Contractual Offer

Intrigue,

this is a deceased estate, it is likely that there are several interested parties who stand to inherit the funds from the sale of the property ie KISS.
It is likely that the furnishings will be sold separately from the property or the family may wish these chattels, hence it may be unlikely to get your hands on these items.
A/C, & watertanks are part of the building ie they cannot be removed without causing damage, so it is unlikely that they will not go with the sale.
If the property is in a desireable area, it is unlikely that the property won't go to auction hence an unconditional sale or you may need to put your best foot forward with a S66W waiving any cooling off period.
Why do you need 30 days for your due diligence, all of these can be done in the normal timeframe of 5 days?

Xdrew, it is generally the vendor's solicitor who prepares the contract of sale not the agent.

Like Scott said, I'm not sure why you need so long to do your inspections. Here in SA we only get 2 days cooling off!

If I was the vendor, there is no way I would grant a 30 day due diligence period. The vendor would be essentially turning away other prospective buyers while you did your due diligence. If, at the end of your 30 days you decide not to proceed, the vendor is back to square one and has wasted a month.

Council checks and title searches have to be handed over before cooling off is entered into here in South Australia. I'm not sure of the procedures in other states. So if you don't like what yoiu see in the searches, you can always cool off under normal terms.  

I've revised my thoughts on how you should submit it. Submit it as a page of conditions rather than within the contract. That way you can just refer to the submitted conditions attached. Make sure you cover all things you want included.

However all the 30 days extra searching for Titles and Building Inspections is really extending safety for yourself to the terms of waffle. The standard time for a Building Inspection or Pest Inspection is a week. Thats it .. thats all you need.

All due diligence on the property should be done before signing. Any people you want to bring through for any costs estimating should be done pre signing and not after.

The vendor is seeking from you as the purchaser the security of a signed and deposit paid deal. He doesnt care at the end of it whether you want to bring reindeer through the property after exchange of contract. Once you got it its yours. But he does care for the idea of getting from the agent a full ten percent deposit (indicating that he is actually proceding with the contract) and a short series of terms that can be worked out quickly. The vendor wants the sale unconditional as soon as possible. Thats when he gets his cash.

I'll be a little more explicit.

Submit an offer with the agent .. and a separate set of conditions for what u need. Your requirements for 30days for building inspections and additionals is excess. At 30 days the vendor is expecting his contract to already be unconditional, in fact .. the contract should become unconditional in less than two weeks. The vendor wants the sale to happen.

Your conditions on what should or should not be included is ENTIRELY valid. All fixtures and fittings should be requested in the contract of sale. Anything additional .. any special features (fountain, garden pots, fridge) that you want to stay should be mentioned in the contract.

Title search and validation of ownership is what the time between contract and exchange of contracts is all about. Its about making sure the names are valid, that the owner is .. who the owner says he is, any details of how to deal with cheques for distribution of payment. Leave it to the solicitiors/conveyancers to sort that out. (in QLD it will just be a solicitor)

The whole set of inspections that you want to do for costings on various items should be done by yourself. They are not inclusive as part of the sale and shouldnt be factored in as such. As i stated before .. you can drive reindeer through the property once contracts have been exchanged. However there is no reason that you cant drag a tape measure through for area measurements during your final inspection (you are entitled to a final inspection a week before settlement) and get the costs from that. The costs for anything you want to do to the property shouldnt be factored into the final sale. The price you pay the vendor should be determined on what the property in its current state is worth to you.

Australian property is dealt with on reasonable concessional terms. In most states they have some form of cooling off period so if you feel you got sold a lemon .. you can back out (forfeiting a portion the deposit). Its quite reasonable, and there are lots of times where it shapes up as not being what was wanted or needed. But in most other countries the terms are more like .. if you bought it .. you paid for it. So for future reference .. I'd make a suggestion that if you are going to purchase anything .. do your due dilligence on it first. You happen to be in a country where you have flexibility. But for purchasing .. you should be acting like you dont need to use it.

The issue here is the seller holds all the cards. You can ask for all sorts of conditions, but if the seller says no, then that's the end of it.

It is in your favour that the property has been on the market fora long time, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the vendor is anxious or desperate to sell. I'm not sure how desperate they would have to be to allow a 30 day due diligence period, and effectively hand control to the purchaser. Pretty desperate, I would think…

I have had agents say this to me when i was going through the purchasing process (not for deceased estates). Are you sure this is an actual requirement when making the offer? It could just as equally be the agent trying to suss out to see if you are a 'serious' buyer or not…can you give some pushback and say you will write up the contract and sign once you have formed an agreement?

Personally , would never accept a verbal offer  or some something scribbled on some piece of paper ….
We make sure our agents understand that ..some still don't get it………… if you are a  serious buyer then put it on a contract …..

Before submitting any offer you should get your solicitor to review the contract and to draft addtional clauses – what are the special conditions the vendor wants?