By Stephen Gittoes, Gittoes Real Estate
Selling your home privately can initially seem appealing. If you can find the buyer yourself, why pay an agent a commission?
It is a reasonable question, particularly when the commission and marketing costs are easy to see. What is much harder to measure is the money that may be left on the table through incorrect pricing, limited buyer competition, weaker negotiation or accepting an offer too early.
After more than four decades in real estate, my view is that the most important figure for a seller is not the commission they pay. It is the amount they ultimately walk away with after the property has been properly exposed to the market and every realistic buyer has been given an opportunity to compete.
Quick Answer
You can legally sell your own property in NSW, but doing so means taking responsibility for pricing, marketing, enquiries, inspections and negotiations yourself. A good real estate agent brings local market knowledge, access to active buyers, campaign management and professional negotiation. For most Central Coast homeowners, I believe that gives them a better opportunity to maximise the final sale price and achieve a smoother result.
Can you sell your home without a real estate agent in NSW?
Yes.
Homeowners in NSW can choose to sell a property themselves rather than appointing a real estate agent.
That does not mean the entire transaction can be handled without professional assistance. A contract for sale must be prepared before a residential property is advertised, and the legal work associated with the contract and settlement is handled by a solicitor or licensed conveyancer.
If you sell privately, however, the responsibility for preparing the property for market, determining your asking strategy, advertising, responding to buyers, conducting inspections and negotiating the sale falls largely to you.
The real question is therefore not whether you can sell privately.
It is whether doing so gives you the best chance of achieving the strongest overall result.
1. Getting the price wrong can be expensive
One of the first challenges is deciding what your property is actually worth in the current market.
Online estimates and recent sales are useful starting points, but no two homes are exactly the same.
Land size, condition, outlook, floorplan, renovations, street position, parking and buyer demand can all influence value. On the Central Coast, there can also be substantial differences between streets and pockets within the same suburb.
Pricing too high can reduce enquiry and leave a property sitting on the market.
Pricing too low creates a different risk. You may receive an offer quickly and assume you have achieved a strong outcome without ever finding out whether another buyer would have paid considerably more.
When a licensed agent provides an estimated selling price in NSW, that estimate must be reasonable and supported by evidence such as comparable sales, the property’s features, location and current market conditions.
The value of an experienced local agent is not simply choosing a number. It is understanding how buyers are likely to respond to the property and using that information to develop the right selling strategy.
2. Finding one buyer is not the same as finding the best buyer
This is one of the biggest differences between selling privately and running a professional sales campaign.
You do not necessarily need hundreds of buyers to sell a home.
You may only need one.
But you need to know whether that person is the buyer prepared to pay the most.
A private seller might receive an offer they are comfortable with and decide to accept it. An experienced agent will usually be looking beyond that offer.
- Who else has inspected?
- Who has made an enquiry?
- Who is seriously considering the property?
- Is another buyer preparing an offer?
- Could additional competition improve the terms or price?
At Gittoes, we have seen many sales where competition between interested buyers has helped produce a stronger result than would likely have been achieved by simply negotiating with the first buyer in isolation.
That is an important distinction.
The goal is not simply to find someone willing to buy the property. It is to identify the strongest buyer and give the market an opportunity to establish what the property is really worth.
3. Negotiating your own home is difficult
Negotiation is often where an experienced agent can make the greatest difference.
When you own the property, it is almost impossible to be completely detached from the outcome.
You know how much you want.
You may know how much you need.
You know whether you have bought elsewhere, whether you are under time pressure and whether a particular offer would be enough for you to move forward.
A skilled negotiator creates separation between the seller and buyer.
The buyer does not need to know your bottom line, your personal circumstances or how emotionally invested you are in getting the deal done.
The agent can test the buyer’s position, encourage them to improve their offer, manage competing interest and report back to you so you can make the final decision.
Importantly, the seller remains in control. The agent negotiates and advises, but it is ultimately the owner who decides whether an offer is accepted.
4. A good agent already knows buyers in your market
Most experienced local agents are speaking with buyers every day.
