2. Enlist a Lawyer

It is important to enlist the support of a lawyer regardless of whether you are selling your property through a real estate agency or privately. Having a lawyer on-board will ensure documentation, title transfer and the payment of funds is legal and tidy. As a private seller, we recommend you contact your lawyer early in the process to ensure you are set up correctly. You should also ensure that they are the right type of lawyer to assist with property conveyancing assignments and that they are clear about what you need from them.

With the Here's a House messaging service potential buyers can make verbal offers on your property which you, as the seller, can then accept, counter or decline.  It is important to understand that offers made in this way constitute verbal offers and do not represent a signed sales and purchase agreement.  The idea of the messaging service is to help avoid those awkward price negotiation conversations and get the ball rolling towards a written sale and purchase agreement.  Sellers and potential buyers who arrive at a verbal agreement are encouraged to contact their lawyers to have the agreement formally written up and signed.   

A lawyer can help you with the following: 

• Talk you throught he sales and purchase process 
• Help you complete a sales and purchase agreement 
• Help you deal with changes to the sales and purchase agreement while you negotiate with a buyer 
• Communicate with the buyer’s lawyer 
• Hold any deposit that a buyer pays until settlement date 
• Arrange the transfer of title to the purchaser 
• Handle the necessary loan documents with lending institutions and help you discharge any existing mortgages  
• Ensure the final payment is drawn down correctly on settlement day 
• Pass the sales information on to the values authority 
• Calculate any proportional council rate payments and attribute outstanding fees to the buyer 

From our experience, legal costs for the sale or purchase of one property can range anywhere from $600 to $1800 so it pays to shop around and agree on a fee upfront.

3. Ready your property for marketing and sale

Ensure your property is at its best before you undertake any marketing or reach out to potential buyers. This may include fixing things that are broken or damaged, completing renovation work or making minor changes to lift the property to the standard you want. However, it is also important to be realistic about what is achievable in the time frame you have.  You might instead opt to factor the cost of the unfinished work into your expected sales price. 

Below is a list of small but significant things to do in order to increase the appeal of your property: 

• Thoroughly clean your property especially in 'high importance' areas such as the kitchen and bathroom. Remove any cobwebs, address stains, wipe down the walls / ceiling / light shades and vacuum the property. 
• Mow the lawns, weed the garden and discard of any rubbish lying around outside.
• Waterblast the deck, fence, concrete or any brick work that needs a clean. 
• Paint the front door, fence, letter box, window sills and any other obvious areas outside the house. 
• Replace or repair any broken or rusted drains or any broken or rotting wood. 
• Ensure paint work is consistent and repaint where there has been fading, staining, blistering, chipping or recent fixes. 
• Fix any holes in the walls or doors
• Replace broken light or power sockets,
• Fix any broken cupboards or replace any broken hinges on doors. 
• Remove any personal effects that may give the appearance of a cluttered space
• Consider the placement of furniture, indoor and outdoor flow and any staging you could do to make the property appeal to viewers.

4. List your property on Here’s a House

Register and list your property with Here’s a House. Provide a compelling description of your property alongside general property details. The only ‘No, No’ when listing a property with Here's a House is that you cannot include the specific address of your property in your advertisement.  You can, however, provide this information later when potential buyers make contact with you. 

In general, potential buyers and agents like to have the following questions answered:                  

(These examples are based on a house listing, and would differ for other property types)

• How many bedrooms, bathrooms, toilets and living spaces are there?
• Is there any garaging or other parking spaces?
• What is the floor area and section size?
• Is it single or double level?
• What year was the house built and what materials is it made of?
• What’s the CV (Captial Value) or RV (Rateable Value) of the property?
• What are the rates?
• Does it have any special or unique features? (Examples might be: sea or bush views, close to schools or public transport, separate dwelling, cross lease section, residents parking fees)
• Is it a family home or rental property?
• What approximate price is the vendor hoping to sell the property for?

We encourage you to disclose any other information about the property that will be relevant to the buyer or useful for an agent. This can include consents or compliance certificates for work undertaken while you have owned the property, any weather tightness issues, and more detailed disclosure and obligations if you are selling a unit.

Once you have created your listing and this has been approved by our Admin Team, interested parties will contact you to discuss your property.  You can then provide a specific address and arrange viewings.  From there you will hopefully receive a verbal offer through our unique messaging service, get valuable feedback about your property, or find a suitable agent to help you sell.

