared funds within a few hours of settlement taking place.
To avoid a cyber crime attack, Melanie has processes in place to ensure this does not happen - such as dual authentication - so clients are never to rely solely on email instructions when transferring funds.
If you are buying a house on the same day using the funds from the sale of your current house, this is called a Simultaneous Settlement. Melanie can act on your behalf for a Simultaneous Settlement and will co-ordinate settlement to go through smoothly.