By Brendan Leahy, Naked Real Estate® 

I should say up front that I market myself too. I write these articles, I post on social media, and I have a commercial interest in you thinking well of me. So take what follows as an argument you should test against me as much as anyone else. 

I was at a kitchen table for an appraisal not long ago when the owner asked me something I am hearing more and more. 

“How many social media followers do you have?” 

I showed her, then asked why it mattered to her. Another agent had been through and told her he had around seven thousand followers across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. 

I understand why that sounds like something. Big following, big reach, more buyers, more competition, better price. That is the chain of reasoning and each link sounds sensible. 

The problem is the first link.

A follower is only worth something if they could buy your home 

Someone watching a property video in Sydney, London or Shanghai is not buying in Bedfordale, Roleystone, Kelmscott, Mount Nasura, Mount Richon or Seville Grove next weekend. 

That is not an argument against social media. Used properly it is a genuinely useful part of a campaign, and paid targeting, retargeting and database marketing can put your home in front of exactly the right people. 

It is an argument against treating an agent’s popularity as a selling strategy. 

I would rather have three hundred local followers who live here, know the market and watch what sells, than ten thousand who have no connection to the home. The goal is not attention. It is enquiries, inspections, offers and competition between buyers. 

Views do not pay the seller 

A video can get twenty thousand views and still fail. 

If those views produce no qualified enquiry, no private inspection, no buyer conversation and no offer, then the video helped the agent more than it helped the seller. It entertained the algorithm. 

Sellers do not get paid in likes. They get paid at settlement. 

So the question to put to any campaign is not how it performed as content. It is whether it created buyer competition for your property. 

I am not against video. We were early to it. 

We have been making property videos since 2013, back when most agents used video only on high-end homes. We made it standard because buyers look at video as closely as they look at photos. 

Video shows what photos cannot: how a home flows, how rooms connect, how the land is used, the outlook, the access, the sheds, the feel of standing in the place. Floor plans do the same job from a different angle. Buyers want to understand how a home works before they give up a Saturday to inspect it. 

And it does not need to be long. Most property videos should be a clear walkthrough that explains the home and makes the buyer want to see it, and past a few minutes you are usually not selling harder, you are asking more of the buyer’s attention than the job requires. Our videos from 2013 mostly ran between one and two minutes. That was deliberate then and it still holds. 

Good photos, video and floor plans all serve one purpose. Selling the home. 

Is the home the hero? 

This is the simplest test there is. Watch the video and ask who it is about. 

A good property video makes the right buyer understand the home and feel something about it. In the Hills that might be the usable land, the workshop access, the valley outlook, the quiet street, the fireplace, the privacy, the school run, the layout, or the specific reason a family would stretch to buy it. 

There is room for personality and there is room to be creative. Some homes suit it. But the property should not become the backdrop to somebody’s personal brand. 

Every one of our videos is captioned 

This sounds like a small thing. It is not. 

Plenty of buyers watch property videos with the sound off. At a desk at work having a quick look at what is open on the weekend. On the train home. On the couch with the television going. If your video only works with audio, those buyers get half of it. 

It still surprises me how many agents skip this. 

There is a second benefit. Search engines read captions, so an accurate caption file means the suburb, the street and the features of your home are indexed as text. Auto-generated captions are not good enough for that, because they routinely mishear street and suburb names, which are the exact words worth indexing. 

It costs a bit of time per video. It costs the seller nothing, and it works whether the buyer has the sound on or not. 

The numbers that actually matter 

When you are choosing an agent, ask about the numbers connected to a result rather than to an audience. 

How many enquiries did comparable properties attract? How many inspections, and how many second inspections? How many buyers were followed up, and how? How many offers were created? How was competition between them handled? How did the final price compare to the original guide? How many buyers missed out and are still looking? 

I will be straight with you: those are the numbers I am strong on, so of course I am pointing you at them, just as the agent leading with follower count is

pointing you at his. The difference I would ask you to weigh is which set of numbers actually ends up in your bank account. Marketing creates attention. Follow-up creates competition. Negotiation creates the result. An agent who is strong at the first and weak at the other two will produce a busy campaign and a disappointing number. 

