Checklist · Residential Conveyancing & Property
Purchase-contract due diligence checklist (United States)
A buyer-side list for a US purchase contract: title commitment, names and the legal description, pre-1978 lead disclosure, FIRPTA withholding, and loan disclosures if the purchase is financed.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- United States
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the 3 authorities it cites, for United States.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use before the buyer is bound, and again before closing, on a US purchase of real property. Work the lead rows only for housing the EPA page covers. Work the FIRPTA rows when the seller may be a foreign person.
Used for these tasks
- Review the contract of sale and draft the buyer's issues report
- Check a contract of sale against searches before exchange
- Analyse the title search and list encumbrances and deal-stoppers
- Find gaps in the seller disclosure pack
- Build the pre-settlement checklist and adjustment worksheet
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
A tool may fill dates, names, and document titles from the contract, the title commitment, and the disclosure papers the lawyer has put in the file.
AI may
- Copy the property address, the price, the parties, and the legal description from the contract into the open rows
- List title-commitment requirements and exceptions that are still blank or still quoted only as "see commitment"
- Mark a lead-disclosure row incomplete when the housing was built before 1978 and the pamphlet, the warning statement, or the records are not in the file
- Carry the FIRPTA figures from the file note once the lawyer has completed that note
AI must not
- Must not state that a use, a tenant, or an association document complies with a statute this checklist does not cite
- Must not state a Loan Estimate or Closing Disclosure timing rule
- Must not decide that a FIRPTA exception applies
- Must not send the checklist to the other side
The lawyer checks
- Each title exception is either accepted in the lawyer's words or listed as unresolved
- Lead rows follow the EPA page, including the housing the rule does not cover
- The withholding figure matches the FIRPTA file note, including a joint seller allocated by capital contribution
- If there is a mortgage, the Loan Estimate and the Closing Disclosure are in the file and the lawyer has read the timing in the TRID material
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
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- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Residential Conveyancing & Property
- Contract for sale: prescribed documents and vendor disclosure checklist (NSW, with Vic and Qld notes)
- Transfer of land: registry forms and completion guide (NSW 01T, with Vic, Qld, WA and SA versions)
- Victorian foreign purchaser additional duty worksheet
- Caveat against dealings: registry forms and completion guide (NSW 08X, with Vic, Qld, WA and SA versions)
- Residential land foreign-investment screen before exchange
- FIRPTA withholding file note (United States)
- Victorian section 32 vendor statement (official guidance and completion guide)
- Discharge of mortgage: registry forms and settlement guide (NSW 05DM, with Vic, Qld, WA and SA versions)
- Queensland body corporate certificate and community management statement before contract
- Queensland seller disclosure statement (Form 2) and prescribed certificates: completion guide
- Title commitment and closing-document check (United States)
- Section 66W certificate (waiver or shortening of the cooling-off period) with explanatory note and file note (NSW)
- Notice of sale (NSW) and property transfer information (Qld Form 24): what the registry needs with a transfer
- Queensland seller disclosure steps before the buyer signs
- Buyer issues report on a purchase contract (United States)
- Letter of advice to a residential purchaser on the contract and searches before exchange (NSW)
- Victorian off-the-plan buyer checklist from Consumer Affairs Victoria
- Verification of identity and payment-redirection (deepfake) fraud checklist for conveyancing
- Client notice: how we use AI in your conveyancing matter
All precedents for Residential Conveyancing & Property · Tasks and AI use in this area