Christmas is Coming– Where Will You Be Serving the Turkey?

Counting the days until Christmas? Making lists for Santa? Planning on cooking up a storm in the kitchen of your newly purchased home?

Whether you’re moving in or moving out of a home, the hoops vendors and buyers need to jump through during a sales process can be challenging at any time of the year.

But when tinsel starts appearing in local windows and Christmas carols sneak into your playlist, the pressure turns up a notch!

With everything going to plan, selling or buying a home will take four to six weeks to finalise once an offer has been accepted. That means if you want to “deck the halls with holly”, contracts need to be exchanged before November 23.

The process can move more quickly but Christmas traffic jams in solicitors’ offices and banks can delay things until the New Year.

Here’s what you can do as a buyer to bring on some Christmas cheer:

*Make sure your finance is secure and available
*Get your building and pest reports done quickly
*Have your deposit or deposit bond ready
*Maintain a good relationship and regular communication with your solicitor
*Make sure your bank is ready to act
*Ask your solicitor to complete your title and planning searches quickly

Here’s what you can do as a vendor:

*Have a clear contract ready with inclusions/exclusions listed
*Instruct your solicitor to draw up a 30-day contract rather than the standard 42 days or even shorter if both sides agree
*Don’t rely on cheques or mail, that takes time!
*Have a plan for where you are moving to
*Maintain a good relationship and regular communication with your solicitor

Fisk & Nagle can and do grease the wheels of this process and can act as a point of contact or negotiator between vendors – buyers – solicitors. Together we can make this happen and set you up for Christmas in your new home.

On the last business day before December 25, work basically stops, offices close or operate on skeleton staff across many legal practices, for 3-4 weeks and sometimes until Australia Day.

We live in the most beautiful area, we all want to relax and enjoy those summer months with family and friends, but rest assured everyone will be working hard in the run up to Christmas to make your plans and dreams for 2017 fall into place ASAP.