Five questions worth asking 

If an agent leads with their following, ask these: 

1. How many of your followers are plausibly in the buyer pool for a home like mine? 
2. Will my property be marketed only to your followers, or targeted beyond them? 
3. In your campaigns, what matters more: views, enquiries, inspections or offers? 
4. Can you show me how a recent campaign turned attention into buyer action? 
5. In the video, will my home be the hero, or will you be? 

A good agent will not be offended by any of that. They should be able to answer all five without hesitating, and if they cannot, you have learned something useful for the price of asking. 

Frequently asked questions 

Do social media followers help sell a house? 

Only the followers who could actually buy your home in your area. Reach for its own sake does not pay the seller; a video seen by thousands of people with no connection to your suburb creates no competition. Local, targeted reach and proper follow-up matter far more than a big follower count. 

How do I choose a real estate agent in the Perth Hills? 

Judge them on numbers connected to results, not to an audience: enquiries, inspections, second inspections, offers created, how buyer competition was handled, and how final prices compared to the original guide. An agent strong on attention but weak on follow-up and negotiation produces a busy campaign and a disappointing price. 

Does video actually help sell property? 

Yes, when it is about the home. Good video shows what photos cannot, how a home flows, the land, the outlook, the access, and helps a buyer decide the property is worth inspecting. Captions matter too, because a lot of buyers watch with the sound off. The test is simple: is the home the hero, or is the agent? 

Is a longer property video better? 

Usually not. Past a few minutes you are generally asking more of a buyer’s attention than the job needs, though some properties, large acreage in particular, genuinely need the extra time to show the land and the outbuildings properly. A clear walkthrough that makes the buyer want to see the home in person does more than a long video that performs well as content but produces no enquiry. 

Selling in the Perth Hills or Foothills? 

If you are selling in Bedfordale, Roleystone, Kelmscott, Mount Nasura, Mount Richon or Seville Grove, do not choose an agent on a follower count. Ask how they will reach the buyers who could actually buy your home, and what they will do once those buyers put their hands up. 

That second part is where the money is. 

Book a free Perth Hills and Foothills property appraisal. If you want to see how we handle buyer competition once interest appears, read Auction vs Private Treaty vs Select Date Sale® and our Best Service Guarantee. 

Truth. Strategy. Sold. 

About the author: Brendan Leahy has been selling homes throughout the Perth Hills and Foothills since 2002, with more than 1,500 personal sales. Learn more about Brendan Leahy and the Naked Real Estate story.

By Brendan Leahy, Naked Real Estate®

Here is a Mount Nasura sale that still makes the point for me. The automated valuation said around $600,000 to $650,000. Another agent thought $700,000 was the ceiling. It sold for $835,000. Same house, three very different numbers, and I will come back to why below.

First, my interest: I sell property in Mount Nasura, so of course I would like you to pick up the phone. Take what follows with that in mind, and test it.

The biggest reason those three numbers were so far apart is the mistake almost everyone makes here: treating Mount Nasura as one market. It is not, and the differences sit inside a surprisingly small area. Older homes on smaller blocks closer to Armadale. Larger properties around 1,200 square metres and half-acre blocks. Homes looking across the valley. Homes with city and coastal plain views. Properties within walking distance of the hospital, the shops and the train station. And occasionally something that does not fit the Mount Nasura mould at all.

Which side of the hill you are on

A median cannot tell where you sit in the suburb. Buyers can, and it changes what they will pay.

The lower parts tend towards older homes on smaller blocks with excellent access to Armadale’s shops, the hospital and public transport. Move higher and both block sizes and housing styles change. On the southern side of Blackwood Drive and nearby, properties can have attractive valley outlooks. On the northern side, some homes look towards the city and the coastal plain, which is a genuinely different living environment from the west-facing outlook you get across much of the Darling Scarp. Around the eastern side towards Paterson Road, the outlook turns towards the Brookton Valley.

Before anyone walks through the front door, position within the suburb has already changed who the likely buyer is.

Find out what your property is worth by booking a free appraisal.

