4 tips for selling your home

Selling your home doesn’t need to be stressful and with the right combination of industry knowledge and guidance through the process, it can be an exciting journey on the path to your next property purchase.

Have the property appraised

When you make the decision to sell your property, one of the first steps that you will need to look at is contacting sales agents to appraise the property and provide you with an estimate on the selling price. You may be referred to someone by friends, family or acquaintances or you could choose to contact the local agents in your area.

A local agent can make an appointment with you to view your home and provide a free market appraisal of the property. They will advise you of the trends that they are seeing in the local market, comparable properties that may have sold in the area recently and provide you with a report on your home and the recommended price to put it to market.

Prepare the property for sale

Once you have decided which sales agent to sell your property through, they will talk with you about signing a management agency agreement to manage the sale of the property. The agent will also talk with you about the best method for sale and will recommend options like an auction, a private treaty/private sale, or a tender or expression of interest.

Your sales agent will also usually recommend any improvements or touch up’s that may need to happen at the property to attract more potential purchasers and increase the potential final sale price. The agent will also discuss the marketing of the home and the recommended advertising.

The sales process and offers

The method of sale that you have chosen will determine the way in which potential offers on the property are presented. During an auction, prospective purchasers will view the property and then a date is set for a public auction in which registered bidders will bid until the property is sold to the highest bidder at a price on or over the reserve that has been set.

In the case of a private sale or private treaty, prospective purchasers will view the property and then make an offer to the agent who will present them to you as an option. The agent may then negotiate the price between yourself and the potential purchaser until an agreement is met. During a tender process or expression of interest, prospective buyers will present their offer by a deadline to the agent who will then negotiate the offers to achieve the final sale.

Contract and Settlement 

When an agreement on price has been met, irrespective of the method of sale, the next step is to sign the contract for sale and exchange and for the purchaser to pay a deposit. The agent can assist with this step, or it may be facilitated by a conveyancer or solicitor that you and the purchaser have employed.

A date for settlement will then be set out by the conveyancer or solicitors employed by both yourself and the purchaser and they will manage all final payments, registrations and settlement figures that are required by the statutory bodies and the banks. Keys and possession of the property will then be handed over on settlement date.