A property is one of the most important assets you own and the decision to sell is an important one, whether the property is an investment property or your home. Trouncer Legal will work closely with you through every step of the sale process to ensure that your personal needs are met and the experience is positive.
At every step of your sale we will provide you with comprehensive written advice and all documentation that you will need for safe keeping.
Contract preparation
You must have a Contract for Sale of Land before you begin marketing the property. We will start preparing your contract the same day we receive your instructions and we aim to obtain all prescribed documents and send the contract to the agent as soon as possible.
Agency Agreements
Before a real estate agent will begin marketing your property, you will be required to sign an agency agreement. Before you sign the agreement you should do some research in your area and get a good idea about recent property prices, the agent’s sales history in the area and their commission. Make sure you review the marketing plan and costs and satisfy yourself as to whether your agency agreement is exclusive, the period of the agreement and how to validly terminate it.
Exchange
Once you have accepted an offer by a purchaser we will liaise with you and the purchaser or their solicitor in relation to any changes needed to the contract and we will exchange contracts on your behalf. After exchange you and the buyer are legally committed to the contract, subject to a cooling-off period.
If you are selling the property at auction, exchange will take place immediately after the auction and will be undertaken by the auctioneer who will send us the signed contract. There is no cooling off period.
Mortgage
We will liaise with your bank to arrange the discharge of your mortgage over the property. We will prepare your discharge documents and provide you details of your payout figure a few days before settlement.
Pre Settlement
It usually takes 6 weeks from exchange for settlement to occur, however this depends on the terms of your contract.
Prior to settlement, we will prepare a settlement statement which is the adjustment of rates and outgoings on a pro rata basis. The exact amount payable by the purchaser to you is usually a little higher than the balance of the purchase price less the deposit paid. Closer to settlement, we will advise you of the exact amount that you will be paid on settlement and the payout figure for your mortgage at which time we will take your instructions as to where you would like the proceeds of sale to be paid.
The settlement date under the contract is not a hard and fast date and, occasionally, you or the purchaser may be unable to settle the sale on that date. If the purchaser is not ready to settle, we will issue a notice requiring that the purchaser settle within 14 days.
Settlement
At settlement all money owed to you, and your bank, will be paid and we will hand the purchaser the title deeds to the property. Your agent’s commission will be paid from the deposit after settlement and the remainder will be paid to you. Water, Council and strata levies will be transferred into the purchaser’s name – this transfer usually takes about a month.