What moves the number here

Position within the suburb. Block size, slope and usability. City, coastal or valley views. Orientation. Sewer or septic. Age and condition. Renovations. Access. Proximity to the hospital, the shops and the train station. Schools. Outdoor living. Privacy. What else is currently on the market. And the type of buyer the property is likely to attract.

Then one more question that matters more than people expect: does this property fit the comparable sales at all?

The 320 square metre home that did not fit

The sale I opened with makes that point better than any explanation.

It was not on a half-acre block. It was not on 1,200 square metres. The original block had been subdivided and this home sat on roughly 320 square metres.

On paper that made it very hard to compare with most of the suburb. The automated valuation put it somewhere around $600,000 to $650,000. Another agent had been through and thought around $700,000 would probably be the ceiling.

I saw it differently.

The owners had designed the home around the smaller site and done it well. Two storeys, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and the presentation was as good as I have seen. The design worked with the block rather than apologising for it.

More importantly, there was a buyer for whom 320 square metres was not a compromise. Close to Armadale Hospital. Public transport nearby. Walking distance to the train station and the shopping centre. For someone who wanted a beautifully presented, low-maintenance home in the hills without a half-acre to manage, this offered something almost nothing else in the suburb did.

So I did not think we should price it by taking larger Mount Nasura homes and discounting for less land.

My recommendation was to go to market from $750,000.

Twenty-three groups, and no offer

We ran it as a Select Date Sale®. The first home open brought twenty-three groups through.

And no offer that weekend.

It is easy to tell property stories where everything lands in twenty-four hours. Real selling does not always work like that. We ran private viewings through the week and opened again the following weekend.

By Monday night we had six offers, running from about $750,000 up to the one the owners accepted at $835,000.

Set that against where we started. An automated estimate of roughly $600,000 to $650,000. Another agent’s ceiling of about $700,000. A sale at $835,000.

Was the algorithm wrong?

I want to be fair about this. An automated system can only work with the comparable sales available to it. If almost every property around this one is substantially different, what exactly is it supposed to compare against?

The computer was not stupid. The property did not fit the dataset.

A human appraisal could weigh things that do not reduce to bedrooms, bathrooms and land area. The design. The presentation. The low-maintenance proposition. The walkability. And most of all, the specific buyer who wanted that combination and could not find it anywhere else in the suburb.

Want to know the value of your Mount Nasura property? Book a free appraisal

Views are not a fixed dollar amount

A home with an uninterrupted outlook towards the city and the coastal plain is not automatically comparable with one two streets away without it. Same for the valley outlooks.

But I would not add a set figure for “views” either. What matters is which rooms have them, whether they can be built out, the orientation, whether the outdoor living actually uses them, the privacy, and how buyers respond when they physically stand there and look.

The location changes the buyer, not just the price

Proximity to Armadale Hospital is a good example. For some buyers that is enormously convenient and worth paying for. For others it is exactly what they are moving away from, because they want land and separation.

Neither buyer is wrong. They are different markets, and the job is working out who is likely to value what you actually have.

What the $835,000 does not mean

It does not mean everyone should renovate heavily before selling.

Those owners had built a home where design and presentation were fundamental to the whole proposition. On a different property, spending $100,000 before sale could be entirely wasted.

The question is never whether renovations will make the house nicer. Of course they will. The question is whether the buyers you are targeting will pay back more than you spend.

Let Brendan Leahy tell yu what your property is worth and put a strategy together to sell your Mount Nasura home

Frequently asked questions

What is the average property worth in Mount Nasura?

Averages give you context and not much else. The suburb contains enough variation in blocks, views, position and housing style that a median can be a poor guide to any individual property.

Do city views increase value in Mount Nasura?

They can. How much depends on the quality of the outlook, whether it is permanent, the orientation, and whether the home is designed to use it.

Does a smaller block reduce value?

Not necessarily by as much as people assume. A well-designed, low-maintenance home close to amenities can attract a buyer pool that larger properties in the same suburb do not reach.

Are online valuations accurate in Mount Nasura?

They work reasonably on standard properties with good comparable sales. They become unreliable when the land size, views, position or design fall outside the dataset.

How do I get my Mount Nasura property appraised?