5. Getting your property noticed on Here’s a House

With Here’s a House, the seller controls the process by deciding how much they disclose to potential purchasers about their property.  Sellers are also in a position to choose which interested parties they would like to have a discussion with. So depending on what you are trying to achieve and the type of property you are selling, always ensure your description paints a clear picture.  When promoting your property, remember that quality photos generate more interest and it may be worth considering hiring a professional photographer. But, if you are going to do it yourself then here are some tips for promoting your property through the best use of photography:

• Properties always look better furnished. If possible, avoid posting or showing photos of your property empty. If your property is empty, then consider hiring or borrowing some furniture for photographs and/or for when it comes to showing potential buyers through. Also take away any personal effects that may give a sense of clutter.
• Use natural light instead of a flash and pick the time of the day to take your pics. The morning and evening can be a great time to photograph a property as the light is soft and at a similar level inside and out. Also consider the weather, and wait for a nice day to take your photos as sunlight brings a feeling of warmth and energy to your property. 
• Use a camera with a larger lens if you have one available. While smartphones have great cameras the lenses are not ‘wide angle’ so they can struggle to capture the true essence of a property.
• Turn your device sideways if taking photos with a smartphone and consider using a panoramic function for some shots. Download a panoramic or wide shot app to help with this. 
• If using a smart phone, make use of the settings. You can create a ‘focal point’ in a room by using the ‘selective focus’ or ‘brilliant’ function in your cameras settings. Or by turning on your cameras HDR - High Dynamic Range function - your camera will help regulate for poor lighting issues by taking three photos at different resolutions and combining the best parts of all three to leave you with a great shot. 
• Use angles to create the feeling of space. Take photos of the corner of a room rather than directly towards a wall. 
• Take many different photos then select the best few to represent your property. You may also want to use a photo editor to improve the quality of the image.

6. Discussion and Negotiations with Interested Parties

Once your property is listed and potential buyers or agents make contact with you, you can choose to enter into a discussion with one or more interested parties and hopefully start the negotiation process. You call the shots at this point and may opt to communicate through the Here’s a House messaging platform, over the phone or in person at a viewing. If multiple people make contact about your property you can send group updates to these people via Here's a House messaging.  You can invite interested parties to view the property or set a final date for verbal offers. Potential buyers can use the messaging service to make an offer on your property and outline their desired conditions. You can accept, decline or counter their offer until an agreement is met. An agreement through the Here's a House site constitutes a verbal agreement and is not legally binding.  Therefore, when an agreement is made we strongly encourage you and the potential buyer to put your lawyers in touch so a sales and purchase agreement can be completed and signed.

Some of the essential details you will need when negotiating the sale include:

• Amount agreed upon for sale of the property. 
• Deposit amount the buyer intends to pay when conditions are met. 
• The proposed settlement date for title transfer and final payment. 
• The full names and contact details of the people entering into the contract / or the name of the business/es entering into the contract. 
• Whether you or the purchasing party are GST registered or using or intending to use the property to make taxable supplies or services. 
• Any conditions that the offering party wants included in the agreement i.e. sale conditional on builder’s report, LIM report, methamphetamine check, sale of another property, finance, etc. 
• Any additional conditions you want included in the agreement - cash out clause, or other clauses suggested by your lawyer.

7. Completing the Sale and Purchase Agreement

A sale and purchase agreement sets out the legal obligations and conditions for both the seller and purchaser of the property. In New Zealand there is a standard Sale and Purchase Agreement put out by the Auckland District Law Society Incorporated (ADLSI). It is recommended that you and the potential buyer use this form when agreeing on the conditions for the sale or purchase of a property and seek the advice of your respective lawyers in doing so. Your lawyer can provide you with this form or alternatively you or the buyer can purchase the form from the ADLSI by phoning (09) 303-5270 or fax (09) 309-3726 or purchase a hard copy of the standard agreement from a bookstore. 

While your lawyer can help you complete the form, here are some helpful prompts. Remember that in most cases 'you' (the seller) drafts the agreement and passes this to the buyer for their completion. However, there will be some occasions when the buyer decides to draft the agreement to send to the seller. 

• You fill in your name or the entity who is selling the property.
• Fill in the name or the entity who wants to buy the property (You can leave this for the potential buyer to complete if you wish).
• Fill in the exact amount you wish to sell the property for (it helps if you have verbally agreed on a price with the potential buyer through our messaging service). 
• Fill in the deposit amount that the buyer has indicated in your discussions (this is the amount to be paid by them as soon as all of your conditions on the agreement have been met i.e., builders report, LIM report, etc).
• You can list any conditions that the buyer has mentioned during your discussions that they would like met before they are willing to buy the property outright - for example, 'conditional on the sale of a house', LIM report, Builders Report, Obtaining Finance, Methamphetamine Check, etc.  It is ok if you miss some of these conditions, as the buyer can enter these in when you or your lawyer pass the sales and purchase agreement to them.   
• On the back page fill in your lawyer's details. 
• Check the settlement date and ensure this works for you. 
• Once you are comfortable with everything contained in the agreement, you should have your lawyer check over the agreement before passing it to the buyer. 
• The buyer will then make any changes or additions to the agreement. They may cross things out, write in the changes, and then insert their initials next to any modifications. 
• Once the buyer is happy with the agreement they will sign it and initial every page (along with any other parties listed on the agreement) and then pass this back to you or your lawyer. 
• Once you receive the agreement back from the buyer you can then either accept and sign the agreement, decline the agreement, or make changes and initial your changes before passing it back to the buyer for their consideration. This process continues until both parties are satisfied and have signed the agreement.   
• Once the sales and purchase agreement is finalised it can be passed to either your lawyer or the buyer’s lawyer who will start their conveyancing process and ensure you and the buyer meet your obligations of the sale or purchase as outlined in the agreement.