 The process of looking for a new home can be exciting browsing through different properties and beautiful pictures But finding the right one for you can be a bit more tricky But once you have it it is time to make the offer to purchase But what does that process really look like here to guide us through this is private property CEO Simon Bray Good morning Simon. Let's say I have found the perfect property. I have now ready to make that commitment What are some of the things that I need to ask before I make that commitment? Well, I mean that's the stage that everyone wants to get to right, you know You're looking for the property you spend hours on our website perhaps looking through Tens of different properties, and you finally find the one that you really like At that stage you're going to make an offer to purchase Which is really a binding contract between you and the seller provided the seller accepts it so it can be a particularly Difficult process if you haven't done it before to understand exactly what needs to go into that contract But really you have to know that you want the house. So is it in the location that you Are happy with you know close to schools the neighborhood in the community that you enjoy Sometimes it's worth having rented in that neighborhood before so you know exactly what you're getting into Is the house the type of house you want? You know the space and all of that and and I think most importantly can you afford it? Because as soon as you sign that offer to purchase it starts a whole process in motion And if you can't afford it while you've wasted your own time and that of the seller okay now Let's say I've cleared my mind of any doubt. I'm a hundred percent sure this is the property. I want to purchase What do I do? So the best thing to do at that point is to engage with the professional So an estate agent or an attorney to draw up a contract for you Which is called an offer to purchase basically it records your offer the price you're going to pay and the terms and conditions that you're happy to accept in a sale and Then that'll get submitted to the seller and if the seller likes what he sees then he's going to sign it And you're going to have a binding sale agreement So it really is just a contracting phase between two parties and it's important to understand what goes into that contract You know what are the various clauses that you need to look out for? And and that's where an estate agent or an attorney can really add value and is there anything specific a buyer should be aware of or at least look out for before making that offer to purchase Absolutely, I mean there are a couple of really important things around the sale agreement outside of what price you're going to pay for the property a Suspensive condition is basically if it's if this condition isn't met. Well, then the sale doesn't go through So they're usually a number of suspensive conditions inside of sale agreements or offer to purchase And they things like you have to get a bond within 30 days Or perhaps I've got to sell my house before I can buy this house So those would be suspensive conditions and it's good to look out for those Another one people often misses this concept of the foots toots clause There's this Misunderstanding in the market that because of the consumer protection act There's no such thing as the foots toots clause But in an individual property transaction say you're selling a house to me that clause Absolutely can go into a sale agreement, which means You're selling the house to me as it stands So I need to be aware of any defects and be happy to Sort them out if they do present themselves down the line. So that's a good one to look out So that is what the foots toots clause is yeah, I'm selling it to you as is Yeah, exactly provided. You don't know about any major problem that you haven't told me about because that would be fraudulent Right, but if you don't know that the geezers about to burst and the geezer bursts Well, then it's the new Purchases problem and that's kind of the definition of that foots toots clause and Simon What happens in the event that you've bought the house, but people are still occupying it Yeah, I mean the transfer process usually takes about 12 weeks in this country So specifying exactly when you're going to move in has to be in that offer to purchase So it usually records a date of occupation and if as you say the person continues to live in the place after that date of Occupation, then you'd also specify occupational rent So that's how much rent they would effectively pay you to live in that place and it's usually quite high It usually has to cover all the costs of ownership for the property. So you do need to look out for those ownership Clauses like the occupational rent clause So they basically want to get you out on the day you said exactly and what are some of things you should not do after you've done your OTP Well, one thing that's really interesting is people will sign multiple offers to purchase. So You've seen two or three houses. You put in two or three different offers And then you look to get the cheapest one But the problem is if all of those sellers sign those offers you've actually just bought three properties So you don't want to do that You don't want to sign an offer that you can't get finance for so you need to know what your affordability level is And you can't just rely on what people call the cooling off period There's a little clause that goes in the contract that says, you know If I change my mind in the next five days that I'm allowed to that cooling off clause Actually really only applies to property below a certain value usually really low like 250,000 rent and those directly marketed so you don't really want to rely on that clause Well, thank you Simon for showing us all those small details when you have to make these big decisions Now if you want more information visit private property dot co dot z and have a look at the property advice section Where you can find some valuable information about when it comes to buying property