Combine recent comparable sales with an inspection that considers the exact position, the outlook, the land, the improvements, the presentation and what else buyers can currently choose from.

About the author: Brendan Leahy has been selling homes throughout the Perth Hills and Foothills since 2002, with more than 1,500 personal sales. Learn more about Brendan Leahy and the Naked Real Estate story

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

By Brendan Leahy, Naked Real Estate®

I make my living selling Bedfordale property, so read this knowing I have an interest in you calling me. What I can offer in return is that the story below starts with me telling a seller not to spend more than $60,000 preparing her home for sale, because I did not believe she needed to.

If you want to know what your Bedfordale property is worth, start here: Bedfordale is not one market.

Two properties that look identical on paper can be worth very different money. Four bedrooms on five acres, both of them. One has five genuinely usable acres. The other is steep enough that only a fraction of it is practical. One has scheme water. The other runs on tanks, a bore and a dam. One has a proper workshop and good truck access. The other has a beautiful view and nowhere to put anything.

And sometimes the house is not the most valuable part of the property at all.

Why Bedfordale is hard to compare

There are several different Bedfordale markets sitting inside the one postcode.

Around Wallangarra and nearby, lifestyle and equestrian properties commonly sit on roughly three to six acres. Around Cairns Road, Carradine Road and the older rural parts, blocks run to ten acres and considerably more. Then there are the newer lifestyle estates, homes on roughly 3,000 to 4,000 square metres, often with scheme water and a modern build.

Those attract three different buyers with three different budgets and three different priorities.

Before I even walk through the house I am looking at how much of the land is genuinely usable, the slope, the access, the water and where it comes from, the sheds, the fencing, any equestrian infrastructure, the outlook and orientation, the privacy, bushfire considerations, the age and condition of the home, vehicle access, zoning, which pocket of Bedfordale it sits in, and what else buyers can choose from that month.

A suburb median knows none of that.

Find out how much your Bedfordale home is worth, ask for an appraisal

Does more acreage mean more money?

No. Usable acreage matters more than acreage.

Someone buying for horses will often pay more for level, well-fenced land with reliable water and good access than for a larger block that is steep and heavily treed. Another buyer wants the opposite, and will pay a premium for bushland, privacy and elevation.

Which is why price per acre is close to meaningless here. The land has to be understood in terms of what a buyer can actually do with it.

Water changes the number

Some Bedfordale properties have scheme water. Others run on tanks, bores, dams, or some combination.

Two otherwise similar properties can therefore be offering buyers completely different propositions. A good bore or a dam that does not run dry is genuinely valuable to someone keeping animals or establishing gardens.

But you cannot just tick a box marked bore. Capacity and reliability are the whole question.

Fifteen acres near Churchman Brook

One Bedfordale sale has stayed with me because of how far apart the opinions were.

I was asked to appraise about fifteen acres for a long-time owner. She and her husband had built the home roughly forty-five years earlier and it was still largely original. Dated kitchen, dated bathrooms, presentation that matched the era. She knew all of that.

Another agent had told her to spend more than $60,000 on the kitchen and bathrooms before going to market.

I told her not to touch it.

My reasoning was simple. Replace the kitchen and bathrooms and the rest of a forty-five year old house is still forty-five years old. Then what? Flooring. Paint. Lighting. Window treatments. Sixty thousand becomes a lot more, with no guarantee any of it comes back.

More to the point, I did not think the house was what would sell the property.

The land was. Close to Churchman Brook Dam, looking straight down the valley, north facing. For fifteen acres in Bedfordale it was unusually level and usable. Excellent water, including a good bore and a soak-fed dam that held through summer. And a genuine relationship between the home and the land, where you could sit in the kitchen, look through the French doors and see all the way down to the dam.

Rural zoning gave it appeal to buyers wanting animals, subject to the usual planning requirements.

Those were the things to sell. Not a new kitchen.

The appraisals were $400,000 apart

The automated valuation could not produce a meaningful figure, because it could not find enough comparable sales to work from.

The opinions she had from agents ranged from about $580,000 to close to $1 million. Same property. A gap of roughly $400,000.

