Selling a property doesn’t have to be a daunting process. We’ve outlined the steps involved below and our agent will work with you every step of the way.
Decide if you want to sell
If you haven’t yet decided if you want to sell, you may wish to receive a free appraisal for your property to see what it’s worth before making a decision.
Ready to sell
When you’re ready to sell, let us know! If you’ve already been in touch, just send an email or SMS to the agent you’ve been working with. Otherwise, you can let us know you’re ready to sell by filling in our selling form.
We’ll send you a copy of “Form 6”, which formalises the appointment of us as your selling agent.
At this point, we’d also recommend you engage with a conveyancing solicitor who will be able to help with the legal side of the purchase process, and also with some of the searches you are required to perform as a seller in order to comply with Seller Disclosure Requirements.
Seller Disclosure Requirements
Seller Disclosure Requirements become necessary at the time of contract signing, but you may wish to start organising the required documents early to ensure a quicker sales process.
There are many documents that need to be obtained from different sources, so a conveyancing solicitor may be helpful at this point to be able to quickly and accurately apply for these, where applicable. For your information, the required documents are:
- A title search showing registered interests under the Land Title Act 1994. Available from Titles Queensland.
- A copy of the plan of survey registered for the lot. Available from Titles Queensland.
- Notices about planning, environmental, and infrastructure matters (from various places):
- Zoning and planning information. Available from your local council.
- Transport infrastructure proposals. Available from state government and/or local council.
- Environmental notices. Available from the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DES).
- Tree orders. Available from your local council under the Neighbourhood Disputes (Dividing Fences and Trees) Act 2011
- Pool compliance certificates (if your property has a pool). Engage a licensed pool safety inspector to inspect the pool and issue the certificate.
- Body corporate certificates (if your property is part of a body corporate, e.g. an apartment, townhouse, retirement villa, duplex, etc). This is a Form 33 (or Form 34 for two-lot schemes) and can be obtained from your body corporate manager via written request.
A summary of all information obtained must then be provided in a Seller Disclosure Statement (Form 2) available from the Queensland Government.
Again, as there are several documents required to be obtained from several sources, a conveyancing solicitor can help obtain at least some of these on your behalf in a fast and accurate manner.
We market your property
We’ll take photos of your property and prepare the listing, which will be displayed on popular real estate websites as well as our own site and social media profiles.
The “for sale” sign goes up outside the property and we plan for inspections (ad-hoc and/or scheduled open homes, depending on your preferences and our availability).
We’ll pick up the keys from you.
Offers from buyers
As potential buyers place offers on the property, we will work with you to determine if you are willing to accept.
Offer accepted
Once you’ve agreed to sell at the offered price, we’ll commence drawing up the contract of sale. It is recommended you once again speak with your conveyancing solicitor to review the contract and ensure all other documents required as part of the Seller Disclosure Requirements have been obtained and can be passed on to the buyer.
We will need to know the details of your chosen conveyancing solicitor so they can be added to the contract.
The buyer pays an initial deposit into our trust account. The trust account is the account we use for holding money that is not ours, i.e. the deposit is being held on behalf of the seller. Trust accounts have limited access and are subject to regular independent audits, ensuring this money is kept secure.
The contract is provided to the buyer to sign, along with the Seller Disclosure documents noted above.
The contract is then signed by the seller.
Awaiting settlement
There is typically a 5-day cooling-off period on a contract of sale, which commences once both parties (buyer and seller) have signed the contract. In some cases, the buyer may wish to waive or shorten the cooling-off period. During the cooling-off period, the buyer is able to cancel the contract if they change their mind.
There may be conditions built into the contract by the buyer, such as:
- the contract is subject to the buyer obtaining finance (e.g. 7 to 21 days to allow time for the buyer’s bank to approve a loan)
- the contract is subject to a building and pest inspection that is acceptable by the buyer (usually with a period of time by which that inspection should be completed, e.g. 7 days after contract signing)
- the contract is subject to the sale of another property (e.g. the buyer needs to sell their old property in order to finance the new property)
If there are conditions built into the contract like this, then the contract is considered “conditional”. Once those conditions have either been met or waived, the contract is then considered “unconditional” and therefore binding by both parties (i.e. the buyer is legally bound to proceed with the purchase, and the seller can no longer cancel the sale unless there is a breach of the contract). The buyer pays the remainder of the deposit into our trust account when the contract becomes unconditional.
Settlement date
Payment for the property will be directly paid to you by the buyer’s bank (if they have a loan) or by the seller (if they’re paying with their own money).
Conveyancing solicitors typically use a system called PEXA to facilitate payment. Note that PEXA may charge a fee (see the PEXA website for fee information) for this service, which the solicitor/conveyancer usually passes on to you. Speak with your solicitor/conveyancer if you’re unsure.
We will release the deposit – less our commission and the Title Search fee – to you.
Keys are given to buyer.
We hope this guide has been helpful for navigating what lies ahead in the process of selling your property. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for further information or to take the next step in your selling journey.