Until What Point Can You Pull Out of a Property Contract

Your real estate questions answered by Niki Peinke, Director of The Property Exchange in Subiaco 

Q: A friend of mine recently put an offer on a property, which was verbally accepted (the seller was overseas, so the contract had not been signed at this point). However, at this stage she was having second thoughts and wanted to pull out to think it through a bit more. Until what point can you pull out of a property contract without losing your deposit?

A: Once an offer has been verbally accepted (that is, the agent has conveyed acceptance to the buyer), it is then a binding contract, and is treated as such as far as the deposit is concerned. If the offer is unconditional, then the buyer would lose his or her deposit if he or she pulled out at any stage after this acceptance.

If the offer has conditions on it, those conditions  still need to be satisfied before the deposit becomes non-refundable.