I did not think anything over $900,000 was realistic in that market. But I also thought that focusing on the age of the house would badly undervalue what was actually rare about the place.

We launched with Select Date Sale® from $800,000, and the marketing led with the land, the water, the outlook and the position rather than pretending the house was something it was not.

It did not sell in the first weekend. It took about five weeks before an offer came in that she was happy to accept.

It sold for $897,000.

What I liked most was what happened after. The sale gave her enough to move into a riverfront unit in town. No more fifteen acres to look after, and a walk along the river every afternoon, which was the part she talked about.

Ask us for a free appraisal on your Bedfordale property’s value

Should you renovate before selling in Bedfordale?

Sometimes. Not automatically.

The question I ask is whether buyers will pay back more than you are about to spend.

Cleaning, gardens, maintenance and fixing obvious defects are usually worth doing and rarely cost much. Spending $60,000 or $100,000 because someone told you every house needs a new kitchen is a different proposition entirely.

Sometimes the buyer wants to renovate it themselves. Sometimes the value is in the land and the house is simply adequate. And sometimes a partial renovation makes everything you did not touch look worse by comparison.

It is a property by property decision.

Where online valuations struggle here

Automated valuations are not useless. In a suburb with hundreds of similar homes on similar blocks they have plenty to work with.

Bedfordale is not that suburb. An algorithm can read land size, bedrooms, bathrooms, sale history and nearby sales. It cannot tell you whether five acres are usable, whether the bore is any good, whether the workshop is worth anything, whether the access works for a truck and float, or how buyers react when they stand on the place.

Treat the estimate as information. It is not a strategy.

The better question

Start with the data. Look at recent sales and at what is competing for buyers right now. Then go past it and ask which of those sales are genuinely comparable, and what your property has that they did not.

After more than 1,500 personal sales since 2002, the properties that need the most judgement are always the unusual ones. Bedfordale has plenty. That is part of why people live here, and it is also why local knowledge matters when it comes time to sell.

Get the benefit of a local agent’s knowledge by requesting an appraisal now.

Frequently asked questions

How accurate are online property valuations in Bedfordale?

They are a starting point. Acreage, land usability, water, outlook and the sheer variety of Bedfordale property make automated comparison difficult, and in some cases the system cannot find enough comparable sales to produce a figure at all.

Does more acreage always mean higher value?

No. Usability, slope, access, water and buyer appeal usually matter more than the number of acres.

Should I renovate my Bedfordale home before selling?

Not automatically. The likely lift in price has to justify the cost, the time and the risk. Sometimes the land is the product and the house is not what buyers are paying for.

Do sheds and workshops add value?

They can, particularly when well built, accessible and relevant to the likely buyer. A shed that dominates the usable land can work against you.

Does a bore or dam increase value?

Reliable water is a genuine attraction on Bedfordale acreage, but it depends on capacity and reliability rather than simply having one.

How do I get an accurate Bedfordale appraisal?

Start with comparable sales, then assess what those sales cannot capture: land usability, water, outlook, improvements, position within the suburb and who is currently buying.

About the author: Brendan Leahy has been selling homes throughout the Perth Hills and Foothills since 2002, with more than 1,500 personal sales. Learn more about Brendan Leahy and the Naked Real Estate story

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

You have sold the house, settlement is getting close, and then somebody asks the question no one thought to settle properly at the start.

Does the dishwasher stay? What about the curtains, the television bracket, the garden shed, the security cameras, the pot plants, the bore equipment or the expensive light fitting in the dining room?

These questions sound minor until a buyer arrives after settlement and discovers something they reasonably expected to receive has disappeared.

After more than two decades and more than 1,500 personal sales, I can tell you most arguments over what stays and what goes are avoidable. The problem is usually not dishonesty. It is two people making different assumptions about the same item. If an item matters to either the buyer or the seller, put it in the contract. Do not rely on what seems obvious.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Whether a particular item is a fixture or
a chattel can depend on how it is attached, why it is attached, the contract wording and the
surrounding circumstances. If an item is valuable or disputed, obtain advice before signing.

