Looking to sell your Sutherland Shire home? It’s a bit of a lengthy process, but when you break it down into its individual steps it’s not so complicated. All totalled, it could take six months to a year (including presale and post-sale steps), depending on the state of the property, the market and your goals for the sale.
Today, let’s talk about the house selling process, and the timeline for each phase. And remember, you won’t need to go this alone – we’ll be right there with you!
Before the sale
This timeline officially begins from the moment you decide to sell your property. As such, the presale timeline will vary a bit depending on your own preferences – are you hoping for a quick sale as soon as possible, or are you preparing now to sell at a designated future time?
1. Find an agent
Estimated time: 2-3 weeks
When choosing a real estate agent, it’s important you find someone who meets four important criteria:
- They know the local area very well.
- They have a history of sales success in that area.
- They’ve sold similar houses to yours in the past.
- You like them and get along.
We recommend that you meet a few different agents and hear their thoughts on your property. Then you can compare apples for apples and pick the person your like best. You can learn more about our own team here.
2. Ready the house for sale
Estimated time: 1-6 months
Next comes all the little tasks that will ensure your house is ready for buyers. That includes decluttering and tidying, but also any maintenance tasks and repairs that you’ve been putting off.
Learn more: 4 Easy Steps to Getting Your House Ready to Sell
3. Pre-sale tasks
Estimated time: 1-2 weeks
Right before you list your house on the market there will be a few steps to go through. Of course, now you have a local real estate expert on your side too, so they’ll help you with all of this. Common steps include:
- Taking professional photos of the property.
- Staging the house for sale.
- Preparing the contract of sale.
- Developing a marketing plan.
Now your home can be listed!
During the sale
4. Sales campaign
Estimated time: 29 days
At time of writing, the median time on market for a house selling in the Sutherland Shire is just shy of one month (realestate.com.au). This is about what we’d expect – the first 28 days tend to be the most important.
During this period, your property will be available for buyers to view either privately or during set open homes. An auction may also be scheduled, depending on your sales strategy.
What if my house takes longer to sell than a month?
Sometimes a house does stay on the market longer than the average. For the most part, this is OK – the average is just an average, every house is different. But, if the sale drags out for quite a while longer then it may suggest the price is too high, or something is wrong with the property that must be addressed before it can be sold.
In these cases, we’ll talk about adjusting expectations or pausing to address the concerns.
5. Offers and negotiations
Estimated time: 1-3 weeks
If all goes well, you should receive a few offers from interested buyers. Your agent will present these offers to you and discuss the merits of each one, and you can decide whether you want to negotiate with certain buyers. The buyers may also have conditions for you as a part of their offer, which would also need to be negotiated.
Don’t worry about price haggling! That’s what your agent is for.
When you’ve selected a buyer and are ready to accept an offer, they will usually pay a deposit and it’s time to move onto the next phase.
Settling your house sale
6. Contracts and cooling off
Estimated time: 1-3 weeks
Here, contracts are exchanged and you’ll get a conveyancer involved to help you with the legal side of selling your home.
In NSW, this starts a five-day ‘cooling off’ period where the buyer may still withdraw their offer. They’ll need to sort out their finances, and they’ll often conduct additional due diligence steps – like organising a building or pest inspection.
What if I sold my home at auction?
The steps here are a bit different, and there’s no cooling off period. At auction, the sale is final as soon as the hammer falls and the highest bid is accepted. The buyer will pay their deposit after signing the contract.
7. Settlement period
Estimated time: 1-2 months
As a part of the sale, you’ll agree a settlement period with your buyer – when it ends, the property title will transfer to the buyer and the sale will be completed.
This period averages at about six weeks, though it varies based on what you agree with the buyer.
On their side, they’ll be sorting their finances and conducting final inspections (and preparing to move house!). Their mortgage lender will also arrange a valuation of the property.
On your side, you’ll be finalising any agreed conditions of the sale (such as certain repairs) and getting movers of your own.
Both sides will be finishing their legal paperwork, with help from their respective agents, lenders and legal experts.
8. Final inspection
Estimated time: 24 hours
The buyer will usually request a final inspection of the property in the week leading up to the settlement date. This is so that they can see that everything is in order based on what you agreed during the sale.
Congratulations! Your house is now sold.
We’re the Sutherland Shire’s local experts
Selling your home in the Sutherland Shire? Get the experts on your team.
We know what it takes to successfully sell a home here in the Shire because we’re locals too. We have the experience, network and history of success, and we’re here to help.
Find out more about our sales team, or get in touch to talk about your property.