By Brendan Leahy, Naked Real Estate®

Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest financial decisions most people ever make. Yet the document that controls the whole thing is often the one people understand the least.

In Western Australia, almost every residential sale is done using an Offer and Acceptance contract, usually just called the O and A. If you have spoken to friends or family in the eastern states, their buying process probably sounded completely different. That is because it is.

I have sold more than 1,500 properties across more than two decades in the same handful of suburbs. In that time I have watched the same misunderstandings cost people money and sleep, almost always because nobody explained the process in plain English before they signed. This is my attempt to do that.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Every transaction is different. If you are unsure about your rights or obligations, get independent legal advice before you sign anything.

Why Western Australia is different

There is a common belief that WA works differently because we have a different land title system. That is not really the case. Australia’s registered land systems are predominantly based on the Torrens model, which began in South Australia in 1858 and was adopted across the country. Each state and territory has its own legislation and procedures, but WA’s simpler contracting process is not explained by a fundamentally different system of land ownership. It is explained by how the sale is put together and who does what.

What actually makes WA simpler is how the sale is put together and who does what:

• In WA, the real estate agent commonly prepares the standard Offer and Acceptance contract and negotiates it between buyer and seller.
• Once both parties agree on the terms, the contract is signed and acceptance is communicated. At that point it is binding.
• After that, a separately licensed settlement agent, or a lawyer, handles the settlement, which is the legal transfer of the property.

In much of the eastern states, a solicitor or conveyancer is involved much earlier, often preparing the contract and a stack of disclosure documents before the property is even advertised. That front-loading is a big part of why their process feels heavier.

WA has a dedicated licensed settlement agent profession that takes over once the contract is formed. That is the practical difference, and it is why selling here can feel refreshingly straightforward.

I will be straight about the flip side of that, because it matters. A simpler process for the transaction also means more of the responsibility sits with you before you sign. That is the honest trade, and the rest of this article is really about how to carry that responsibility well.

The two documents that make up the contract

Most people think they are signing one document. In reality the standard WA contract is usually made up of:

• The Offer and Acceptance (the O and A)
• The Joint Form of General Conditions
• Any annexures
• Any special conditions

The O and A is the part everyone looks at. The Joint Form of General Conditions is just as important, because it carries a large part of the legal rights and obligations that are not written on the front page. Most people never read it. You do not have to read every clause, but you should understand it exists and that it forms part of your agreement.

You can view the standard forms here by clicking on the respective PDF icons below

Offer and Acceptance Form	Joint Form of General Conditions

*** Please note that the documents linked above are used with permission. Copyright REIWA ***

Page one: the scheduleThe first page holds the commercial terms:

• Property address
• Purchase price
• Deposit
• Settlement date
• Finance details, if any
• Chattels included in the sale
• Buyer and seller details

It looks simple. It is not. Every completed part of that page can affect the parties’ legal rights and practical obligations, and a small error, even a misspelled name, can cause real problems at settlement.

One decision buyers make without realising it: how you hold the title

Look at the first page of the contract and you will see three boxes: sole owner, joint tenants, or tenants in common. If you are buying with someone else, which one you tick matters enormously, and a lot of people tick it without being told what it means.

If you are buying a home with your partner, it is normally done as joint tenants. In simple terms, you both own the whole property together. If one of you passes away, the property automatically stays with the surviving owner. It happens by law and does not depend on what a will says.

Tenants in common works differently. Here, each owner holds a defined share, and those shares do not have to be equal. If one owner passes away, their share does not automatically go to the others. It is dealt with according to their will.

That difference makes tenants in common a useful structure in some situations. Say you are helping one of your children into a property. You might hold it as tenants in common with a third each to you, your partner, and your child. If something later happens to one owner, their third is dealt with by their will, not simply absorbed by the others. It can also offer your child some protection. If they buy with a partner down the track and that relationship later ends, their defined share is the share in play, not the whole home. Sadly that situation comes up more often than it used to.

Blended families are another common reason. If you and your partner each have children from earlier relationships, tenants in common lets each of you leave your own share to your own children through your will.

This is one of those decisions that is simple to tick and hard to unwind. Before you decide how to hold the title, get legal advice, and speak to your accountant too, because there can be tax and estate consequences that are not obvious at the time.

When the contract becomes binding

This is the single most important thing to understand about buying and selling in WA.

The signed O and A becomes a binding contract once acceptance is communicated to the buyer. Not when the deposit is paid. Not after a few days of thinking it over. When acceptance is communicated.

