There are three ways to sell a house in Queensland: by treaty or tender, by auction, or privately. If you choose to sell privately, you’re not working with an agent, saving you heaps of money from commissions and bonuses. This may appeal to you if you’re not particularly in a hurry to sell your home.
The process of selling privately is closely similar to selling through an agent, only you have to do all the work, such as finding buyers, handling the contract, and taking care of legal matters. The challenge could be in finding a serious buyer, since without an agent, your access to the market may be limited, but that doesn’t mean you’d potentially land in trouble.
Refer to this step-by-step guide to know your way around selling your home privately.
1. Set the Price
It can be hard to work on a realistic price by yourself, so it’s advised to get an independent valuation for your home. You can also contact an agent at least for this step, just to find out the prices of other homes for sale around your area. If there you aren’t connected to any agent, check out property listings online or in the newspapers to get an idea, or visit open houses.
The factors that should determine the price of your home are its location, size, date of construction, and other features.
2. Perform Needed Repairs and Have it Inspected
Before selling your home, find out if there’s anything that needs fixing. Hire a licensed inspector to ensure that there aren’t any pest-caused issues and other problems that may affect your home’s selling price. Perform repairs immediately if there’s a need.
If you’ve already got a buyer, they may prefer to handle the inspections as you go through the negotiation stage.
3. Market Your Home
Take photos and advertise your home through various channels, like social media or in print, posting the ad by the curb. Consider staging your home to make it look more appealing and good as new.
4. Negotiate with the Buyer
Once a serious buyer becomes interested, they’ll surely negotiate, so be open for it. When you finally arrive at a fair and satisfactory price, the buyer should deposit a partial payment, and you may already prepare the contract.
5. Prepare the Contract
Work with experienced Townsville conveyancing lawyers, for instance, to ensure that all terms in the contract are fair and lawful.
6. Give the Buyer a Cooling-Off Period
In Queensland, a cooling-off period of five business days is required by the law. This gives the buyer a chance to back out of the sale in case they change their minds, even if they already signed the contract.
If they back out, they’re mandated to pay 0.25% of the home’s purchase price, which will be the termination penalty fee. Include this warning on your contract to make the buyer clearly aware of the consequences of backing out of the sale.
7. Transfer Ownership of the House
If the sale progresses to completion, you may already transfer the legal ownership and the keys of the house to the buyer, who would pay their balance to you in return. All work is done at this point, so you may now relish the fortune you’ve earned from selling your home.
Bear in mind to always consult experts when you need to sell a house or any property. This will significantly lessen if not completely eliminate the risks of being scammed, or having other problems that might be your liability.
