---
title: "Making an Offer by Private Treaty: The Conditions That Actually Protect You"
url: "https://agentfind.com.au/making-an-offer-private-treaty-conditions/"
markdown_url: "https://agentfind.com.au/making-an-offer-private-treaty-conditions.md"
type: "post"
date_published: "2026-09-16T08:44:40+00:00"
date_modified: "2026-09-16T10:30:47+00:00"
language: "en-US"
renderer_version: "3"
---

# Making an Offer by Private Treaty: The Conditions That Actually Protect You

## Summary

In NSW, nothing is binding until contracts are exchanged — then you get five business days of cooling off, at a cost of 0.25% of the purchase price if you use it. Here's how to structure an offer, and what a 66W certificate actually gives away.

## Content

*By the AgentFind Editorial Team — Australian Property Professional Directory, Sydney*

 ![Couple signing a property contract at a desk](https://agentfind.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/photo-1664463760781-f159dfe3af30-1024x683.jpg)Everything before this moment is negotiable. Almost nothing after it is.

**Private treaty is the purchase method where a buyer has actual leverage, and most buyers give it away. In New South Wales, up to the point of exchange “the agreement is usually not binding and both you or the vendor have the right to change your minds”. After exchange you have “a 5 business day cooling-off period”, and if you use it you “pay the vendor 0.25% of the purchase price” — about $250 for every $100,000. That is the structure. Everything strategic about making an offer is about what you put into the contract before exchange, not what you hope to fix afterwards.**

## Key Takeaways

**An accepted offer is not a sale. Use the pre-exchange window to get the contract reviewed and amended, and understand exactly what you are surrendering if the agent asks for a 66W certificate.**

- **Nothing binds until contracts are exchanged** — which cuts both ways, since the vendor can also change their mind or accept a higher offer.
- **NSW: a 5 business day cooling-off period applies after exchange** on residential property, and 10 business days for off-the-plan contracts.
- **Using cooling-off costs 0.25% of the purchase price** — $250 per $100,000, so $2,500 on a $1 million purchase.
- **A 66W certificate waives cooling-off entirely.** The period can also be reduced or extended by written agreement with the vendor.

## The Offer Itself: Price Is One of Six Terms

**Buyers negotiate price and concede everything else. Settlement period, deposit amount, inclusions, access for inspections, any conditions, and the exchange date are all negotiable, and several of them are worth more to a vendor than a few thousand dollars on the price.**

A vendor who has already bought elsewhere may value a fast settlement above a higher price. A vendor who needs time may value a long one. A vendor nervous about the market may value a larger deposit or an immediate exchange. Asking the agent what the vendor’s timing looks like is a legitimate question, and the answer frequently costs you nothing to accommodate.

Put the offer in writing, with all six terms stated, and ask the agent to present it in writing. A verbal offer at a price is easy to dismiss and easy to shop; a written offer with clean terms and a named conveyancer reads as a buyer who will actually complete.

 Term Why it matters to you Why a vendor may trade on it Price The obvious one Rarely the only thing they care about Settlement period Time to arrange finance and sell your own property Their own purchase may depend on the date Deposit amount Cash you must produce at exchange A larger deposit signals commitment Cooling-off (kept, reduced or waived) Your only post-exchange exit Certainty; a 66W makes the sale firm immediately Inclusions Appliances, fixtures, window coverings Usually cheap for them to concede Access for inspections and pre-settlement Confirming condition before you are committed Almost always granted if asked

**Insider Insight:** Get the contract to your conveyancer the day the property interests you, not the day your offer is accepted. Contracts in NSW are available from the agent before any offer is made, and having yours reviewed early means you can offer with amendments already drafted and a 66W ready if you choose to give one. Buyers who do this can exchange in 48 hours; buyers who wait spend a week getting advice while the vendor keeps taking offers.

## The 66W Certificate: What You Are Giving Up

**You can waive the cooling-off period by giving the vendor a 66W certificate. It is a genuine bargaining chip — it makes the sale firm immediately, which is exactly what a nervous vendor wants — and it removes your only exit after exchange.**

The sequence that makes a 66W safe is doing everything cooling-off would have been used for before you sign: contract reviewed by your solicitor or conveyancer, building and pest inspection completed, strata report obtained and read if it is an apartment, and unconditional finance approval in hand for that specific property. Once all four are done, cooling-off protects against nothing, and giving it up costs you nothing while buying real goodwill.