These may include people who have:
- recently missed out on another property
- inspected similar homes
- sold and are ready to purchase
- made offers on competing properties
- asked to be contacted about a particular suburb or property type
- not yet seen the property because it has only just become available
That existing buyer network can be particularly valuable at the beginning of a campaign.
Online advertising remains extremely important, but putting a property on a website and waiting for enquiries is only one part of a sales campaign.
A good agent should be actively matching the property with buyers, following up enquiries and inspections, understanding each buyer’s situation and continuing those conversations throughout the campaign.
That activity can be difficult for a homeowner to replicate from scratch.
5. Selling involves much more than placing an advertisement online
A strong property campaign involves a series of decisions before the listing ever appears online.
These can include:
- recommendations on presentation and repairs
- styling where appropriate
- professional photography and video
- selecting the right method of sale
- developing the pricing strategy
- preparing online advertising
- contacting existing buyers
- managing inspections
- following up every enquiry
- gathering buyer feedback
- reviewing the campaign as the market responds
- negotiating offers
- coordinating with the seller’s solicitor or conveyancer
The individual pieces may not appear complicated in isolation.
The skill is bringing them together in the right order and adjusting the strategy as buyers respond.
An experienced agent has also usually developed relationships with photographers, stylists, tradespeople and other suppliers who can assist in getting a property ready for sale.
6. Buyer feedback is valuable information
One of the less obvious advantages of using an agent is having someone between you and the buyer.
Buyers will often speak differently to an agent than they will directly to the homeowner.
They may comment honestly about the price, presentation, floorplan or work they believe needs to be done.
Individually, those comments do not necessarily mean very much. Across a number of inspections, however, patterns can emerge.
An experienced agent can interpret that feedback alongside enquiry levels, inspection numbers, offers and competing sales to understand what the market is telling us.
That information can help the seller make better decisions during the campaign.
7. Consider the commission against the final result
Commission is naturally one of the main reasons homeowners consider selling privately.
It is a genuine cost and sellers should understand exactly what they are paying.
In NSW, an agency agreement must disclose the services the agent will provide, the agreed fees or commission and relevant marketing or other expenses.
But commission should not be viewed without considering the final sale result.
For example, saving money on an agent becomes far less valuable if the property ultimately sells for significantly less than another buyer would have been prepared to pay.
This is why choosing an agent solely because they offer the cheapest commission can also be a mistake.
The question I believe sellers should ask is:
Who gives me the best chance of achieving the strongest net result from my property?
Sometimes the difference achieved through better pricing, stronger marketing or one additional round of negotiation can be considerably greater than the difference between two agents’ fees.
8. There is also a significant amount of time involved
Selling a home generates phone calls, emails, inspection requests and questions.
Someone needs to respond promptly to enquiries, arrange access, identify genuine buyers, follow people up and maintain momentum.
There can also be difficult conversations.
A buyer may criticise the property. They may make an offer well below expectations. They might change their position during negotiations or ask for different terms.
For an experienced agent, these situations are part of the job.
For an owner selling their own home, they can become stressful and time-consuming very quickly.
Is selling privately ever worthwhile?
It is possible to sell a property privately and achieve a satisfactory result.
You may already have a buyer. The property may be unusual. Your circumstances may mean that testing the broader market is not important to you.
But there is an important question to consider even when somebody approaches you directly:
How do you know what they would have paid if they had been competing against other buyers?
That is the difficulty with judging the success of a private sale.
You know the price you accepted, but you can never fully know what the open market may have produced.
The aim should be the best result, not simply the lowest selling cost
Selling a property is usually one of the largest financial transactions a person will make.
For most Central Coast homeowners, I believe having an experienced agent manage the pricing, marketing, buyers and negotiation provides the best opportunity to maximise the result while making the process considerably easier to manage.
At Gittoes, we have been selling property on the Central Coast since 1989. The role of the agent has changed considerably during that time, particularly as buyers have moved online, but one part has remained the same.
Our job is not simply to find someone willing to buy your property.
It is to create the conditions that give you the best opportunity to achieve the strongest possible result.
If you are considering selling on the Central Coast and would like an honest assessment of your property, selling strategy and likely market value, the Gittoes team would be pleased to help.