Ep # 31 – What Happens on Settlement Day and 3 Top Tips to make the day a Success

The Drive Home to Hawkesbury with Rachael Goldsworthy

In this episode of The Drive Home to Hawkesbury Rachael covers off on what happens on settlement day when buying or selling a house and how to avoid the common traps on that all important day.

If you have any questions on the settlement of your property or otherwise please do not hesitate to contact me, I’m always happy to help.

I Live, Love, Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode.

I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and welcome to the Drive Home to Hawkesbury, where I believe every home has a story and I love sharing those stories on real estate in the Hawkesbury with you. Here we share the best ways to add value to your property, how to avoid the common mistakes people make when buying and selling property, and how to get the maximum return on your investment with a focus on supporting local business. I live, love Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode with you. So let’s get started.
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on what time you’re listening to this video. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and welcome to the Drive Home to Hawkesbury and today I wanted to talk to you about a topic of settlements. Anybody that is buying a house or selling a house, they’ve always got to have that final day where it all comes together and money’s transferred, and either you’re buying the house or you’ve finalised the sale of the house. That settlement is usually on one particular day that’s been booked in by the conveyancers or your solicitor, they have settlement clerks in town that generally attend on your behalf. So as a buyer you don’t need to attend to the actual settlement but you do need to speak to your real estate agent that you’re purchasing the house through, to ensure that you go and have a look at that house prior to. You want to make sure that everything is exactly the way that you saw it, the day that you looked at purchasing and the day that you put the deposit down on the house.
So for example we had one the other day where the owners had moved out but they’d had revivalists come in and look at removing the furniture out of the house for these owners. Now the owners, for all intents and purposes did the right thing and had the removalists do this, but unfortunately the removalist wasn’t that careful in what they were doing, and they removed the washing machine without turning the taps off, which created a little bit of a flood, which luckily enough it was in the back area of the laundry which was all concreted. So there was just water coming out onto the actual cupboard. What we needed to do is just check that there wasn’t any damage to the property. So by having that final inspection on the day of the settlement, it’s much better for the buyer and also for the owner because you want to make sure that everything is right for both parties before you complete that settlement. So, that situation was averted. I was able to turn the taps off, that hadn’t been turned off by the removalists, which is fairly simple.
We isolated the problem, let the owners know, let the buyers know once they were onsite, and everything was a good result for all parties. So in that circumstance, if it hadn’t of been a positive result, and say for example there was damage or water damage or something that had happened, you’d contact your solicitor or conveyance as a purchaser or as a seller, and say “This is the situation, what do you recommend?” Generally speaking they keep some sort of funds in the trust account as a potential hold or a bond, just in case there’s some sort of problem that needs to be fixed. That there’s an agreed price on what that may be, or a reduction it the price. So it really, as I say, depends on each individual circumstance, but it can be sorted out, as long as the communication works well with everybody. I’ve always found it’s been a positive experience for people, as long as you’re all on the same page. So I just wanted to touch base in regards to that.
In regards to the settlement as I say, the buyer and the seller, you don’t need to attend the actual settlement day. The settlement is held generally in town, and that’s booked in by your conveyancer or solicitor. So the only things that you need to do is collect the keys, the fun stuff. Collect the keys from the real estate agent, when the settlement has gone through. Also, as the buyer, you’ll be contacted by your real estate agent and also from your conveyancer or solicitor in that regard. They will help you with that process. Equally, the owner will be contacted by the agent and their conveyancer. Sometimes the conveyancer will call the purchaser first, and we usually get what they call an “order on the agent”, from the conveyancer or solicitor in that matter, so that that confirms that we are able to hand over the keys to the new owner, and it’s all been settled, before we can do that.
So it’s a positive experience for everybody. I always love settlement day. It’s an exciting day for both the seller and also for the buyer because the buyer moves into the dream house that they’ve been wanting, the seller’s actually sold their house, closed the chapter on the book on that one, but going into probably another property. The other thing that can happen on settlement days too is a simultaneous settlement. So often what you’ll find is you have three, four, five settlements that are all reliant on one another. So the buyer may be buying a house, the money that’s put down on the house that they’re buying, that seller is buying another house. The whole process starts again with the other ones.
So it’s really interesting to see how it all comes together, but if you get the right advice, if you need any help in regards to which conveyancer or which solicitor to use, we’ve got any number of people that we can tap into in the Hawkesbury that are most helpful, and even abroad, if there’s other areas that you’re looking at going into, and you’re not too sure. Always happy to help. In regards to settlement, if you’ve got any questions, you know I’m here for you and we’ve done it may times over the years for different people with the settlements, so we’re happy to help you as well. Anyway that’s it from me today. Thank you very much for listening. I really look forward to hearing all your questions, so I can add some more to the next video that we put together for you, but great to catch up with you, and we’ll talk to you again on the next episode. See you later.
Thank you so much for taking time out and listening to today’s episode. If you have any questions on the process of buying, selling, leasing, or strata management, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and I’d really appreciate it if you could spread the word by liking and sharing this episode with your family and friends. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and I look forward to catching up with you on the next episode of the Drive Home to Hawkesbury.