And there is no cooling-off period in Western Australia. Once you are in a binding contract, you are in it. The only way out is through the conditions written into the contract itself, and if all of those are satisfied, you are committed to settling.

Be honest with yourself about what that means. There is no cooling-off period to fall back on if you get cold feet, and WA has no mandatory vendor statement handed to you before you commit the way some states do. That is not a reason to be nervous. It is a reason to do your homework, ask your questions, and get your advice before you sign, not after. It is a very different world to the eastern states, and we will come back to it.

Why the deposit still matters

Here is something that surprises people. The deposit does not create the contract.The contract is formed when acceptance is communicated. The deposit is then payable under that existing contract, usually within a set number of days. If a buyer fails to pay it on time, they are not tearing up a contract that never existed. They are in breach of one that already does.

That is why, when something goes wrong, one of the first questions a settlement agent or lawyer asks is whether the deposit has been paid. The answer tells them whether the buyer is already in default, whether a notice can be issued, and how much money is sitting in trust.So while the deposit does not form the contract, it does several important jobs:

• It shows the buyer is committed.
• It is held in trust and gives the seller security.
• It forms part of the purchase price at settlement.
• If the buyer defaults, it may be forfeited under the contract.

On that last point, there is a rule worth knowing. A deposit of up to 10 percent is a standard and recognised genuine deposit that a seller can keep if the buyer defaults. Push much beyond that and a court may treat the excess as a penalty and refuse to enforce it. Ten percent is the standard for a reason.

Finance, cash and subject-to-sale offers

One of the most common conditions in a WA contract is finance approval. If finance is included, the contract will usually name the lender or broker, the amount required, and the date by which finance must be approved.

The wording of a finance clause matters more than people think. “Subject to finance” is not a simple phrase. Whether a buyer can walk away, and whether a seller can end the contract, depends on exactly what the clause says and whether the buyer has met their obligations under it.

A cash offer removes that whole layer of risk, which is part of why a clean cash offer can be so attractive to a seller even when it is not the highest number on the table. For more information, please see our ‘Subject to Sale’ guide.

Building and pest inspections are not automatic

This one catches a lot of first home buyers.

A building inspection is not automatically included in a WA contract. Neither is a timber pest inspection. If you want either, you generally need to have a proper condition included before your offer is accepted.

Once the seller has accepted, you cannot simply decide you would now like to add a building inspection or a longer finance period. Any change after that needs both parties to agree. If you want a protection in the contract, ask for it before you sign, not after.

Why the selling agent cannot choose your protections for you

There is a reason your seller’s agent will not build your offer’s protections for you, and it is worth understanding.

I act for the seller. The seller is my client, so I cannot advise a buyer which conditions to include, or design an offer around the buyer’s interests. I can explain what the standard parts of the form do, and I can accurately record the terms a buyer instructs me to put forward. But deciding what legal protections a buyer needs is a matter for the buyer and their own settlement agent or lawyer. While the real estate agent acts strictly for the seller and cannot provide legal or strategic advice to the buyer or design conditions for the buyer’s benefit, the agent remains legally bound to act with honesty, fairness, and accurate disclosure toward all parties.

None of that means I get to play you. I will always be straight with you and I will never mislead you. But I am not your representative in the deal, and you should not expect me to be. That is not a gap in the service. It is the same single-minded representation you would want on your own side the day you are the one selling.

Which is why my best advice to any buyer is simple. If you are in any doubt about a condition, or about anything you are signing, speak to your own settlement agent or solicitor before the offer is written, not after. Once your offer is accepted there is no cooling-off period in Western Australia and no easy way to add a protection you left out. The time to get that advice is before you sign, and the call costs you very little.

What we have to tell you, and what you should ask

People from the eastern states often assume that because WA has no vendor disclosure statement, there is no disclosure here at all. That is wrong, and it is worth understanding properly.

Two duties sit over every sale. Agents must not mislead buyers, and they may be required to disclose known facts that would be material to a buyer’s decision, even where the seller would prefer the information not to be raised. Alongside that sits the Australian Consumer Law, which says we cannot engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive. The second duty is broader than most people realise.

In WA this is not just general law that applies to everyone. The Code of Conduct that agents work under here spells out that an agent must act honestly and must not engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive, and that Code is legally enforceable under WA’s real estate regulatory framework. So the duty to be straight with you is written into the rules of my licence, not only into consumer law generally.

