How to sell your house privately in Australia: costs, steps, and when an agent is worth it

Every seller has done the sum. Two per cent of $800,000 is $16,000, and for that an agent puts up a sign, runs some inspections and negotiates for a few weeks. Surely you could do that yourself?

Sometimes, yes. Private sales work well for a particular kind of property and a particular kind of seller. But the commission is not the only cost that changes when you take the agent out, and the things an agent does that are hard to see from the outside are the things that decide your price. This guide sets out what a private sale involves in Australia as at September 2026, what it costs against a commission sale, and how to tell which route suits your home before you commit to either.

What "selling privately" actually means

A private sale is one where you, the owner, market the property, run the inspections, field the offers and negotiate the price. You still need a solicitor or licensed conveyancer to prepare the contract and handle settlement; that part of the process is the same whether an agent is involved or not.

There is one practical wrinkle. The two big portals do not take listings from private individuals: realestate.com.au accepts listings only from licensed agencies. So a private seller who wants to be seen where buyers are looking uses a for-sale-by-owner platform. These hold agency licences in each state and list the property on the portals on your behalf for a flat fee, while you do everything else. As at September 2026, the widely used ones charge in the order of $800 to $1,000 for the listing package (For Sale By Owner lists a residential sale at $799; PropertyNow at $979 including GST), with photography, signboards and portal upgrades sold on top.

The legal work does not go away

This is the part most private-sale guides skate over. The disclosure obligations that agents normally organise sit with you, and in the two biggest states they must be done before the first buyer sees an advertisement.

• New South Wales. A residential property cannot be offered for sale until a contract for sale, with the prescribed documents attached, has been prepared by a solicitor or licensed conveyancer. That means the title search, the planning certificate, the sewer diagram and the rest are done before you market, not after you find a buyer.
• Victoria. Every vendor must give buyers a Section 32 vendor statement before they sign, and it has to be complete and correct or the buyer can walk away. In practice it is prepared before the property goes to market.
• Queensland and the other states. The contract is usually prepared once a buyer is found, but seller disclosure requirements have tightened (Queensland's mandatory seller disclosure statement applies to contracts from 1 August 2025), and the conveyancer still needs to be engaged early to get the searches under way.

Budget for a conveyancer or solicitor in either route. Typical 2026 professional fees for a sale run from about $600 to $3,000 depending on the state and the practitioner, plus a few hundred dollars in searches and registration; NSW metro sits at the top of that range and Victoria and Queensland toward the bottom. If you sell privately, you also lose the agent as the person who chases the buyer's side when a contract stalls, so pick a conveyancer who is comfortable doing that.

What it costs, side by side

Take an $800,000 house in New South Wales, where agents typically charge 1.8% to 2.5% and around 2.0% is common.

With an agent

• Commission at 2.0%: $16,000, or $17,600 with GST. The range at 1.8% to 2.5% is $14,400 to $20,000 before GST.
• Marketing: agents usually pass this through at cost, commonly a few thousand dollars for photography, portal listing, signboard and copy, and it is normally payable whether or not the property sells.
• Conveyancing: $1,000 to $3,000 in metropolitan NSW.

Privately

• Listing platform: about $800 to $1,000 for the package that puts you on realestate.com.au and Domain.
• Photography, floor plan and signboard: bought separately, either through the platform or directly. Budget as you would for the agent's marketing; the portals treat a badly photographed private listing exactly as they treat a badly photographed agent listing.
• Conveyancing: the same $1,000 to $3,000, because the same work is done.
• Your time: two to six weeks of inspections, enquiries and negotiation, often in evenings and on Saturdays.

On that example the private route saves roughly $13,000 to $19,000 in fees before you count your time, and less if you buy the same photography and signboard an agent would. That is a real number, and it is why the option deserves a serious look. The question is whether an agent would have got you more than that back in price.

Work it on your own figure with the commission calculator; the state guides cover what agents charge and the full cost of selling.

What an agent does that you cannot see from outside

An honest comparison has to include the things a good agent does that are invisible on a Saturday morning.

