Private Real Estate


Selling Property in New South Wales
Selling Residential \| Selling Business \| Buying Residential \| Buying Business \| Leasing Commercial or Residential Property
1.	Instruct a Solicitor
	Contact your solicitor and advise them of your intention to sell. You will be asked to provide a Council Rates Assessment Notice for the purposes of identifying the property that is to be sold. Your solicitor will then order all the appropriate property searches and put together a draft Contract for the Sale of Land for the property. This process may take up to a few weeks as some searches may take some time.
2.	Contract Price
	The Contract Price: If you are unsure of the price at which to put your property up for sale at, then you may wish to order a valuation which gives you a current market value of your property to provide you with some indication.
	At Law: The seller, by law, may not begin to advertise or market the property until the contract is ready for review by a prospective buyer, so it is best to ensure that your solicitor is instructed well ahead of time.
3.	Ensure all payments are kept up to date
	You must make sure that regardless of the fact that you are selling your property, you must continue to pay your mortgage repayments (if applicable) on time and ensure that your property remains satisfactorily insured. All council, water and/or strata rates must also remain current. All these amounts will be adjusted at settlement by your solicitor and you will be reimbursed for any over-payments as at that date.
4.	Negotiations
	Your Solicitor's Role: The purchase price is initially negotiated with the seller and once you have accepted an offer to purchase from a prospective buyer, you should advise your solicitor immediately. Ideally, this stage is where your solicitor should take over the negotiations with the buyer through the buyer's solicitor. All discussions should now be occurring between the respective solicitors and not necessarily between you and the buyer. This process will also involve the negotiation of such issues as what parts of the property are included or excluded in the contract and any other special conditions that may apply to your situation or that of the buyer.
	The Completion Date: A "completion date" is also set, which is the date when the property will settle, or be finalised. A completion date is normally 6 weeks after the date of exchange, however this may be negotiated by your solicitor depending on your circumstances at the time.
5.	Exchange of Contracts
	An "exchange" occurs when the deposit (normally 10% of the purchase price) is paid to your solicitor's trust account and the contracts are signed and dated.
	The Deposit: The deposit is held on trust until settlement, which means that you may not have access to the funds until settlement. But this also depends on the initial negotiations. The date of the contract becomes the date of exchange. Ideally, the exchange should only be completed by your solicitor. If completed by your solicitor, then the deposit is delivered to your solicitor and once same is confirmed and both contracts have been signed, your solicitor will date the contracts and effectively "exchange" them.
6.	The Cooling-Off Period
	A cooling-off period is a 5 business day period after the date of exchange whereby a buyer may withdraw from the contract and forfeit nothing more than the 0.25% of the purchase price. This period applies to every Contract for the Sale of Land. The time provided for by a cooling-off period is used by the buyer to order and/or review any Building and/or Pest Reports of the property, or to obtain final loan approval from their lending bank if they are funding the purchase.
	If your Solicitor Exchanged the Contracts: If your solicitor attended to the exchange process, it usually means that the negotiations were entered into and finalised prior to the exchange. In that situation, if both parties are in agreement, your solicitor may request that a Solicitor's Certificate be signed by the buyer's solicitor to forfeit the cooling-off period and essentially make the contract immediately binding.
	The Extension and End of the Cooling-off Period: A cooling-off period can be extended by the consent of your solicitor after receiving explicit instructions from you. Once the cooling-off period ends, or if forfeited by a Solicitor's Certificate, the contract becomes immediately binding on both yourself and the buyer, and must be completed or heavy legal consequences will apply.
7.	Mid-Transaction
	This part of the process is handled entirely by your solicitor as there are legal issues that need to be attended to.
	The Transfer: This stage is where the buyer undertakes all their searches on the property and drafts the "Transfer" document which transfers the title of the land from your name to the buyer's name at settlement. They may also attend to stamping the transfer and the contract, which is essentially the process of attending to the payment of any stamp duty payable by the buyer on the transfer of property to the Office of State Revenue. This transfer document is then checked by your solicitor and forwarded to you for your signature.
	The Discharge of any Mortgage/s and Replies to Requisitions: Your solicitor is responsible for attending to the discharge of any mortgages, caveats or any other such dealings that you may have on your property which are required to be removed prior to settlement. Your solicitor is also responsible for answering the buyer's requisitions (which are essentially, questions) on your behalf about the property as raised by the buyer's solicitor. Your solicitor will be constantly liaising with you during this time.
8.	Leading up to Settlement
	Once again, your solicitor will attend to most of the requirements of the buyer's solicitor and will discuss with you the date and time set down for settlement.
	Vacant Land: In most cases, property is transferred as "vacant land" which means that there are no occupiers ie tenants, living in the property at the time of settlement and that the property is free from any and all belongings of the owner which do not form part of the land. In this situation you must ensure that you have moved out of the property, if it was your place of residence, and removed all your belongings prior to the time and date of settlement.
	The Final Inspection: Normally, a few days prior to settlement, and sometimes even on the day of settlement, the buyer will arrange with you a suitable time to undertake a "final inspection". This inspection of the property allows the buyer to ensure that the property:
	(a)	is in the same condition as it was when they agreed to purchase it;
	(b)	that all special conditions of the contract have been complied with by you; and
	(c)	that the property is in fact "vacant".
	If the condition of the property has changed in any way, for example, if there is rubbish in the front yard or if there has been damage to the property or someone is still living in it, then settlement may be delayed. The buyer's solicitor may request for the property to be restored to its original and vacant condition before they agree to settle. If settlement is delayed there may be costly consequences that you may experience including time and money.
9.	Settlement
	While organising settlement your solicitor will be liaising with your mortgagee (if applicable) to get a final pay-out sum of your loan and will be contacting you to confirm how you want the sale proceeds to be drawn.
	Calculation of Sale Proceeds: Sale proceeds are calculated by taking into consideration all necessary council, water and/or strata rates, insurances and other payables and adjusting them to the date of settlement so that each party only pays for services for the time that they occupy the property. In most cases your funds will be disbursed in the following order:
	(a)	payment of your mortgagee's debt;
	(b)	payment of any outstanding council, water and/or strata rates, insurances and other outgoings;
	(c)	payment of your solicitor's costs and disbursements; and
	(d)	payment of any outstanding agent's fees and commissions (if not covered by the deposit sum); with the remainder being paid out to you.
	Settlement: You will not need to attend settlement as it occurs between the solicitors at a designated place and time. At settlement, money is exchanged for the transfer document, the Certificate of Title, and any other documents that need to be registered at the Department of Lands in order to effect the transfer of the property. Once the matter is "settled", your solicitor will advise you of same. The transfer and other documents will be lodged for registration by the buyer's solicitor, which is the essential step to transfer the property into the buyer's name. Once you have been advised by your solicitor that settlement has occurred you are then at liberty to obtain your deposit funds.
10.	Post-Settlement
	After settlement has been effected, your solicitor will provide you with an explanatory letter of all the issues involved at settlement and a breakdown of how the funds were disbursed. You should also be provided with all necessary paperwork for future accounting purposes.



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