Under that law, you do not have to intend to mislead someone to be caught by it. The test is the effect on the buyer, judged by what a reasonable person would take from it, not whether the agent meant any harm. And conduct can mislead by silence or by omission, by leaving something out that creates a false impression, not only by an outright false statement, where the circumstances reasonably called for it to be disclosed.

Here is the kind of thing that catches agents out. A home is advertised as exceptionally quiet, a whisper quiet cul-de-sac with photos of a peaceful backyard, while a nearby source of substantial and regular noise, say a main flight path, is knowingly left out. Depending on the circumstances, advertising the peace while withholding the noise can create a misleading overall impression, and that can expose the agent to a compensation claim from the buyer and to action from the regulator. “It was just a turn of phrase” is not much of a defence, because the test is the impression the advertising created, not what was intended.

Consumer Protection WA gives an even plainer example of the same idea: advertising “beachfront lots” for land that does not actually front the beach. If the words paint a picture the property does not match, that is misleading, no matter how it was meant.

Direct questions work the same way. If a buyer asks me straight out whether a home is under the flight path, I cannot tell them no when the answer is yes. If the seller has told us about an easement on the title, asbestos, an unapproved structure, or something that is not in working order, that gets disclosed in writing too.

A common example is an unapproved structure. Say a previous owner built a granny flat or a large patio without council approval. We disclose in the contract that the structure is unapproved, so the buyer goes in with their eyes open. But disclosure is not the end of it. An unapproved structure can still carry an obligation with the local council that a contract clause does not make disappear. So we disclose it, and we tell the buyer plainly to make their own enquiries with the council and their settlement agent about what it means for them before they commit.

What the law does not do is turn your seller’s agent into your adviser, or ask us to guess at things we do not know. So the responsibility runs both ways. We will declare what we are required to declare, and we will answer your questions honestly. You should ask your questions, all of them, and get your own advice from your settlement agent or solicitor before you sign. Never assume that not asking is the same as there being nothing to find.

How special conditions work

The standard contract covers most ordinary sales. Special conditions deal with everything else, and this is where each transaction becomes unique.

Special conditions can address almost any lawful matter the buyer and seller agree on. But “almost anything” is not “anything.” A special condition still has to be lawful, clear, capable of being carried out, and consistent with the rest of the contract. Careless wording is where disputes are born.

One point that trips up even some agents. The Joint Form of General Conditions applies except where it is varied by the special conditions. That means a special condition can deliberately override a general condition, which is fine when it is done on purpose and clearly. Where a special condition is intended to alter or replace a standard general condition in the Joint Form of General Conditions, the special condition should explicitly state which standard clause is being varied or overridden, to prevent contractual ambiguity. The danger is the accidental contradiction, where it is unclear which clause was meant to win. That is where deals fall over.

A good special condition answers four questions:

• What has to happen?
• Who has to do it?
• By when?
• What happens if it does not?

Get those four right and the condition protects everyone. Get them wrong and it creates the exact fight it was meant to prevent. When a condition is unusual or commercially serious, it is worth having a property lawyer draft or review the wording.

The strangest condition I have ever written

After more than 1,500 sales, you see some unusual requests.

One stands out.A buyer wanted the property to settle at exactly 11:45 in the morning on a particular day, because in her belief that was the moment the moon and stars aligned and the home would bring her peace. Normally that might sound far fetched. But contracts are not there to judge why people want things. They are there to document what has been agreed.

The seller was happy to accommodate it. The risk was obvious though. If the buyer did anything to delay settlement, by their own actions, the exact time could be missed. So we tied the deposit directly to the settlement timing obligation. Both parties agreed that if the buyer caused settlement not to occur as agreed, the deposit was at risk. It was a standard ten percent deposit and a cash purchase with no finance involved, so the chance of an outside delay was very low.The property settled exactly as agreed. The lesson is not that unusual conditions are a good idea. It is that a condition does not have to be common. It has to be clear, and for anything this specific, drafted with care and ideally a lawyer’s eye. It is worth being plain about the risk, too. Specifying a settlement time down to the exact minute creates real practical and legal risk under modern electronic conveyancing, where administrative and banking delays of minutes or hours are common. Trying to trigger an automatic forfeiture of a 10 percent deposit over a minor timing delay is vulnerable to challenge as an unenforceable penalty, particularly since standard contract terms require default notices and cure periods before termination.

Why more conditions usually means a weaker offer

Buyers often assume that adding conditions makes their offer safer, and therefore stronger. Usually the opposite is true.

