Buying before auction — making a pre-auction offer in NSW and Victoria

The short version

A pre-auction offer is an offer you make before the scheduled auction date. If the vendor accepts, contracts are exchanged and the auction is cancelled. Agents invite them because a strong early offer can secure a sale — but it can also be used to test the market and flush out other buyers. The catch that surprises most people: buying before auction rarely comes with a cooling-off period, and the vendor almost always wants your offer unconditional. You lose the same safety net you'd lose at the auction itself — you just lose it sooner.

Why an agent asks for offers before auction

A pre-auction offer suits the vendor more often than the buyer. It lets them lock in a good price without the risk of a quiet auction day, and it gives them a benchmark to set the reserve. It can also be used against you: your offer becomes the number other interested buyers are quietly told to beat. Making an early offer doesn't take you out of competition — sometimes it starts it. Assume the agent will use your offer to create urgency, and decide your ceiling before you put anything in writing.

Cooling-off: the key difference between the states

This is where NSW and Victoria diverge, and it's the part worth getting right.

New South Wales

A sale agreed before the auction is technically a private-treaty sale, not a sale "by auction" — so in principle the 5-business-day cooling-off period can apply under the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW). In practice, a vendor selling ahead of auction usually wants auction-style certainty, so they'll ask you to sign a Section 66W certificate waiving that right, and to make the offer unconditional. So the cooling-off period may exist on paper but be signed away as a condition of the deal — read the request for a 66W as carefully as the price.

Victoria

Victoria is stricter, and it's set by statute rather than by what the vendor asks for. Under the Sale of Land Act 1962 (Vic), the usual 3-clear-business-day cooling-off period does not apply where you buy within three clear business days before (or after) a publicly advertised auction. So an offer accepted in the days immediately before auction generally carries no cooling-off at all — no waiver required, it simply doesn't exist. An offer made well before that window is a different matter, so the timing decides your position.

The contract is still the contract

Buying early doesn't change the document you're signing. It's the same contract that would have been used on auction day — the deposit terms, the settlement period, the penalty interest rate and any special conditions all still apply. And because you're moving fast, there's a real risk of signing before you've read it properly. Everything that would matter at the auction matters here: get the full contract, have it reviewed, and know what's in the special conditions before you commit.

Doing your due diligence under time pressure

The hardest part of a pre-auction offer is that it usually compresses your checks into a day or two. If the offer is unconditional — or, in Victoria, falls inside the no-cooling-off window — then finance, inspections and the contract review all have to be done before you sign, exactly as they would for an auction. Don't let the agent's deadline set your standard of care. If you can't finish the work in time, you're better placed bidding on the day than signing blind.

What to check before you sign

1. Whether you keep any cooling-off right. In NSW, is a Section 66W waiver being asked for? In Victoria, does your offer fall inside the three business days before the auction — if so, there's no cooling-off to rely on.
2. Whether the offer is unconditional. No subject-to-finance, building-and-pest or other conditions means the risk sits entirely with you if anything falls through.
3. Your finance. Unconditional approval on this specific property — not a pre-approval letter — before you sign.
4. The special conditions. Deposit amount and release, settlement length, penalty interest — the same terms that shift risk in any auction contract.
5. The deadline behind the offer. A short "respond by 5pm today" is a negotiating tactic. Decide your ceiling calmly beforehand so the clock doesn't decide it for you.

Common questions

If my pre-auction offer is knocked back, can I still bid on the day?

Yes. A rejected offer doesn't stop you registering and bidding at the auction as normal. Just be aware the agent now knows a number you were willing to pay, so hold something back. See our guide to registering to bid.

Can the vendor accept someone else's offer after saying yes to mine?

Until contracts are actually exchanged, nothing binds the vendor — a verbal or "accepted" offer can still be undone by a higher one. That's gazumping, and the only real protection against it is exchanging quickly.

Should I ever make a pre-auction offer, then?

Sometimes it's the right move — a serious offer, on terms you've properly reviewed, can win a property before competition builds. The danger isn't the offer itself; it's making it fast, unconditional and unreviewed because an agent applied pressure. If you'd go unconditional at auction anyway and you've done the work, doing it a few days early changes little. If you haven't, don't let the timing rush you past the checks.