Unless you’ve been living interstate or overseas lately, you can’t miss the media hype about the Sydney property boom. With low interest rates and increasing foreign investors, the Sydney property market is booming.

You may be thinking of selling your home or investment property whilst the market is high. Before you do anything, you need to understand the process, documents and timeframes for selling your property. This is known as conveyancing.

• Timeframes – Expect the conveyancing preparation and process to take a minimum of 10 weeks from the time you decide to sell.
• Contract – Before you can list your home with a real-estate agent you need to arrange for a Contract for Sale to be prepared. By law, a real estate agent cannot market your property before you provide them with a contract. The contract includes documents from your local council, and your solicitor will take approximately 7 to 10 business days to put together the contract. Your solicitor will provide the contract to your nominated real estate agent, and they can then market your home. Once your real estate agent has found a buyer for your house, the buyer will provide the contract to their solicitor for advice. The buyer may want to negotiate some of the terms of the contract, such as the time for settlement or a special condition. These negotiations may take anything from a few days to a couple of weeks, however occasionally they could take longer.
• Exchange – Once you and the buyers are happy with the contract, the contract will be exchanged, whereby each party signs it. In some circumstances, the buyer has a cooling off period where they can withdraw from the sale. This is usually 5 to 10 business days from exchange, and after this, the buyer is bound by the terms of the contract to buy your home.
• Settlement – When the buyers give you the money for the house and you give them the keys, the property “settles”. At this time they become the legal owner of your home. In NSW, the settlement period is normally 42 days from exchange but this can be negotiated if either party needs a different timeframe.

If you’re interested in taking advantage of Sydney’s property boom, have the friendly professionals at Bateys Family Lawyers take away the stress and complexity of the conveyancing process. They can help you sell your home or investment property, leaving you with confidence and peace of mind. Contact us now.