• Pricing from live comparable sales. Agents who sell in your suburb know what sold last week, what it was listed at, and why it went for what it did. That knowledge sets your price guide, and the price guide sets who turns up.
• A buyer database. Agents carry the under-bidders from their last three campaigns and the buyers who missed out at auction. Those are the people who make the first weekend busy.
• Negotiation at arm's length. Buyers say things to an agent that they will not say to an owner, and an owner negotiating their own home tends to either hold out on emotion or fold under pressure. If the buyer has a buyer's agent, you are negotiating against a professional.
• Qualifying buyers. Checking finance, reading whether an offer is real, and managing multiple interested parties so that one does not scare the others off.
• Auctions. If your suburb sells at auction, a private sale usually means giving that method up.

None of this guarantees a higher price, and industry claims that agents achieve a premium are hard to test because privately sold homes are different homes. But on a property where pricing is uncertain or buyer competition is likely, these are the levers that move the final figure by more than the commission.

When a private sale tends to work

• A standard property in a suburb with plenty of recent comparable sales, so the price is easy to set and easy to defend.
• A buyer's market where properties sell by private treaty rather than auction, and the campaign is about presenting well and being available.
• You already have a likely buyer: a neighbour, a tenant, a family member.
• You are comfortable talking money with strangers, and you can take calls and run inspections for several weeks.
• You have got two or three agent appraisals first, so you know what agents who sell in the suburb think it is worth, and you are pricing from evidence, not hope.

When an agent is worth the fee

• The property is unusual: acreage, heritage, a development site, a home with a defect that needs to be explained rather than discovered.
• Your suburb sells at auction and you want that competition.
• You are selling from a distance, or you are time-poor, or the sale is part of a divorce, estate or downsizing where the emotion is already high.
• You want a price above the obvious comparable sales and need someone whose job is to find the buyer who will pay it.
• You are negotiating against a buyer's agent.

How to sell privately, step by step

1. Get two or three agent appraisals anyway. They are free, they come with the comparable sales, and they tell you what the professionals think your home is worth before you set a price. Some sellers use them to negotiate a lower commission instead of going private; either way you are better informed. Request appraisals here.
2. Engage a conveyancer or solicitor now, not when you find a buyer. In NSW and Victoria the contract or Section 32 must be ready before you advertise.
3. Set the price from evidence. Use the appraisals, the suburb's recent sales and the house-worth guide. Overpricing costs more in a private sale than in an agent's campaign because there is no one to reframe the guide for buyers after week two.
4. Prepare the property and the photography exactly as an agent would. Buyers do not grade on a curve for private sellers.
5. List through a for-sale-by-owner platform so you appear on the portals, and write the listing the way the best agent listings in your suburb are written.
6. Run inspections and enquiries. Answer every enquiry the same day. Have the contract or vendor statement ready to send.
7. Negotiate in writing. Ask for offers in writing with the buyer's finance position and settlement terms. Do not accept the first number without asking whether it is their best.
8. Hand the accepted offer to your conveyancer and let them run exchange, cooling-off and settlement.

The honest bottom line

A private sale is a legitimate way to sell a standard home in a well-understood market, and the fee saving is real. It is not a shortcut: the legal work is the same, the marketing costs are similar, and the negotiating falls on you. Where the price is uncertain or the buyers are competitive, a good agent tends to earn the commission on the final figure. The best first step is the same in both cases: find out what agents who sell in your suburb think your home is worth, then decide.

Our free selling guide covers the whole process, personalised to your suburb, whichever route you take.

Sources

• Typical commission ranges by state: Your Property Guide agent fees guide, September 2026.
• Portal listing rules and platform pricing: For Sale By Owner ($799 residential) and PropertyNow ($979), prices as published on 17 September 2026.
• NSW contract-before-marketing rule: NSW Government, sales contracts ("Residential property cannot be offered for sale until a contract of sale has been prepared"; Conveyancing (Sale of Land) Regulation 2022, Schedule 1).
• Queensland seller disclosure: Queensland Government, seller disclosure scheme (Property Law Act 2023, in force 1 August 2025).
• Victorian Section 32 vendor statement: Consumer Affairs Victoria.
• Conveyancing fee ranges: published 2026 fee guides from Australian conveyancing practices, collated September 2026.