Selling Your Home: What Your Lawyer Actually Does (and When to Call Them)

Most sellers call a lawyer after the agent, the photographer, and the home stager. Understandable, but backwards: the two documents that decide how your sale actually goes (the agency agreement and the sale and purchase agreement) both benefit from legal eyes before you sign them.

Before you list: the agency agreement

The contract with your real estate agent sets commission, marketing costs, and importantly what happens if you cancel or if a buyer emerges from outside the agency's efforts. Worth a quick review before signing, especially sole agency terms.

Getting sale-ready

Your lawyer can spot problems before buyers do: unconsented works, fences or structures over boundaries, cross-lease consent issues, or a title matter that will spook a purchaser's lawyer. Fixing these before listing keeps your sale clean and your price intact.

Before the hammer, or before you sign

The sale and purchase agreement is where your risk sits, and once the hammer falls or you sign, it is fixed. Have your lawyer read it before it goes out to bidders, and before you sign anything an agent puts in front of you.

The standard agreement has you giving warranties. That any building work has consent and a code compliance certificate, that you have not had notices or requisitions from the council, that the chattels will be in reasonable working order at settlement, and that nothing has been done to the property that needed permission and did not get it. If one of those is not true, it needs to be sorted out in the agreement rather than discovered afterwards, because a warranty you cannot meet becomes a claim against you after settlement.

Added clauses deserve the same attention. Conditions for finance, building reports, LIMs and due diligence all set timeframes, and a deadline that looks reasonable on paper can take your property off the market for weeks while a buyer makes up their mind. If you are selling at auction the agreement is unconditional on the fall of the hammer, so the particulars, the chattels list and the settlement date all have to be right in advance. Pre-auction offers are worth a call too, since accepting one brings the auction forward and changes the terms you are bound by.

The mechanics you never see

Once the deal goes unconditional, your lawyer discharges your mortgage, prepares the transfer, coordinates with the buyer's lawyer and your bank, and handles settlement day so the money lands and the keys change hands on time.

The bottom line

Call your lawyer when you decide to sell, not when you've accepted an offer. The early conversation is short and it protects the biggest transaction most people ever make.

Thinking of selling this spring? Get in touch for a pre-listing chat.

This article is general information, not legal advice.