Property Transactions

Selling your property tends to be stressful process. It’s key to have the right people on your side.

When is the right time to get a lawyer involved?

The simple answer is, as soon as you’ve decided to sell. The first thing that any serious buyer will ask for is a Contract of Sale which means it’s very difficult to effectively market a property without engaging lawyer. Most of the time clients tend to appoint an agent first, but an advantage of appointing a lawyer first is that we can review your agency agreement for you.

What’s involved?

In our experience, understanding the process can help manage uncertainty and support good decision making. So, let’s review the key steps.

1. Prepare the Contract of Sale: Before you can advertise your property, you need to have a contract of sale prepared. This contract must include various items including title documents, a drainage diagram, and a current zoning certificate. We can turn this around for you in a day or two if required.

2. Choose a Selling Method: Decide whether to sell your property by private treaty or auction. In our experience this will primarily depend on the strength and eccentricities of your local market - with higher demand markets tending to favor auctions. Ideally, your agent will have a strong understanding of the local market and should advise you on this.

3. Set a Price: This also varies a little depending on your local market. In more competitive markets you will usually set a price guide which, in practice, is an indication to buyers of the lowest offer you would entertain. If you are selling by auction you will then, later, set a reservice price which is the minimum amount you’re willing to accept. In weaker markets, you may just set a price or a range, which generally will be fairly indicative of what you are hoping to achieve. Your agent will usually advise you on the best approach for your market.

4. Market Your Property: You will need to advertise your property through various channels to attract potential buyers and generate competition. Usually this will involve a listing on the major online platforms (RE.com and Domain), as well as making the property available for open house inspections (usually 2 a week). Most campaigns tend to go for 4-6 weeks. Again, your agent will likely advise you on the best approach.

5. Negotiate Offers: This is where we come back in. Once you start to receive serious offers, each prospective buyer will tend to propose their own changes to the contract. This will often concern settlement periods and the deposit, but can also include a raft of other changes like default interest rates, or additional warranties. We will advise you on what the changes mean, and (if we have one) give you our view whether you should accept. Any changes you agree will also apply if the buyer purchases at auction.

6. Exchange Contracts: Once an offer is accepted, both parties sign the contract of sale and exchange contracts. At this stage the buyer will pay a deposit at which point the transaction is binding (subject to a cooling off period - see next).

7. Cooling-Off Period: For private treaty sales, there is a five-day cooling-off period during which the buyer can withdraw from the sale. Often however, offers will be made with a waiver of the cooling off period (implemented via a form 66W). In more competitive markets, vendors will not tend to accept conditional offers.

8. Settlement: This is the final step where the balance of the purchase price is paid, and ownership is transferred to the buyer. This usually occurs six weeks after the exchange of contracts. A number of technical requirements need to be met at settlement which we will manage for you.

If you have any specific questions about any of these steps, feel free to ask!

What’s next?

If your offer is accepted, you will exchange contracts with the vendor. and pay a deposit (usually 5-10% of the purchase price). At this point the transaction is binding. The rest of the money will change hands at settlement which usually occurs 6 weeks after exchange (although this period is often negotiated). There are various steps that occur throughout this time which your lawyer or conveyancer (hopefully us) will manage for you.

What will it cost?

We charge a fixed fee to manage the entire process for you. That fee starts at $2,500 (plus GST and disbursments), and will vary depending on the expected sale price of your property. We charge our fee in two instalments:

1. When we prepare the Contract of Sale, we will invoice for 25% of our fee;

2. The remainder will be paid on settlement.

Note that disbursements include searches and certificates and other third-party fees - they usually amount to around $300.

Why use AB?

At AB, we will freely admit our clients have tended to be corporate, and personal services such as conveyancing have not been our traditional focus. However, as we started experiencing more demand for these services from the people in our corporate clients, it became apparent to us that our commercial, high-EQ approach aligns very favorably with personal services - especially for higher value transactions. Even more importantly, we really enjoy being able to help our clients take significant steps in their lives. These days we are comfortable saying that when you are contemplating a significant transaction and need someone in your corner, you can’t do better than us.

Next Steps?

If you’ve decided the time is right to sell, just get in touch over the phone or feel free to send us an email using the button below. We can generally move as quickly as you need.