Selling a Property
Auction or Private Treaty
There are two ways of selling residential property. The agent will be able to assist with your decision on selling your property by auction or by private treaty.
If the Property is sold by private treaty, the Purchaser has a 5-business-day cooling-off period. If during the cooling-off period, the Purchaser withdraws from the contract, he or she will have to forfeit you 0.25% of the Purchase Price. The cooling-off period can be waived by the Purchaser by providing a section 66w certificate that is signed by Purchaser’s solicitor/conveyancer.
If the Property is sold on auction, the successful bidder must sign the Contract and pay you the deposit on site (usually 10% of the price unless otherwise agreed). There is no cooling-off period for anyone who buys property at auctions. If the property is passed in at auction but contracts are exchanged on that same day, the cooling-off period still does not apply.
Preparation of Contract
The laws in New South Wales require that a residential property cannot be advertised for sale until a contract of sale has been prepared.
The Contract must also contain certain “prescribed documents”, including but not limited to title documents, drainage diagram, and a current Planning Certificate (section 10.7) issued by the relevant local council. If you fail to attach one of these documents to the sales contract, the purchaser may be entitled to rescind the sales contract within 14 days of exchange, unless settlement has already occurred. We will ensure that the prescribed documents are attached to your contract of sal
Terms of the Contract
The standard Contract for Sale of residential property in New South Wales is a Contract devised and adopted by the Law Society of New South Wales and the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales. It is considered by the Law Society of New South Wales to be a fair and standard Contract. As your lawyer, we do make amendments to the standard terms and include additional Special Conditions which will better protect the interest of our clients when we act for the Vendor. Please ensure that you communicate any concerns or additional requests to us prior to finalising the draft Sales Contract.
Selling and Buying at the same time
If you are selling your property and purchasing a new property at the same time and you intend to use the money received from your sale to pay off the price of your purchase, we may be able to assist with coordinating a “Simultaneous Settlement”.
Next Steps
Contact us today for further advice in relation to the sale of your property and how we may assist you.