The sequence that makes a 66W dangerous is doing any of it afterwards. If you are still waiting on a valuation or have not read the strata records, waiving cooling-off converts an ordinary risk into an unmanaged one. And note the middle option that agents rarely raise: the cooling-off period can be reduced or extended by written agreement with the vendor — so a three-day or a ten-day period is available if a full waiver is more than you want to give.

 ![Hand writing on a printed contract document with a pen](https://agentfind.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/photo-1450101499163-c8848c66ca85-1024x684.jpg)Amendments requested before exchange are negotiation. Requested after, they are a favour.

## What the Agent Can and Cannot Do

**The selling agent acts for the vendor. That is not a criticism — it is the arrangement — but it means the agent’s advice about what to offer is advice given in someone else’s interest.**

Practical consequences. An agent is not obliged to tell you what other offers are, and cannot be relied on for a number you cannot verify; treat “we have another offer at $X” as information without provenance and bid your own number. An agent must not mislead you about the property or the price guide, and underquoting is regulated in New South Wales — if the guide seems systematically below comparable sales, that is worth noting rather than accepting. And an agent will happily present your offer while continuing to market the property, because until exchange they are entitled to.

The counterweight is simple: have your own professional. A buyer’s agent negotiates for you and has no interest in the sale price being higher. A conveyancer or solicitor reviews the contract for you. Neither is a luxury in a transaction of this size.

FEATURED CASE STUDY

## The Offer That Won at $15,000 Less

**Two buyers offered on the same three-bedroom house within a day of each other. One offered $1,015,000 with a 42-day settlement, standard cooling-off and finance still in progress.** The other offered $1,000,000 with a 28-day settlement, a 66W certificate, and unconditional finance approval already issued for that address.

The vendor had already exchanged on a purchase settling in 31 days and needed certainty more than $15,000.

The second offer was accepted. That buyer had ordered the contract review and the building and pest inspection a week earlier, before making any offer, and had asked her broker to confirm the lender would fund that specific property.

The 66W was safe to give because everything it would have protected had already been done. The preparation, not the price, won the house. *This is an illustrative scenario built from the typical pattern above, not a specific client file.*

[Search Buyer’s Agents](https://agentfind.com.au/listings/?_listing_type=buyers-agent)

## The Sequence That Works

**Request the contract, send it to your conveyancer, order the inspections, confirm finance for the address, then offer — with terms, in writing, and with a decision already made about cooling-off.**

Three things to avoid. Do not offer your maximum first, because private treaty is iterative and you will usually get a chance to move once. Do not make an offer conditional on things you could have resolved beforehand, because conditions are what a vendor discounts your offer for. And do not sign anything at the kitchen table on the day; there is no circumstance in which twenty-four hours makes a good purchase bad.

Finally, keep the alternative in view. If the property is to be auctioned and you want contract protections, ask whether the vendor will consider a pre-auction offer — vendors frequently will, and a pre-auction exchange gives you the cooling-off and condition structure an auction would have removed.

## Frequently Asked Questions

 ➕ Is an accepted offer binding in NSW?

No. NSW Government guidance states that up to the point of exchange the agreement is usually not binding and both the buyer and the vendor have the right to change their minds. The sale becomes binding on exchange of contracts. ➕ How long is the cooling-off period in NSW?

Five business days after you exchange contracts on a residential property, and ten business days for off-the-plan contracts. It does not apply if you buy at auction, or if you exchange contracts on the same day as the auction after the property is passed in. ➕ What does it cost to use the cooling-off period?

0.25% of the purchase price, payable to the vendor — which works out to $250 for every $100,000, so $2,500 on a $1 million purchase. ➕ What is a 66W certificate?

A certificate given to the vendor that waives your cooling-off period, making the sale firm immediately. It is safe to give only once the contract has been reviewed, inspections completed, any strata report read, and unconditional finance approved for that specific property. ➕ Can the cooling-off period be changed rather than waived?

Yes. NSW Government guidance states it is possible to reduce or extend the cooling-off period by written agreement with the vendor — so a shortened period is an option where a full waiver is more than you want to concede. ➕ Should I believe the agent when they say there’s another offer?

