Market Appraisal
This may be your first point of contact when looking for an agent. Our appraisals are free of obligation and charge. We will arrange a time to inspect your property. This will be quite a short appointment, around 15 minutes depending on its size and features. We will then book a second appointment to tell you about us and present you with a price range where we think your property currently sits in the market. As part of this we will run through comparable properties that have recently sold and properties that are currently for sale. We will also run through our marketing packages and fees.
Agency Agreement
Before an agent can represent you in the sale of your property you need to enter into an agency agreement. The most common form of agency agreement is an Exclusive Agency Agreement. If you enter into an Exclusive Agency Agreement, that agency has the sole right to market and sell the property for the term of the agreement. Be sure that when you are signing an Exclusive Agency Agreement, that you do not already have one in place, because you could be liable to pay both agent’s fees!
Contract
Once you have selected an agent, your chosen solicitor or conveyancer will prepare the contract of sale. A contract of sale will include all relevant documents to the sale including special conditions, title documents, a planning certificate (10.7) and a drainage diagram.
An agent cannot market or speak to buyers about your property until they hold a completed contract of sale.
Marketing
Marketing is an essential part of achieving the best possible outcome when selling your property. It is also typically an up-front expense, which is why it's so important it is done correctly the first time. Frequency across all mediums including print, real estate websites and social media plays a part in getting as many buyers through your home as possible.
Online Launch
Once everything is in place, we will send you copies of the photos and the marketing content for your review. Once you are happy with all the advertising, we will launch the property to more than a dozen real estate websites and your property is officially on the market!
Open Homes and Private inspections
Open homes and private inspections both have their advantages. Saturday open homes attract groups of people to the property at the same time. This creates urgency and competition amongst buyers which is great in any market. Private inspections allow buyers more one on one time with the agent and are great to capture the buyers who are unable to attend on a Saturday. We recommend a combination of both open homes and private inspections, especially early in your campaign.
Receiving and Accepting Offers
Receiving an offer is a good sign that the property is attracting buyers. It can be a challenging decision for owners to make and that’s where our expertise comes in. We work with the buyer to extract the best possible price and work expertly to keep their interest firmly focused on your home. After you accept an offer, we will continue to run open homes until contracts exchange. We do this so that we can have buyers on standby in case the offer does fall through.
Pest and Building Reports
Most buyers will want to have a pre-purchase pest and building report done before exchanging on a property. A building inspection will account for the properties condition, including any cracks, safety hazards or faults. A pest report will identify if there are any pests present and specifically look for past and present termite activity. If there are known issues, it can be a good idea to order these inspections yourself and make them available to buyers before negotiations. When issues are noted on these reports, some buyers will want to re-negotiate their offer or the conditions of the sale, for example having something fixed before settlement.
Gazumping
Your agent is legally obliged to pass on any offers to you until the property has ‘exchanged’. If a higher offer comes in after you’ve accepted an offer, but prior to exchange, accepting the second offer would mean your first buyer was ‘gazumped’. Gazumping is not illegal, it’s just not cricket, though when owners find themselves in this position, it's understandable why they would seriously consider taking a higher offer if one presents itself. It’s important to consider that gazumping your first buyer will likely lose them as a backup plan should your new buyer fall through – seriously weigh up the benefits of the new offer, including finance status and settlement conditions before making a decision.
Exchange
Once your purchasers have completed their due diligence and have paid the deposit, you will then be asked to sign a contract. Once both parties are ready to exchange, the contracts are dated and your solicitor will forward your signed contract to the purchaser’s solicitor. Unless a 66W certificate is signed, there will be a cooling off period, once the cooling off period expires the wait for settlement begins. If for any reason your buyer decides to withdraw from the sale during the cooling off period, they’ll forfeit 0.25% of the purchase price. After exchange, the whole deposit would be forfeited should they not go through to settlement.
Settlement
The settlement period is typically 6 weeks from the date of exchange, but can be altered if both parties agree. A few days before settlement, the purchaser will do a final inspection of the property to ensure it is in the same condition as when they inspected it and that all the agreed inclusions are still present.
Once settlement occurs solicitors will send an ‘Order on the Agent’ to the agent. This is when keys will be released to the buyer and if the agent is holding a deposit, this deposit will be disbursed to you, less the agreed agents’ fees and the property is officially sold.