The simple rule of thumb: turn the house upside down

One of the simplest ways agents are taught to explain fixtures and chattels is this. If you could turn the house upside down and shake it, whatever falls out is generally a chattel. Whatever stays attached is generally a fixture.

That is not the complete legal test, but it is a useful starting point. As a general rule, an item that is screwed, nailed, glued, concreted or otherwise permanently fixed to the home or land will usually be treated as a fixture, and things planted in the ground ordinarily remain with the land. An item that is free-standing and easily movable will usually be a chattel.

The trouble is the grey area. A dishwasher can be connected to plumbing and power but still be removable. A large shed can look permanent without being fixed to a slab. Curtains are removable, while their tracks are fixed. A television is movable, while its wall bracket may stay. That is why the rule of thumb helps, but the contract is what removes the doubt.

Fixtures usually stay; chattels usually go

WA Consumer Protection describes chattels as movable items that are not part of the land
or building, and fixtures as items fixed to or forming part of the property. Its guidance is that fixtures generally remain while chattels are removed, unless the contract says otherwise.

Common fixtures include fixed floor coverings, light fittings, built-in air conditioning, fixed mirrors, television aerials, permanently installed sheds and plants growing in the ground. Common chattels include rugs, free-standing furniture, removable appliances, pot plants and other loose items.

Those are only examples. The classification of a particular item can still depend on its method and purpose of attachment, which is exactly why the safest practice is to list any uncertain item clearly in the Offer and Acceptance.

What we put in every contract

To remove the most common arguments, every Offer and Acceptance we prepare includes wording to the effect that the offer includes all fixed floor coverings, window treatments, light fittings and the dishwasher in place.

If the seller wants to keep one of those, it is excluded in writing before the buyer signs. If the buyer expects an unusual movable item, it is included in writing. For a valuable appliance, the brand and model can be recorded too. Those few words save a lot of misunderstanding at settlement.

The contract beats the assumption

A seller can generally exclude an item that might otherwise stay, provided the exclusion is clear and accepted as part of the contract. A buyer can also negotiate for a movable item to be included. For example:

• Included in the sale: Bosch free-standing dishwasher, model ABC123.
• Excluded from the sale: dining-room pendant light. The seller will remove it before settlement and install a standard working light fitting in its place.

The more valuable or unusual the item, the more specific the wording should be.

The items that cause the most confusion

Dishwashers.

A fully integrated unit can look like part of the kitchen, while a free-standing one is easy to remove. WA guidance specifically identifies dishwashers as items to list, and our contracts include the dishwasher in place unless agreed otherwise.

Curtains, blinds and window treatments.

Tracks, rods and fitted blinds are attached to the building. Curtains themselves can usually be removed. Because expectations differ, our standard wording includes window treatments unless the contract states otherwise.

Televisions and wall brackets.

The television normally belongs to the seller unless expressly included. A fixed bracket may remain, and if it is being removed, agree what happens to any holes or damage.

Sheds, cubby houses, aviaries and animal enclosures.

This matters throughout the Perth Hills and Foothills. Some structures are concreted or fixed, others can be moved. If it appears in the marketing and matters to either side, identify it in the contract.

Solar panels, batteries and EV chargers.

Roof-mounted panels and permanently installed equipment ordinarily appear to form part of the property. The contract should also deal with any finance, lease, service agreement, cables, adaptors and account transfers.

Pool equipment.

Fixed pumps, filters and heating are different from loose cleaners, covers, rollers and accessories. List the removable equipment if the buyer expects to receive it.

Everything else follows the same logic, so record it rather than guess: fixed mirrors and
hung mirrors, sentimental light fittings, security cameras and smart-home hubs (including
the codes and accounts needed to run them), outdoor kitchens and pizza ovens, workshop
benches, statues, water features and established plants. If it matters to either side, one line
in the contract settles it.

A story from my first year in real estate

One of my earliest sales was a home in the Kelmscott hills. The sellers had come from England, and everything went smoothly through the contract and final inspection.

The property settled. Not long afterwards the buyer rang me and said, “Brendan, you had better come up here and have a look.”

When I arrived I could hardly believe it. The sellers had removed the carpets, curtains, blinds and light fittings. The home had been stripped back.

