Selling a property in Queensland

The process of buying and selling property in the State of Queensland is different than many others states of Australia, in many ways it is simplier and easier.

In Queensland to have an agent sell your property you must "appoint" the agent.

This is done by a "form 22a" "appointment to act" which both you and the agent signs.

On the "appointment to act" it states what type of a listing it is, ... for more information on listing types click here.

The 22a states "the duties" the agent promises to undertake to sell the property.
Whether the agent will advertise the property, how, and the costs involved.
Whether there is additional charges for marketing, administration or any other reason.
The commission rate and the approx. dollar amount that equates to, which will be charged if the property is sold, for more information on commission rates click here

If the property is strata titled the agent should immediatley gain a body corporate disclosure statement on your behalf. The body corporate statement is a legal statement to the financial condition of the body corporate, required by law so the buyer can view and sign as acceptance "before signing a contract".

When an offer is made for a property, the agent will create the contract and get the buyer to sign it. In Queensland the agency is legally licenced to create the contract of sale for a property, unlike many other states where a solicitor is the only one that can legally create the contract, what this means to "you the seller" is that instead of a verbal offer which may or may not follow through you receive a qualified serious written offer on an official contract.

The agent then presents you with the contract, you decide what you would like to do, you can either:
Accept it
Reject it
Choose to negotiate it

The contract is normally conditional to, a number of items, including but not limited to:

Building and pest usually 7 - 14 days
This gives the buyer time to organise an inspector to come and examine the property, produce a report and for the buyer to study the results, a good agent will go to the property for the inspection so they may deal with any problem that may arise.

Finance usually 14 -21 days
The buyer immediatly contacts the financial institution and informs them they have bought a property and to get the money ready for settlement, the financial institution will request a copy of the contract and organise a valuation of the property, if all is correct in the application and valuation the money is then drawn for settlement.

Sellers Hint: Everything is negotiable....price... furniture...settlement.

The contract will have a settlement date: this is sometimes an actual date, however more common is a number of days from the date of the contract. The date of the contract is the date when the agent receives the contract agreed on all terms and conditions and signed by both parties.
In Queensland settlements are often 30 - 45 days, where most other states are between 60 - 90 days.

If you decide to negotiate the contract you sign the contract with changes to price and or conditions return to the agent, the agent passes it on to the buyer, the buyer then has 3 choices, either to accept, reject or to choose to negotiate and so on.

This is really where your agent earns their salt.

After price and conditions are agreed the buyer pays a deposit (a sign of goodwill that they want the property) by law in Queensland the buyer has a 5 day cooling off period. The seller has no cooling off period.

A copy of the contract is sent to you, your solicitor, the buyers solicitor and the buyer. Your solicitor now takes over to work on your behalf and to transact settlement.

At settlement your solicitor pays all outstanding costs and fees works out credits for fees already paid and the outstanding monies are dispersed to you.