Irrespective whether you are an experience property buyer or a first time buyer, the below advice would benefit you in whatever way. First time buyer is good to understand carefully the legal procedure before buying any property. A professional estate agent shall give you the right advice.

When you decided to buy a property, the estate agent will get you to sign a letter of offer (or agreement to purchase form) and you've have to pay the booking fee. After that you need to engage a solicitor to prepare for the S&P. Below are the brief description of the procedures.

Letter of offer

You have to sign a letter of offer to buy the said property and pay an earnest money or booking fee (normally 2%-5%) of the total property price. After that the owner will need to sign the same letter of offer to confirm the purchased.

The earnest money will be kept by the Registered Estate Agent as stakeholder on a trust account (or sometime we called client's account) until the Sale and Purchase Agreement (S&P) has been duly signed & stamped.

The buyer will then has to engage a solicitor or lawyer to prepare the S&P, whereas the owner's solicitor has to liaise with the buyer solicitor until the S&P is ready to sign. Sometime buyer's solicitor will also act as the owner's solicitor. After signing, the solicitor will do all the necessary searches to confirm the ownership of the property.

The timeframe for signing the S&P will normally take 2 to 3 weeks after the signing the letter of offer, depending on the particular solicitor.

Executing the Sale and Purchase Agreement (S&P)

The S&P will outline all the details for the transfer and specify all the terms and conditions. Upon signing the S&P, you shall  pay the balance of the 10% to the owner- in this case is 7% (10%-3% paid). Normally the acting lawyer will also ask you to pay their legal fee, stamp duties and all necessary fees.

As a standard practice, the payment term for the balance of the 90% is 3 months after signing the S&P plus 0ne(1) month extension with interest.

State authority consent

State authority consent apply only to the transfer of leasehold properties. Your solicitor will arrange all the necessaries for the transfer until complete. Normally this will take 3 to 6 months depending on the difference state authority and procedures.

Other important matter

When the said property has been transferred to you, there are few things you need to do it yourself. There are: transfer from previous owner to your name for electricity (TNB) account, Water (Syabas) account, assessment and misc. This is to avoid future unnecessary penalties.