Submitting an offer – in writing and bank cheque

You can put in the contract whatever you want, as long as the vendor agrees to it! You should be able to get inspections done within a couple of days, no problem, or just put in the offer "within 7 business days" or similar. But the longer time you ask for and the more conditions you put in the contract, the less attractive your offer will be. Just putting "subject to finance" won't help much, as it's not specific enough. You need to make it subject to finance that is acceptable to you.  Here are a couple of conditions I've used in contracts before. But they are only in my own words – I'm not exactly sure how they would really hold up legally. Your conveyancer should be able to help.

This contract is subject to and conditional upon the purchaser/s obtaining approval for a suitable loan with which to purchase the property, within 21 business days of the vendor accepting the purchaser/s offer to purchase the property. It will be solely for the purchaser/s to determine whether or not the loan is suitable and acceptable to the purchaser/s. All money paid by the purchaser/s by way of deposits for the purchase of the property must be immediately refunded to the purchaser/s if the contract is ended.

This contract is subject to and conditional upon a building inspection being undertaken at the property, within 7 business days of the vendor accepting the purchaser/s offer to purchase the property. The inspection will be undertaken by an inspector of the purchaser/s choice and the results of the inspection are to be satisfactory and acceptable to the purchaser. It will be solely for the purchaser/s to determine whether or not the results of the inspection are satisfactory to the purchaser/s. All money paid by the purchaser/s by way of deposits for the purchase of the property must be immediately refunded to the purchaser/s if the contract is ended.

There's no way you'll get the bank valuation done in 5 days – that's all part of the subject to finance clause, giving you 21 days to sort all that out. But the banks seem to be moving very slowly at the moment, so I'd be asking for at least 28 days unless you are absolutely sure your finance application will be approved quickly.

Good luck,
Phil

Sounds risky to me. Why not get some legal advice before doing all this? Will be cheaper than losing 0.25%.

One thing you could do is to extend the cooling off period.

I'd suggest to get the help of a lawyer, especially one that specialises in real estate contracts

The 'cooling off' period really allows a potential purchaser to rescind the contract simply because of a 'change of mind' – the key thing is to understand the length of colling off period in each state.

Qld – 5 days
NSW – 1 day
VIc – 3 days
SA – 2 days
WA – no colling off
NT – 4 days

Each state has a outline of how the 'cooling off' period works in their state and these can be found using google.

Conditions such as finance, inspections, etc all fall outside the cooling off period and need to be written in such a manner that they are unabiguous and very clear as to who is repsonsible, what happens if and so on.

Th eexamples provided by Phil are very clear, detailed and there seems fo be little/no room for different interpretations coming into play. I recommend you get your solicitor to write the conditions – these are your safety net should something go awry in the purchase.