Wednesday, July 02, 2014

[jules' pics] ocean

seaside

Went to the seaside for the wedding anniversary. It would have been very nice had not the sellers of the house we are trying to buy pulled out of the sale the day before. The sale is, apparently, now back on again, although actually no progress at all has been made for the last month or so. Buying houses is rubbish, at least it is the way it is done in England. At the PMIP meeting I asked a few of my friends how it is done in foreign. Somehow they all seemed better than the English system where no commitment is made for months after the price is agreed. In France you have to sign a contract to agree to the sale (subject to caveats like not getting a mortgage) when the price is agreed; in Japan there are no teams of solicitors on each side - the estate agent does the whole thing; in Sydney you usually buy instantly at auction. Not sure the last one is very sensible (buy in haste repent at leisure comes to mind), but at least it is over quickly!

--
Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 7/02/2014 02:46:00 PM

2 comments:

Steve said...

Auction sales in Australia are quite commonly used in the "hot" markets of Sydney and Melbourne, but not so common elsewhere. In Brisbane, most sales are done on binding contract signed at the real estate agent (but with the buyer having a 5 day cooling off period.) Most contracts provide for settlement within 30 to 45 days, and are usually subject to the buyer getting finance approval and satisfactory building inspections done within 14 days. So most sellers know within a couple of weeks if the contract is unconditional, and settlement will be within 2 to 3 weeks after that.

I think New South Wales has something like the English system for non auction sales - buyer make enquiries first, but contracts are not "exchanged" and binding til some way down the track.

I think the Brisbane system is a good compromise.

This is possibly the dullest comment ever to appear at this blog...

Steve said...

And don't get me started on precipitation patterns and shovels..