If you're selling your home in Sydney, you need two things in place before it's advertised: a signed agency agreement (if you're using an agent) and a contract of sale ready for buyers to see.

After that come marketing, offers or an auction, exchange of contracts (when the sale becomes binding), and settlement (when ownership passes to the buyer), usually about six weeks after exchange.

There's a lot of paperwork, but your solicitor or conveyancer (a licensed property-transfer specialist) prepares the contract and your agent runs the marketing. Your job is knowing what to check at each step.

For what it all costs, see our guide to the cost of selling a house in NSW. For the wider picture, see selling a home in NSW.

What are the steps to selling a house in NSW?

Here's the order, whether you sell at auction or privately:

1. Choose an agent. Compare a few and pick the one to sell your home.
2. Sign the agency agreement. This is your contract with the agent, setting out their fees and how they'll sell.
3. Get the contract prepared. Your solicitor or conveyancer prepares the contract of sale and attaches the documents the law requires, before the home is advertised.
4. Market the home. Your agent advertises it and runs inspections, with the contract available for buyers to see.
5. Take offers or hold the auction. Your agent passes on every offer, unless you've told them in writing not to. At auction, the highest bid wins if it reaches your reserve, which is the lowest price you're willing to accept.
6. Exchange contracts. The sale becomes binding when signed copies are exchanged, and the buyer pays a deposit.
7. Settle. The buyer pays the rest of the price and ownership passes to them.

If you're still deciding when to list, see our guide to the best time to sell a house.

How do you choose an agent in Sydney?

Talk to at least three agents, as the NSW Government suggests. Ideally, choose ones who sell homes like yours in your area. Check each one's licence online, ask for a full list of their fees, and compare how they'd market your home.

Before you sign an agency agreement, the agent must inspect the home and give you a signed sales inspection report, with their estimate of the price and the method of sale they recommend. The report becomes part of your agency agreement.

Put the same questions to each agent: what's your estimate, what's the evidence behind it, and which method do you recommend? Then you can compare them side by side.

What agents charge varies across Sydney, and our guide to NSW agent commission has the averages by area. To narrow the field, you can compare agents in Sydney, then take our questions to ask a real estate agent to each interview.

What must your agency agreement include?

Your agent generally can't charge commission or expenses unless you and the agent have both signed a written agency agreement and the agent has given you a signed copy within 48 hours of signing. Before you sign, check it includes, among other things:

• The agent's estimate of the selling price. It can be a single price or a range, but the top of a range can be no more than 10 per cent above the bottom.
• The commission. How it's worked out and when you pay it. If it's a percentage, the agreement must also show what it comes to in dollars on an estimated price.
• Expenses, itemised. Advertising and other costs, and any rebates or discounts the agent gets on them. The costs can't change without your written agreement.
• How long it lasts. There's no set minimum or maximum. If it's a fixed term of more than 90 days, you must be able to end it without penalty on 30 days' written notice after the first 90 days.
• Whether it's sole, exclusive or open. Under an exclusive agency, you may owe the agent commission even if you find the buyer yourself. Under a sole agency, you generally don't owe commission if you find a buyer the agent didn't introduce. Our guide to open and exclusive listings explains the third option.

You get a cooling-off period on the agency agreement: you can change your mind until 5pm on the next business day or Saturday after you sign, whichever comes first. To cancel, give the agent written notice, signed by your lawyer or by each of you who signed the agreement. Then you won't owe any commission or expenses.

You keep that cooling-off unless both of these happened: you signed a waiver form before signing the agreement, and the agent gave you the proposed agreement and the NSW Government's agency agreement guide at least one business day before you signed it. NSW Fair Trading's guidance for agents has the details.

What documents do you need to sell a house in NSW?

In NSW, your contract of sale must be ready, with the required documents attached, before your home is advertised. Your agent can't offer it for sale until the contract is available for buyers to inspect, and if you're selling yourself, you can't advertise without it either.

Your solicitor or conveyancer prepares the contract and orders the documents. The documents the law requires include:

• A title search and plan of the land, plus any registered rights or restrictions over it, such as easements or covenants.
• A planning certificate from your local council, sometimes called a zoning or section 10.7 certificate. It shows the zoning, risks such as flooding or bushfire, and whether the home is heritage-listed or in a heritage conservation area.
• A sewer diagram, if one is available. In Sydney Water's area, your conveyancer or agent gets it from Sydney Water.
• Notices about smoke alarms and loose-fill asbestos insulation, unless the contract already includes them.
• Strata documents, such as the strata plan and by-laws, if you're selling a unit or another strata property.
• A pool certificate, for a pool or spa: a certificate of compliance, an occupation certificate with evidence the pool is registered, or a certificate of non-compliance. If your home is a lot in a strata or community scheme of more than two lots, this doesn't apply. With a non-compliance certificate, the buyer generally has 90 days after settlement to fix the pool.

