Legal Requirements

To sell any real estate you legally require a draft contract for sale with certain mandatory annexures prior to advertising or promoting the property in any way.

Although you can do it yourself, it is usual to employ a solicitor or conveyancer and it takes up to a week to prepare. It is a good idea to obtain a quotation on the conveyancing fees as they differ greatly between practitioners.

The mandatory annexures include a title search, drainage diagram, Council zoning certificate and Deposited Plan for a house or Common Property title for a strata property, (though there are other unusual requirements for certain categories of property). In addition, it is an extremely good idea in practical terms to have at least an up-to-date survey for a house or land. Without this, buyers will find it more difficult to obtain finance and their legal advisors will often warn them off a property or seek to make the contract conditional. A Building Certificate from Council is ideal because it removes the element of doubt about any additions or improvements. Pest and building inspections can be done by a vendor to expedite a sale but are not annexed to the contract and cannot be relied upon by a third party. However a clear pest report in particular can be very helpful in making a house sale.

An agent requires an agency agreement. Nowadays these are mostly 'exclusive' which means other agents and the vendor are precluded from selling. (If they do the agent still gets the a commission). The agreement is for a set period of time after which it can be terminated by either party. You should be careful that you are not locked in to a long agreement as you can be stuck with a poorly performing agent and an unsatisfactory result.

As part of our performance guarantee, we give you the right to terminate our agency agreement at any time if you are unhappy up until sales contracts have exchanged, provided that agreed advertising already expended on your behalf is reimbursed and our rights in respect of buyers introduced to the property are not prejudiced.