Every extra condition is another way the contract can fall over, and sellers know it. Imagine two offers at the same price:

• Offer A: finance, building inspection, timber pest inspection, subject to the sale of another property, and an extended settlement.
• Offer B: finance only.

All other things being reasonably equal, most sellers will take Offer B. Not because the price is better, but because there are fewer ways for it to collapse.

That does not mean strip out protections you actually need. It means every condition should earn its place. A seller comparing offers is not only weighing the price. They are weighing finance risk, inspection risk, settlement timing, the size of the deposit, and how many ways the buyer could walk. The cleanest offer often wins, even when it is not the highest.

A warning most sellers never hear

Here is one that has caught good people out over the years.

If you are selling in order to buy your next home, and you need finance to buy that next place, sort your finance out and get your approval in hand before you sign a contract to sell.

I have seen sellers accept an offer, then discover they cannot get the finance to buy their onward property, and try to pull out. Unfortunately the contract does not work that way. As long as the buyer keeps meeting their obligations through to settlement, the seller cannot terminate simply because their own next purchase has fallen through. The finance clause protects the buyer. There is no equivalent escape hatch for a seller who has not sorted their own funding.

Accepting an offer is a commitment. Make sure your side of the puzzle is in place before you make it.

This touches on financial matters. Speak to your bank, broker or financial adviser about your own situation before you commit.

How WA compares to the rest of Australia

The table below is a general guide to a typical residential private-treaty sale in each state and territory. Processes vary within each jurisdiction, so treat it as a starting picture, not a rule for your own transaction. The biggest practical differences are when a contract becomes binding, whether there is a cooling-off period, and how much disclosure and legal preparation happens before you sign.

Cooling-off figures below were current as at July 2026. These rules change, so check the current position for your state before relying on them.

Two things stand out from that table for anyone used to the eastern states.

First, cooling-off. Most eastern jurisdictions give a buyer a few days to change their mind after signing a private treaty sale. WA does not. Here, once your offer is accepted and acceptance is communicated, you are bound.

Second, and this is the part people rarely connect, that lack of cooling-off is part of what makes auctions attractive over east. In states where private-treaty buyers ordinarily receive cooling-off rights, those rights generally do not apply at auction. An auction therefore gives the seller an unconditional contract with no cooling-off period once the property is knocked down to the successful bidder. That is one practical attraction of auctions in those markets, alongside others like market culture, competition and local pricing customs. WA already provides no general statutory cooling-off period on an ordinary private-treaty contract, so we reach that same certainty without needing an auction to get it, although auction and private-treaty sales still differ in other ways.

Disclosure is the other divide. Victoria has its section 32 statement, South Australia it’s Form 1, and Queensland now has a mandatory seller disclosure regime. WA has no universal vendor disclosure statement of that kind. As covered earlier, sellers and agents here still have a real duty to disclose known material facts and to avoid misleading conduct, but the process carries less compulsory paperwork before signing.

This catches people from interstate, and it catches people from overseas even more. If you have bought a home in England, the United States, or anywhere else, the process there almost certainly worked differently again. Different contract, different protections, different timing. That is the point worth holding onto. Whatever you are used to, at home or interstate, do not assume it carries over here. Western Australia has its own way of doing things, and the smartest thing any buyer from outside the state can do is treat the WA process as new, ask how it works, and get local advice before signing rather than after. That is not a criticism of how it is done anywhere else. It is simply the reality of buying here.

Final thoughts

The Offer and Acceptance contract is far more than paperwork. It records the agreement between buyer and seller. Every figure, every date, every condition, every obligation.

In Western Australia, that agreement becomes binding the moment acceptance is communicated, with no cooling-off period to fall back on. That makes understanding the contract before signing especially important in WA.

After more than two decades and more than 1,500 sales, I can tell you that most contract problems do not happen because someone was dishonest. They happen because someone did not fully understand what they were agreeing to before they signed.

If you are buying or selling in the Perth Hills and you would like someone to walk you through the process in plain English before you sign anything, get in touch. Happy to help.

This article provides general information only and is not legal, financial or tax advice. For advice on your specific situation, speak to a qualified professional.

The post How the Offer and Acceptance Process Works in Western Australia (and Why It Is Different to the Rest of Australia) appeared first on Naked Real Estate: Real Estate Agency Perth, WA.

For most buyers, the final inspection is one of the most exciting parts of buying a home. Settlement is only days away, the paperwork is nearly done, and before long you will be collecting the keys. 

