Your Home Has Sold. What’s Next?

The auction hammer has fallen and you’ve achieved a fantastic sale price for your home, congratulations! But what’s next? The work doesn’t stop once the home sells, there’s plenty to do in preparation for settlement and to actually move out of your home. So, where do you begin?

The conveyancing process will have already commenced prior to the sale of your home, which is the transfer of legal ownership of the property from you to the buyer. This can only be done by a licensed solicitor or conveyancer, as they need to prepare a contract of sale for the property for both parties to sign. This includes details of the owners, the land title, settlement dates, all conditions of the sale, what’s included in it and the zoning and council drawings. Once the home is sold, both parties will sign a copy of the contract of sale and exchange documents to make the sale legally binding. Then you wait for settlement day.

If you hold a mortgage on the property you’ve just sold, you’ll need to arrange payment of the outstanding loan amount before settlement takes place or refinance to drawn down more money for your new home purchase. This can take time as banks need time to process all the documentation, so your mortgage broker can manage this for you in collaboration with your solicitor or conveyancer. It’s a fairly straightforward process, but it’s important to start the process as early as you can. If you’ve bought a new home before selling your existing home, a bridging loan will be required to pay the mortgage on both if each home’s settlement period falls at different times.

As you wait for settlement day, you’ll need to prepare to move out of the home. Moving is an overwhelming thought, particularly if you’ve lived in your home for many years, so it can be an emotional time as well. It’s important to ensure you leave yourself enough time to properly declutter, get rid of unwanted furniture, pack up your belongings, and book movers prior to settlement. It all comes down to planning things out well in advance, packing up each room at a time, and leaving yourself enough time to vacate the home completely by the day of settlement. You’ll also need to ensure you have cancelled your home and contents insurance for the property you’ve sold, as well as having new policies in place for your newly purchased home prior to moving in, and disconnecting utilities on the day you move out.

On settlement day, you will receive the payment for your home and notified once the balance transfer has happened. You’ll then need to sign any outstanding paperwork, and hand over the keys to your property to the real estate agent and vacate your property for the new owners to have access to.

While selling your home is a fantastic achievement, it’s still important to dot your I’s and cross your T’s in the lead up to settlement, both with the official paperwork and with your plans to move out of the home. Being organised and preparing things well in advance will ensure the sale of your home goes smoothly once the auction is complete, and Bayside Real Estate Advocates can help you with the process. Get in touch with us today to chat about selling your home in 2025.

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