I called the seller and asked what had happened. His answer was completely genuine: “What do you mean? That is what we do in England.”

He honestly believed he had done the right thing. I had to explain that this was Western Australia, and more importantly, the contract specifically included the fixed floor coverings, window treatments and light fittings. They had to be returned and properly reinstalled.

Fortunately the buyer was easy-going and could see the funny side once it was explained. The sellers arranged for the items to be put back by qualified people, and it was resolved. The lesson was not that anybody was dishonest. It was that assumptions change from country to country, and person to person, and the contract is there to make the expectation clear.

A much more expensive lesson about internet advice

A later sale was not so easy.

The seller had a stove and oven that formed part of the property and were included in the sale. We explained repeatedly that they were fixtures under the contract and could not simply be removed.

By that stage, though, the seller had started relying on advice from online forums. It did not seem to matter what the agent or the other professionals said. She had found people online telling her what she believed she was entitled to do, and she made up her own mind.

When the buyer’s building inspector attended and took his normal photographs, the report showed the stove and oven had been dismantled and left in pieces, with the gas connection cut. The matter had to move into the legal channel before settlement. The appliances had to be reinstated properly, and the delayed settlement exposed the seller to default interest under the contract.

That is where it gets expensive. On a seven-figure sale, with an outstanding balance well over a million dollars, default interest adds up fast. The 2022 Joint Form sets default interest at 9 per cent a year, calculated daily, though the form is updated from time to time and the rate that applies should always be confirmed against the current contract. On an outstanding balance of around 1.3 million, 9 per cent works out to roughly 320 dollars a day. A delay of a couple of weeks can add several thousand dollars, before any legal and trade costs on top.

The lesson is not “never use the internet.” It is that general online advice does not know your signed contract, your property or the facts of your transaction. Licensed agents, settlement agents and property lawyers are not infallible, but they are dealing with the actual transaction in front of them. Where the agent, settlement agent and lawyer are all telling you the same thing, an anonymous online opinion should not override the contract you signed.

Advertising photographs do not decide what is included

Buyers sometimes assume everything in the marketing photographs will remain. That is unsafe. Photographs normally show furniture, artwork, rugs, lamps, outdoor furniture, pot plants and decorative items that belong to the seller.

Marketing photographs do not, by themselves, reliably establish what is included in the sale. The contract is what identifies inclusions and exclusions. At the same time, advertising must still accurately represent the property and should not create a misleading impression about a significant feature that will be removed. If a major feature shown in the campaign is going to be removed, the safest approach is to declare it before offers are made.

What sellers should do before launching

Before photography and home opens, walk through the property with your agent and identify anything you intend to take that a buyer may reasonably think belongs to the property: sentimental light fittings, curtains and custom window treatments, dishwashers and appliances, wall-mounted televisions and brackets, security and smart-home equipment, sheds and enclosures, pool equipment, workshop benches, EV charging equipment, statues, water features and established plants.

Where practical, remove or replace the item before the photography. That is cleaner than presenting the home with an attractive feature and announcing later that the buyer does not receive it.

What buyers should do before making an offer

During the inspection, ask one question: what do I expect to still be here when I receive the
keys? If something matters, tell the agent before the offer is written. A verbal conversation is not a substitute for clear contract wording. Pay particular attention to window treatments, the dishwasher and appliances, TV brackets and fixed mirrors, security and smart-home equipment, sheds and outdoor structures, pool equipment, bore, rainwater and reticulation equipment, solar and EV charging, and any valuable plants or garden features.

Keys, garage remotes and access devices must be handed over

The sale is not complete in a practical sense if the buyer receives the house but cannot properly access or operate it. The Joint Form of General Conditions deals with the handover of keys and relevant remotes or access devices, and “access device” is defined to include keys, security devices and the codes for any security system. Sellers should collect and hand over everything reasonably required to enter and use the property, subject to the
exact contract terms: front, rear and side-door keys, security-screen keys, mailbox keys, shed and workshop keys, garage-door and gate remotes, and alarm fobs, access cards and relevant codes.

