What typically happens between options presented and holding deposit paid
As agents/Kenekt, our role is to provide the best options to our buyers, explain the product to them, and help them ‘book’ or buy that product.
Kenekt helps agents understand what the best product is for a given criteria. It does this by the portal listing and working with agents to see if a package can be ‘tweaked’ to meet the criteria. Because House and Land is mostly off-the-plan, many things can be tweaked to suit the buyer’s needs.
This article will discuss what typically happens once options are presented to the client.
We tend not to present options through our portal that are already sold. However, the house and land market moves quickly, and it’s hard to be completely up-to-date with what has already been sold. Please ascertain if an option is still available before presenting it to the client. You can do so with us or directly with the builder.
The agent then presents the options to clients. The buyer might want to know more about the land and the building. We typically add documentation into the Property Pack (E-pack) to help with your discussions with the buyer. Depending on whether a buyer is an investor or an owner occupier, their enquiries about the product tend to be different.
The buyer could enquire about the land’s orientation and configuration, discernible from the Plan of Subdivision typically present in the Property Pack (Project level document). If you do not see it in the property pack, please enquire about it with us.
In some cases, the buyer would want Deposit Plan 88B, which discusses if the lot is ‘burdened’, for example, if the lot has an easement etc. This document is typically not in the Property Pack and can be acquired from Infotrack or the Council. Obviously, such documents are unavaible from the council or Infotrack if the land is not registered (titled) yet.
The buyer may enquire about the engineering diagram: the engineering floor, and sighting plans. Many buyers may not bother to do so, as they understand enough from the marketing floor plan.
They would want to understand more about the inclusions. There is an inclusion document in the Property Pack. Please enquire with us if it’s absent.
Depending on the level of due diligence the buyer wants to do, he may want to see a sewer diagram (obtainable from Infotrack or the builder/developer) and the Contract of Sale for the land. These documents are typically not in the Property Pack. The sewer diagram can be obtained from Infotrack if the land is registered, and the COS for the land can be obtained from the builder.
The agent would want to see a draft Marketing Contract from the builder. This is not downloadable from the Kenekt portal today. However, we are working on it. Please enquire with us, and we can email you a draft contract.
The buyer would need to know the land registration date and understand how long the build would take. These can be discerned from the system. If not, please give us a call or send us an email at team@kenekt.com.au
When the buyer is ready, the EOI can be completed, based on which the builder can issue Sales Advice. In many cases, an email with the buyer and his solicitor’s names would also do.
A Sales Advice is a document signed by both the buyer and the builder, which effectively ‘requests the builder to start the contract process’. The builder would expect a ‘Booking Fee’ called a Holding Deposit to continue. Note that the Holding Deposit is non-refundable in most cases.
The builder then does the admin and survey bits needed to get to the complete building contract. Depending on the builder, this typically takes them a couple of weeks to a couple of months.
The contract is issued after that, and the buyer is expected to pay 10% of the build cost at this stage. Note that commissions never get paid at the Holding Deposit stage.