If a required document is missing, the buyer can generally cancel the contract within 14 days of exchange and get their deposit back, unless the sale has settled.

If you're an Australian resident for tax purposes, apply for your ATO clearance certificate now as well, so the buyer doesn't hold back part of the price. It's free, and it lasts 12 months if your tax residency doesn't change. Each owner needs their own, and you'll need it by settlement.

Your agent must also tell buyers about certain material facts, such as flooding or bushfire in the past five years, if they know about them or ought reasonably to know. So tell your agent about anything like this early.

How do agents price and advertise your home in NSW?

Your agent's estimate has to be reasonable when they set it, and it has to stay reasonable. They must give you the evidence behind it and, if it stops being reasonable, revise it in writing.

Agents can't advertise your home below their estimate, or use "offers over" or similar wording. If one agent's estimate is much higher than the rest, the NSW Government suggests treating it with caution. Our guide to comparing property appraisals explains why.

NSW has also passed changes that will mean agents' ads, including your agent's, must include a price or price range, though signs at the property won't need one. NSW Fair Trading expects them to start towards the end of 2026, and its page on the changes to property agent laws has the details.

For the latest prices across the city, see our Sydney property market page.

Should you sell at auction or privately in Sydney?

It depends on your home and how much certainty you want. At auction, the sale is binding on the day, with no cooling-off for the buyer. You'll usually set a reserve and plan for what happens if the home is passed in, meaning it doesn't sell at the auction.

In a private sale (private treaty), you and your agent decide how to advertise the price, then negotiate offers. The buyer usually gets a five-business-day cooling-off period on the contract.

Your agent's sales inspection report must recommend a method, so ask why they chose it for your home. Our guides compare auction and private sale and explain how a private treaty sale works.

What happens at an auction in NSW?

If you're selling at auction, here's what happens on the day:

• Bidders must register with ID before they bid, and display a bidder number.
• You can't bid on your own home, except in narrow cases (such as one co-owner buying out another) if the auction conditions allow it and it's announced. Only the auctioneer can bid for you. They can make one vendor bid (a bid on your behalf), but only if it's announced.
• You give your reserve to the auctioneer in writing before bidding starts, and buyers usually aren't told what it is.
• The winning bidder signs the contract straight after the auction and pays the deposit.

If bidding stops below your reserve, the auctioneer can lower it with your express permission, or the home is passed in. You can then negotiate with interested bidders or put it back on the market. A contract made the same day has no cooling-off, but one made on a later day has the usual five business days.

How do offers and exchange work?

In a private sale, your agent must pass on every offer until contracts are exchanged, unless you've told them otherwise in writing. Nothing is binding until signed contracts are exchanged. Once they are, you're generally bound to sell, so raise anything unresolved with your solicitor or conveyancer before you exchange.

Under the standard NSW contract, the deposit is 10 per cent of the price unless another amount is agreed. If you agree, the buyer can pay 0.25 per cent of the price at exchange and the rest of the deposit before their cooling-off period ends. Your agent, or your solicitor if there's no agent, usually holds the deposit until settlement.

If you're selling an existing home, the buyer's cooling-off period ends at 5pm on the fifth business day after exchange. If they pull out during it, they forfeit 0.25 per cent of the price.

The only way the buyer can waive or shorten their cooling-off is by giving you a section 66W certificate, in which their own solicitor or conveyancer confirms they've explained the contract and the effect of giving the certificate. As the seller, you have no cooling-off at all.

What happens at settlement?

Your settlement will usually be about six weeks after exchange. The standard contract's default is 42 days, though you can agree a different date. It happens electronically, so you'll need a solicitor or licensed conveyancer to settle for you.

Before then, you'll need:

• A land tax clearance certificate from Revenue NSW, given to the buyer at least 14 days before settlement. Your conveyancer usually orders it.
• An ATO clearance certificate, if you're an Australian resident for tax purposes. Without one, the buyer generally holds back 15 per cent of your share of the price. The ATO says to apply as soon as you're thinking of selling.

If you're a foreign resident for tax purposes, the buyer generally holds back 15 per cent of your share of the price unless the ATO approves a lower rate.

Council rates, water and strata levies are usually adjusted at settlement, so you and the buyer each pay your own share. For the day itself, see what to expect during settlement.

Can you sell without an agent in Sydney?

Yes. You still need a contract with the required documents before you advertise, and the NSW Government suggests using a solicitor or licensed conveyancer to prepare it. You'll need one of them to settle electronically, and if you want an auction, you'd usually hire a licensed, accredited auctioneer.

If you're going it alone, our guide to selling without an agent covers the rest.

Frequently asked questions

Where these rules come from

The rules on this page come from NSW law (mainly the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002, the Conveyancing Act 1919 and their regulations), the standard NSW contract for sale and federal tax law, as explained by NSW Fair Trading, Revenue NSW and the ATO. We checked them in October 2026.