Treat it as information you cannot verify and bid your own number. The selling agent acts for the vendor, is not obliged to disclose the details of other offers, and will continue marketing the property until exchange. ➕ What should I negotiate besides price?

Settlement period, deposit amount, inclusions, access for inspections and a pre-settlement inspection, whether cooling-off is kept, reduced or waived, and the exchange date. Several of these are worth more to a vendor than money and cost you little. ➕ Can I make an offer before an auction?

Often, yes — vendors frequently consider pre-auction offers, and a pre-auction exchange restores the contract protections an auction purchase removes. Ask the agent whether the vendor will consider one.

## Check the Reviews Before You Pick Up the Phone

A buyer’s agent negotiating for you has no interest in the price being higher — which is the whole point. Every professional listed on AgentFind shows their verified Google rating and review count on their profile, pulled from their own Google Business Profile rather than written for them.

Verified ratings across the AgentFind directory

4.6/ 5

Average Google rating
across rated listings

54,000+

Google reviews behind
the listed professionals

262

Listings rated
4.5 stars or higher

433

Property professionals
listed nationally

Ratings and review counts are sourced from each firm’s public Google Business Profile and refreshed periodically; 341 of 433 listings currently carry a Google rating. AgentFind does not write, edit or solicit these reviews.

**Won or lost a property on terms rather than price?** Tell us in the comments what the deciding term was. Buyers drafting an offer tonight will use it.

**About AgentFind**
AgentFind is an Australian directory of property professionals — selling agents, buyer’s agents, mortgage brokers, conveyancers and strata managers — searchable by location and speciality. Listings are not exclusive by area, so more than one professional can appear in the same suburb and you see the full field rather than a single paid name. Enquiries go directly to the professional you contact, and AgentFind takes no commission on any resulting sale.

Have Someone On Your Side of the Table

A buyer’s agent negotiates the terms as well as the price. A conveyancer gets the contract amended before you exchange, which is the only time amendments are cheap.

[Search Buyer’s Agents](https://agentfind.com.au/listings/?_listing_type=buyers-agent)
 [Search Conveyancers](https://agentfind.com.au/listings/?_listing_type=conveyancer)

Open any professional’s profile and choose Bookmark to add them to your shortlist — you’ll be asked to sign in first, then your saved professionals appear on your Bookmarks page.

Related reading: [auction vs private treaty](https://agentfind.com.au/auction-vs-private-treaty-australia/), [what a building and pest report covers](https://agentfind.com.au/building-pest-inspection-what-report-covers/) and [what pre-approval guarantees](https://agentfind.com.au/home-loan-pre-approval-what-it-guarantees/).

Important — currency and verification notice

**This article is general information only and was current at the date of publication shown above. It is not legal, financial, taxation or credit advice, and it does not take your circumstances into account. Cooling-off rules, contract practice and agent obligations differ materially between states and territories — the figures above are New South Wales.**

Legislation, regulations, cooling-off periods, forfeiture amounts and disclosure requirements change frequently. Before acting on anything in this article you must independently verify the current position that applies to your property and your state or territory — including the relevant property, conveyancing, strata and consumer legislation; the cooling-off and contract rules where you are buying; the jurisdiction, procedures and time limits of the applicable tribunal (for example NCAT in New South Wales or VCAT in Victoria); the content and currency of any certificate you intend to rely on, such as a section 184 or section 108 certificate; and the current status of any building defect, combustible cladding or remediation scheme affecting the building.

AgentFind is a directory service. We do not provide legal, financial or strata advice and we accept no responsibility for decisions made in reliance on this article. Obtain advice from a qualified professional — a solicitor, licensed conveyancer, accountant, licensed mortgage broker or licensed strata manager as appropriate — and confirm current requirements with the relevant government authority or regulator before committing to a transaction or a course of action.

*Sources: [NSW Government — Contracts and deposits when buying property in NSW](https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/buying-and-selling-property/buying-property-nsw/contracts-and-deposits); [NSW Government — Buying residential property in NSW](https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/buying-and-selling-property/buying-property-nsw); [Conveyancing (Sale of Land) Regulation 2017 (NSW)](https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/sl-2017-0372).*

## Classification

- **Category:** Buyers Agents, Tips

## Images

![](https://agentfind.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/photo-1664463760781-f159dfe3af30.jpg)