HOW TO SELL YOUR HOUSE PRIVATELY IN AUSTRALIA

STEP 01

Work out what your home is worth

Everything downstream depends on this number, and it is the one most private sellers get wrong. Do not start from what you paid, what you owe, or what the neighbour reckons. Start from what comparable homes within about two kilometres have sold for in the last three to six months, and check how long each took. Five to eight recent sales of similar homes will tell you more than any online estimate. Set a range rather than a single figure, and know your walk-away number before the first inspection. Overpricing is the most expensive mistake available to a private seller: the listing goes stale in the first fortnight, the early buyers move on, and the price you eventually accept is usually lower than the one you would have achieved by pricing correctly at launch.

A free AI valuation reads those comparable sales and returns a defensible range in about a minute.

STEP 02

Understand what selling costs

Work out your net proceeds rather than your sale price. Selling privately removes commission, which is the largest single cost at 1.8% to 3.5% of the sale price, but it does not remove the rest. Marketing runs from about $1,000 to $10,000 depending on portal upgrades and photography. Conveyancing is typically $800 to $2,500. Your lender charges a mortgage discharge fee, usually $150 to $600, and break costs may apply on a fixed loan. Moving costs vary with distance. Capital gains tax generally does not apply to your main residence but usually does to an investment property. On an $850,000 sale, avoiding a 2.5% commission keeps about $21,250 that would otherwise have left at settlement.

See the full cost breakdown by state, plus advertising costs and legal fees. The commission calculator shows what a percentage fee would have cost you.

STEP 03

Get your legal documents ready

This is where the states differ, and where private sales most often come unstuck. Some states require the vendor disclosure document to exist before you can advertise at all, so this is not a step you can leave until you have a buyer. Queensland has a Form 2 seller disclosure statement. Victoria requires a Section 32 vendor statement. New South Wales requires a Contract for Sale with prescribed certificates including a zoning certificate and drainage diagram. South Australia has a Form 1. Western Australia uses the Contract for Sale and Joint Form of General Conditions. Engage a conveyancer or solicitor early. They prepare the contract regardless of whether an agent is involved, and getting the disclosure wrong can allow a buyer to walk away after they have signed.

Your state guide below covers exactly what you need. Also worth reading: the legal mistakes sellers make.

STEP 04

Prepare the property

Presentation is the highest-return work available to most sellers, and almost all of it is cosmetic rather than structural. Paint, decluttering, a garden tidy-up, minor repairs and professional photography move the result more than a renovation does, and they cost a fraction as much. Major work shortly before selling rarely returns its cost, and it delays the campaign while the market moves. Photography deserves the largest share of a small budget. Most buyers decide whether to inspect from the portal listing alone, so the photographs are doing the work that a shopfront would. Shoot in good light, declutter hard before the camera arrives, and lead with the best room rather than the front facade.

Work through the pre-sale checklist and the four week preparation plan.

STEP 05

List where the buyers are

Reach does most of the work in a private sale. realestate.com.au and Domain carry the large majority of Australian buyer traffic, and neither accepts listings directly from private sellers, which is the practical obstacle to selling privately, not a legal one. A platform that lists on both solves it. Write the listing for the buyer rather than for yourself. Lead with what the property is, where it is, and who it suits. Include the price or a price guide: listings without one get filtered out of searches and attract fewer enquiries, not more. Check what portal upgrades deliver before committing to them, because the expensive tiers are sold on prominence rather than on measured enquiry.

Before committing to paid portal upgrades, read how realestate.com.au upgrades compare.

STEP 06

Manage enquiries and inspections

Expect the first weekend to produce most of your early enquiry. Respond quickly. Buyers looking on a Saturday are comparing several properties that week, and a reply on Monday is usually too late to be in that comparison. Keep a record of who attended, what they asked and what they said about price. Follow up every inspection within a day or two. The buyers who come back for a second look are the ones who make offers, and knowing which those are is what lets you negotiate from a position of information. The organisation matters far more than the salesmanship. You do not need to sell anyone anything; you need to be responsive, know your property, and keep track of who is interested.

STEP 07

Negotiate, then get to settlement

Handle offers in writing so there is no dispute about what was agreed. Keep every interested buyer informed that others are active, which is accurate and is what creates competitive tension without manufacturing urgency. Do not let one buyer set the timetable. Assess offers on more than price. A slightly lower offer with finance approved and a settlement date that suits you can be worth more than a higher one that is conditional and slow. Once you accept, your conveyancer or solicitor prepares the contract, handles the deposit and manages settlement. That part of the process does not change because you sold the property yourself.

If you are still weighing the method, compare private treaty, auction and flat-fee platforms.