Brendan’s tip for sellers: create a settlement box

As soon as the property goes under offer, start a small box or drawer for everything that needs to stay with the home: all keys and labelled spares, garage and gate remotes, alarm fobs and access cards, instruction manuals, warranties and service records, smart-home reset or transfer instructions, spare remote batteries, and any agreed equipment or accessories. By settlement day everything is in one place, and there is no frantic search through packed boxes.

Brendan’s tip for buyers: change the locks after settlement

This is not a legal requirement, but I recommend it to almost every buyer. Once the property has settled, consider having a locksmith re-key the external locks. The first reason is convenience. Older homes often have a different key for every door, and a locksmith can frequently change the barrels so one or two keys operate the whole home. The second is security. You do not know how many copies of the old keys exist, or who may still have one. Previous owners may have given keys to relatives, neighbours, tradespeople, cleaners or house sitters over many years. Re-keying means you know exactly who can access your new home. As a rough guide it is commonly around 300 to 600 dollars depending on the number and type of locks, so get a current locksmith quote rather than treating that as fixed pricing.

What happens if something disappears before settlement?

The final inspection is your chance to check the property remains in the required condition and the seller has complied with the contract. If something is missing:

1. Record exactly what is missing or altered.
2. Take photographs where appropriate.
3. Do not argue at the property.
4. Notify the settlement agent and selling agent in writing.
5. Let the settlement agents deal with it under the contract.

Depending on the item and the contract, the solution might be its return, replacement, repair of removal damage, an agreed settlement adjustment or legal advice. A missing item does not automatically entitle a buyer to cancel settlement. The contract and the seriousness of the breach matter.

Five practical things to do on settlement day

1. Confirm all keys, remotes, fobs and access codes have been received.
2. Walk through the home and confirm the agreed inclusions are present.
3. Photograph the electricity, gas and water meter readings for your records.
4. Confirm utility and internet arrangements.
5. Book a locksmith to re-key the external locks.

Frequently asked questions

Does the dishwasher stay when you sell a house in WA?

It depends on the contract. WA guidance specifically flags dishwashers as items to list, because an integrated unit can look built-in while a free-standing one is easy to remove. Our contracts include the dishwasher in place unless it is expressly excluded, so the safest thing is to have it written in either way.

Do curtains and blinds stay when you sell in WA?

Curtain tracks, rods and fitted window treatments may appear to form part of the property, while curtains and some blinds can be readily removed. WA Consumer Protection actually lists curtains and blinds among its examples of chattels, and recommends identifying window fittings in the contract because expectations can differ. Our contracts include window treatments unless they are expressly excluded, which removes the argument before it starts.

Can a seller remove fixtures before settlement?

A seller can keep an item that might otherwise stay only if it is clearly excluded in the contract and accepted before the buyer signs. Removing a fixture that the contract includes is a breach, and it can lead to reinstatement, an adjustment, delayed settlement and default interest.

What is the difference between a fixture and a chattel?

A fixture is attached to or forms part of the property and generally stays. A chattel is a movable item that is not part of the land or building and generally goes. The rule of thumb: shake the house, what falls out is usually a chattel, what stays attached is usually a fixture. The contract settles anything uncertain.

The bottom line

The legal difference between a fixture and a chattel matters. But the best transaction is not the one where somebody wins an argument about it after settlement. It is the one where the argument never happens.

If the seller wants to keep it, exclude it in writing. If the buyer expects to receive it, include it in writing. One extra line in the Offer and Acceptance can save days of stress, damaged goodwill, trade costs, default interest and legal expense over an item worth a fraction of the property itself.

After more than 1,500 personal sales, my advice is simple: never assume the other side sees an item the same way you do. Put it in the contract.

If you are buying or selling in the Perth Hills or Foothills and want the process explained in plain English before you sign, get in touch.

To help you, please feel free to download our property sale checklist

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

About the author: Brendan Leahy has been selling homes across the Perth Hills and
Foothills since 2002, with more than 1,500 personal sales.

This article is general information only and is not legal advice. The classification of an item
and the remedies available may depend on the method and purpose of attachment, the
contract wording and the particular circumstances. Speak with your settlement agent or
property lawyer if an item is valuable, disputed or unclear