1. Decision to Sell
You decide to sell:
- You appoint a real estate agent;
- You sign an agency agreement.
2. Preparing the Contract for Sale of Land
At this point, you should speak to Megan from our Property Department she will prepare the Contract for Sale of Land. Before the property can be advertised or listed on the market, a Contract for Sale of Land is required.
If the property you are selling has a swimming pool, you will need to apply for a swimming pool compliance certificate.
3. Finding a buyer
After the Contract is prepared, the real estate will market the property and find a purchaser. The agent will liaise with you directly in regards to the negotiations of the purchase price.
4. Exchange
Once you have agreed on the purchase price there are two ways to exchange a Contract:
- Cooling off period;
- Unconditional exchange.
(a) Cooling off period
- The agent will arrange for both parties to sign the Contracts and a purchaser pays a non- refundable deposit of 0.25% of the purchase price. The property is then taken off the market for a period of time normally between 5-10 days.
- During the cooling off period the purchaser solicitor will arrange any reports required by the purchaser and liaise with the purchasers banker/broker in regards to unconditional loan approval.
- On the expiration of the cooling off period the purchaser is to pay the balance of the deposit (standard Contract is 10%) or they can rescind the Contract, if Contract is rescinded the purchaser forfeits the 0.25% deposit to the vendor and the vendor can put the property back on the market.
4 (b) Unconditional exchange
The agent issues a sales advice to both the vendors and purchasers solicitor to advise them both of the sale. The vendors solicitor then issues a Contract to the purchaser solicitors. The purchaser solicitor then arranges any reports required by the purchaser and liaises with the purchasers broker/banker in regards to finance.
Once the purchasers are in a position to exchange they will pay the deposit to the agent and the purchasers solicitor will forward the Contract to the vendors solicitor with a Section 66W which waives the purchasers rights to a cooling off period.
The vendors solicitor will then complete the exchange of Contracts.
5. Post Exchange
When the Contract has cooled off or has unconditionally exchanged we then advise your discharge mortgage (if any) to prepare a discharge of mortgage.
We need to provide to the purchasers solicitors a clear land tax certificate and a ATO Foreign Clearance Certificate (if the property exceeds a purchase price of $750,000.00).
6. Settlement
Settlement figures are provided by the purchasers solicitor, these are checked and a settlement breakdown is provided to you.
The purchaser will pay the balance of settlement monies which will be used to pay out your bank and/or other commitments.
Settlement occurs electronically using a platform called pexa “Property Exchange Australia”.
Written by Megan Johnson. If you are looking at selling, contact our office today and speak with Megan about the sale process.
