Sell for the best price. Buy with confidence. No agent required, just the playbook.
Due Diligence: Your Job, and Who Helps
Buying direct means the checking is yours, which is also the point: nothing filtered, everything verifiable.
Inspect in person. Then verify the paperwork: title, easements, covenants and the vendor statement or disclosure documents for that state, reviewed by your own conveyancer or property solicitor before you sign anything.
Check the ground: a building and pest inspection for anything with structures, zoning and overlays with the local council or the state planning maps for land and development sites, and water, bores and boundaries on rural blocks (a licensed surveyor settles boundary doubts).
Check the money: finance approval in writing from your lender or broker, and your accountant if it is an investment.
Who helps: conveyancer or solicitor (contract and title), building and pest inspector, land surveyor, the local council planning department, your lender or broker, your accountant. Their fees are the same whether or not an agent is involved.
Most states publish a buyer due diligence checklist through their consumer affairs body, ask your conveyancer for the one that applies where you are buying.
Engage your conveyancer or property solicitor before you make an offer, not after. They review the contract and disclosure documents before anything binds you.
Fixed fees for a purchase typically run $800 to $1,500, quoted up front.
On Expression of Interest listings, submit through the listing: your amount, settlement, finance position, conveyancer and terms go straight to the owner in a form they can compare.
An Expression of Interest is not a binding contract, nothing binds until contracts are exchanged through your conveyancers.
Message the owner through the platform so both of you keep a written record of what was said.
Never transfer money before contracts are exchanged through your conveyancer, no exceptions, not for “hoding deposits”, not for anything.
Be finance-ready
Pre-approval before you offer makes your Expression of Interest materially stronger than an identical offer subject to finance.
Tell your lender the property type early: some lend differently on acreage, and on land without a dwelling.
Buying at a private sale
It is the same legal transaction as buying through an agent: your conveyancer reviews everything, and your offer binds only at exchange.
The difference is the person across the table knows the property best, ask them everything.
These guides are general information for educational purposes only. They are not a property valuation, price estimate, or legal, financial, taxation or investment advice, and property values can change quickly. Read the full Disclaimer and obtain professional advice for your circumstances.