If you've decided to sell your home without an agent, you can do it anywhere in Australia, and the first step is the legal side, not the marketing. Line up a conveyancer or solicitor and get the contract ready before you advertise. In NSW, Victoria and the ACT, the law requires some of that paperwork before buyers see the home.

After that, you apply for an ATO clearance certificate, price the home, prepare it, list it, show buyers through, negotiate, sign the contract and settle. Here's each step, with what your state asks of you.

Still deciding? Our guide to the pros and cons of selling your home yourself works out what you'd save. If you'd rather use an agent, our guide on how to sell your property covers that route.

The steps at a glance

1. Line up a conveyancer and get your paperwork ready.
2. Apply for an ATO clearance certificate.
3. Work out your price.
4. Get the home ready, and book photos and a sign.
5. List it online.
6. Show buyers through.
7. Take offers and negotiate.
8. Sign the contract and take the deposit.
9. Settle.

Step 1: Line up a conveyancer and your paperwork

Start by hiring a conveyancer or solicitor, because in some states the contract has to be ready before you advertise. If the legal side is what worries you, this is the part they take on: the contract, your state's disclosure documents, the deposit and settlement (the day the buyer pays the balance and ownership passes to them).

Our guides explain when to choose a conveyancer and what conveyancing costs.

What your state asks for, and when

Pools and smoke alarms

Depending on your state, you may also have pool and smoke alarm rules to meet as part of the sale:

• Pools in NSW. Attach one of these to the contract: a pool compliance certificate, a recent occupation certificate with proof the pool is registered, or a non-compliance certificate. You don't need one in a strata or community scheme of more than 2 lots, or for an off-the-plan sale.
• Pools in Queensland. Give the buyer a pool safety certificate before they sign. If you don't have one, lodge a Form 36 notice with the Queensland Building and Construction Commission and give the buyer a copy, also before they sign.
• Pools in the ACT and NT. In the ACT, if your home has a regulated pool, pool documents are among the ones you must have ready. In the NT, if your home is on less than 1.8 hectares, the transfer of ownership can't be registered without a pool certificate or notice, or a declaration that there's no pool.
• Pools in WA and SA. In WA, the pool barrier must comply before the sale. In South Australia, a pool built before 1 July 1993 must meet current barrier rules by settlement.
• Smoke alarms. In Queensland, once you agree to sell, you must install compliant alarms and give the buyer notice by the day they take possession. In WA, compliant smoke alarms and safety switches must be in before the title transfers. In the NT, older ionisation alarms must be replaced by the day before settlement.

In Queensland, this rule for sellers applies until 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027, every home in Queensland must have compliant alarms, whether it's being sold or not.

In South Australia, every home must have a working smoke alarm, and the buyer has 6 months from the transfer to fit the alarms the rules require.

Step 2: Apply for an ATO clearance certificate

If you're an Australian resident selling a home, you generally need a clearance certificate from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Without one, the buyer must hold back 15 per cent of the price.

The certificate confirms you're an Australian resident for tax purposes, and it's been needed for contracts signed from 1 January 2025, whatever the price.

Apply as soon as you're thinking of selling. It's free, can take up to 28 days, and is valid for 12 months if your residency doesn't change.

Each owner on the title applies separately, and you give the certificate to the buyer at or before settlement. The ATO's clearance certificate page explains how to apply.

Step 3: Work out your price

Base your price on what similar homes nearby have recently sold for, or on a valuation by a qualified valuer, who will charge a fee.

In NSW, you can look up individual sale prices back to 2001 with the NSW Government's property sales search. In Victoria, the Valuer-General publishes median prices by suburb. Wherever you are, our guide to what your property is worth compares the ways to find out.

Underquoting rules stop agents advertising a price below what they expect a home to sell for. They're written for agents, not private sellers, but you still can't mislead buyers. The NSW Government says to advertise your price accurately, and South Australian and Victorian guidance says misrepresenting a property is illegal.

Step 4: Get the home ready, and book photos and a sign

Clean, declutter and fix the small things a buyer would notice, such as a dripping tap or a broken light, before the photos are taken. Our tips for getting your property ready cover what to fix and freshen up. If you can choose when to list, see the best time to sell a house.

Some listing packages (step 5) include a sign, and most sell professional photos as an extra. Bought as add-ons, photos cost from about $300 to $370 and a photo signboard about $250 to $360, going by providers' own price pages on 26 October 2026.

See how much a real estate photographer costs if you'd rather book your own.

Step 5: List it online

To get your home on realestate.com.au, you'll need to buy a listing package, because the site takes sale listings only from licensed agents. Package providers are licensed agencies that list your home for a flat fee, while you handle the enquiries, inspections and negotiating yourself.

The cheapest packages that include a realestate.com.au listing cost $549 to $999, with a middle price of $795. That's from seven providers' own price pages on 26 October 2026, and some showed their price as a discount on a higher one.

Some packages run until the home sells and others for 6 or 8 months, and not every provider says whether GST is included, so check both before you pay.

