Offer, contract and conditions

Key takeaways

• This stage moves your purchase from an offer to a binding, unconditional contract — the point at which walking away gets costly.
• The gap between a conditional and an unconditional offer is where your protections live, so it pays to know exactly when your obligation crystallises.
• Special conditions — finance, building and pest, or even subject to the sale of your own home — are the levers that let you renegotiate or exit before you're locked in. [VERIFY]

This is the heart of the transaction — making your offer, signing the contract, and meeting the conditions that make your purchase binding. Cooling-off, deposits, key dates, finance approval and contract conditions all live here, and the guides below cover each one in detail, including the state-by-state differences.

What happens when you make a conditional offer?

Most purchases follow the same spine, and it's worth picturing the whole path before you sign anything: an offer is submitted, special conditions are inserted, the contract is exchanged, those conditions are satisfied one by one, and the contract finally goes unconditional. Each step narrows your ability to walk away, which is exactly why the order matters.

The critical distinction is between a conditional and an unconditional offer. While conditions such as finance or a satisfactory building and pest inspection are still outstanding, you generally have a defined way out. Once they're all met, the contract becomes unconditional and your legal obligation to complete crystallises — miss a deadline after that and your deposit and more can be at risk [VERIFY: deposit forfeiture on failing conditions vs default post-unconditional, per state].

How do special conditions protect you?

Special conditions are the levers built into your offer. A finance condition lets you exit if your lender won't approve — though in most states you're expected to make genuine, timely efforts before you can rely on it [VERIFY: finance-clause duty to act reasonably / make genuine timely efforts, NSW/QLD/VIC]. A building and pest condition may let you renegotiate over minor defects or terminate over major structural ones, and where that line sits depends on the contract and the state [VERIFY: major-structural-defect standard per state contract]. Some buyers also negotiate a subject to sale clause tied to selling their own home, often with a sunset date or a 48-hour cash-out clause that lets the seller keep marketing the property [VERIFY].

Each of these has a dedicated guide below — from the cooling-off period and how deposits work, to contract terms and key dates, getting finance approved, and complying with your conditions so the contract goes unconditional cleanly.