The Firm Is a Promise Factory

An offer to purchase is mostly a list of promises with dates attached. The buyer promises to pay a deposit into the conveyancer's trust account, to apply for a bond, and to pay occupational rent if moving in before transfer. The seller promises to supply the compliance certificates, to hand over the house in the agreed condition, and to move out on the agreed day. Signing the agreement makes the promises. Everything after it is the work of keeping them.

Seen that way, most failed sales do not fail at the signing. They fail where one of those promises was made carelessly. A seller agreed to an occupation date without checking whether the new place would be ready. A buyer agreed to a bond deadline without having spoken to a bank. Neither was dishonest. They just signed a promise nobody had tested.

So the useful question about any deal is where it is likely to leak. Is it the deposit, the finance, the certificates or the move? Each clause can be checked against reality before signing, by asking plainly who will do this, and by when.

A sale where those questions were asked tends to run like a production line, each promise delivered and ticked off in order. A sale where they were skipped runs on luck, and luck has a habit of running out somewhere between the bond approval and the moving day.