Domain has closed its private sale ads, but Allhomes still takes them. Allhomes' private sale page says an ad runs for 180 days or until your home sells, and the price depends on your region. Once it sells, the listing must show the sale price.

For the other costs of selling, see our guide to the cost of selling a house.

Step 6: Show buyers through

Expect to answer the calls and run the inspections yourself. According to South Australia's guide, inspections usually run for 30 to 45 minutes, once or twice a week, either as open homes or by appointment.

Lock up valuables, keep pets out of the way while buyers look through, and take each visitor's contact details as they arrive. In Victoria, the due diligence checklist must also be available at inspections.

Step 7: Take offers and negotiate

An accepted offer usually doesn't bind you or the buyer until the contract is signed. The contract becomes binding:

• NSW: when you and the buyer swap signed copies of the contract, called exchange. Until then, either of you can walk away, and you can still negotiate with other buyers.
• Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania: when you and the buyer have both signed the contract.
• WA: when you sign the buyer's Offer and Acceptance form, which becomes the contract.

In the ACT and the NT, ask your conveyancer when your contract becomes binding.

Ask buyers to put offers in writing, with any conditions (South Australia's guide says all offers must be). Common conditions are that the buyer gets finance, a satisfactory building and pest inspection, or sells their own home first. You can accept an offer, turn it down or make a counter-offer.

If you'd rather sell at auction, our guide to auction or private sale compares the two. In South Australia, only a registered auctioneer can sell your home at auction.

Step 8: Sign the contract and take the deposit

Once you agree on a price and conditions, your conveyancer finalises the contract, and you and the buyer sign it. The buyer then pays a deposit.

In NSW, it's 10 per cent of the price unless you agree to less. If the sale has a cooling-off period (a few days for the buyer to pull out, explained below), the buyer can pay 0.25 per cent at exchange and the rest before that period ends.

In Victoria, no law sets the amount, but it's usually 10 per cent.

The deposit is usually held in a trust account, by a conveyancer, solicitor or agent, until settlement. In Victoria, if the buyer pays it to you, you must pass it to your conveyancer or lawyer, or put it in a joint account in your name and the buyer's, within 7 days. In other states, ask your conveyancer what's usual.

The buyer's cooling-off period

In most states, the buyer gets a cooling-off period after signing: a few days in which they can pull out. You don't get one as the seller.

These are the usual periods for a private sale of an existing home. Waivers, some kinds of buyer and off-the-plan sales can change them.

There's no cooling-off period when a home sells at auction. In most states, there's also none for a sale to a bidder soon after the home is passed in (fails to sell at the auction). In Victoria, the same goes for a sale within three clear business days before or after a publicly advertised auction.

In Queensland, the contract must carry the cooling-off warning statement directly above where the buyer signs.

Step 9: Settle

Your conveyancer handles settlement. In NSW, it typically happens 6 weeks after contracts are exchanged, unless you agree on another date. In WA, it's usually 30 to 90 days, and elsewhere your conveyancer can tell you the usual timing.

At settlement, your mortgage is paid out, council rates and water are split between you and the buyer for the time each of you owns the home, and the buyer gets your clearance certificate. If you're unsure what date to agree on, our guide to understanding settlement walks through it.

What if it isn't working?

If the enquiries have dried up, you don't have to choose between doing it all yourself and paying full commission. There are options in between, such as negotiating the commission, or an open listing, where you sign with several agents, pay only the one who sells and can still sell the home yourself.

If you'd like to compare agents, OpenAgent is free for sellers. When a home sells, the agent who sold it pays us a referral fee, and some agents pay us to appear as a premium or sponsored agent.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

The legal rules on this page come from these laws and government guides, checked between 16 and 26 October 2026:

• NSW: the Conveyancing Act 1919 and the Conveyancing (Sale of Land) Regulation 2022, and the NSW Government's guide to using an agent or selling privately
• Victoria: the Sale of Land Act 1962, and Consumer Affairs Victoria's guide to selling with or without an agent
• Queensland: the Property Law Act 2023, the Property Occupations Act 2014, the Building Act 1975 and the Fire Services Act 1990, and the Queensland Government's guide to selling privately
• South Australia: the Land and Business (Sale and Conveyancing) Act 1994, and the SA Government's guide to selling your home and its pages on pool safety and smoke alarms
• Western Australia: Consumer Protection's guide to selling property, Landgate's guidance for strata sellers, and the WA Government's rules on smoke alarms and safety switches
• Tasmania: the Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016, and Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading
• ACT: the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003, and Access Canberra
• Northern Territory: the NT Government's guidance, its standard contract of sale, and the Swimming Pool Safety Act 2004
• Clearance certificates and capital gains tax: the Australian Taxation Office

Listing packages, photos and signboards: seven providers' own price pages, checked 26 October 2026.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. A conveyancer, a solicitor or your state's fair trading or consumer affairs office can tell you what applies to your sale.