Your offer is accepted, and there is still work to do. Between that moment and the keys, there is a stack of legal and admin work to transfer the property into your name. That work is called conveyancing, and you do not do it yourself. The question is who you hire: a conveyancer or a solicitor.
What the job actually involves
Conveyancing is the process of moving legal ownership from the seller to you. Whoever you engage will, broadly:
- review the contract of sale before you sign, or during any cooling-off period if that is the first chance you get
- check the certificate of title and run property searches for things like easements, encumbrances, and planning or council issues
- prepare and check the transfer documents
- liaise with your lender and the seller's representative
- calculate the settlement adjustments, so each side pays its share of rates and water
- attend to settlement and make sure the transfer is registered
Get any of this wrong and the problem becomes yours after settlement, so it is not work to cut corners on.
Conveyancer vs solicitor
Both can do a standard purchase. The difference is training and scope.
A licensed conveyancer specialises in property transfers. For a straightforward purchase, that specialised focus is designed to cover everything the transfer requires. Licensing is state-based, and in some places conveyancing can only be done by a lawyer, so the first thing to check is who is allowed to act where you are buying.
A solicitor is a qualified lawyer who can do conveyancing and give broader legal advice. They are the better call when there is complexity: an unusual or amended contract, a deceased estate, a trust, a caveat or dispute on the title, a related-party sale, or anything that might turn into a legal argument. A conveyancer has to refer those questions out; a solicitor can answer them.
What it costs, and how to read a quote
You pay two things: a professional fee, and disbursements. Disbursements are the search and government fees your representative pays on your behalf and passes through at cost. A conveyancer's narrower scope tends to price below a solicitor's broader practice, and the total depends on the property, the state, and how complex the deal is.
When you get a quote, ask for the professional fee and the disbursements separately, and ask whether the fee is fixed or could rise if the matter gets complicated. A single low headline number that bundles everything tells you less than a clear split.
How to choose
For a clean, standard purchase, a licensed conveyancer is usually enough and costs less. If anything about the contract, the title, or your circumstances is unusual, pay for a solicitor and get the legal read.
Either way, engage them early, before you sign or during the cooling-off window, so they can check the contract while you still have a way out. Relative to the price of a home, this is a small cost, and the right person catches the problems before they are yours to keep.