It is also the stage where small misunderstandings can create unnecessary stress. The good news is that a final inspection is a very simple process once you understand what it is actually for. 

What a final inspection is 

A final inspection is not another home open, and it is not another building inspection. 

Its purpose is narrow and specific: to let the buyer confirm that the seller has met their obligations under the contract before settlement. In plain terms, that the property is in the same state and condition it was in when you agreed to buy it, and that the things the seller warranted to be in working order actually are. 

Under the Joint Form of General Conditions used in Western Australia, the buyer is entitled to one inspection within five business days before the possession date, and the seller must give access for it. The inspection has to take place on a business day between 9am and 4pm. The buyer may be accompanied by two other people, so three of you in total.

There is also a second inspection right that many people do not know about. If your first inspection turns up something the seller has to put right under the contract, you can give notice of it, and you are entitled to one further inspection to check that it has been fixed before possession.

In most cases the inspection takes about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the home. 

The defining thing: warranted services and equipment, not plug-in items 

Here is the point buyers most often get wrong. The inspection is about the services and equipment the seller has actually warranted, the electrical, gas and plumbing systems, hard-wired appliances, and the fixed and included items listed in the contract. It generally does not extend to things that are simply plugged into a power point, or to the buyer’s own belongings, or to cosmetic matters. 

• So you are there to check things like: 
• Lights and power points work. 
• The hot water system works. 
• The oven, cooktop and rangehood work (oven lights and rangehood lights are usually excluded). 
• Hard-wired air conditioning operates. 
• Toilets flush and do not leak. 
• Taps run freely and there are no obvious leaks under the sinks. 
• The garage door works. 
• Gas appliances that are included operate. 
• A dishwasher, if it is included in the sale. 
• Where the home runs on a bore or rainwater, the pressure pump and water supply work. Septic systems and leach drains, where the home has them. 

Many Western Australian contracts include a Limited Warranty Annexure, under which the seller warrants that these listed items are in working order at settlement unless the contract says otherwise. That annexure is the backstop for exactly which items are covered, and it is worth reading before you inspect so you know what you are entitled to check. That list is broader than just the mains-connected services, which is why “warranted items” is the right way to think about it rather than “mains.”

What a final inspection is not 

This is where people get confused. 

It is not a chance to decide whether you still like the house. It is not the time to start picking at cosmetic things that were already there when you first inspected. You are generally not there to raise: 

• Small cracks that were already visible. 
• The pitch of the driveway. 
• The way the tiles were laid. 
• Minor wear and tear. 
• Leaves that blew into the gutters overnight. 
• Anything else that was part of the property when you decided to buy it. 

Remember, you are not buying a brand-new home. Many homes throughout the Perth Hills and Foothills are 40, 50, even 100 years old. Older homes have character, quirks and signs of age. Those things do not suddenly become contractual issues because settlement is close. The standard is simple: the home should be in the same state and condition it was in when you agreed to buy it. 

One lesson I have never forgotten 

Years ago I sold a lovely home in the hills to a young couple. They loved it. Before they made their offer, the buyer’s mother and stepfather looked through it and were very happy. 

Come the final inspection, though, another family member turned up who had not been involved in the purchase at all. Within minutes he was pointing out leaves in the gutters, complaining the driveway was too steep, and finding fault with all sorts of things that had never been raised before. 

By the end of it the young buyer looked deflated. He genuinely felt he had made a terrible mistake. The reality was that nothing had changed. The home was exactly what he had agreed to buy. It was simply a case of someone else’s opinions overshadowing what should have been one of the happiest days of his life. 

Family and friends almost always mean well. But too many opinions at the final inspection can create doubts where there were none. 

If you find something that genuinely needs attention

Occasionally something real does turn up. If it does, do not argue with the seller and do not try to negotiate in the driveway. Do not try to sort out who is right or wrong on the spot. 

Make a note of it and email it to both your settlement agent and your selling agent. Your settlement agent will deal with the seller’s settlement agent, and the matter gets handled under the terms of the contract. That process protects both sides and takes the emotion out of it. 

Sellers have responsibilities too 

The final inspection is not only about buyers. 

If you are selling and you know something has stopped working before settlement, do not hope nobody notices. This is not the moment to say the air conditioner has not worked for years, or that the hallway light stopped working, or that the bore pump failed last week. 

If those items are covered by the contract or the warranty you have given, they generally need to be repaired before settlement, or the parties agree an appropriate price adjustment through their settlement agents. It is almost always easier to organise repairs before the inspection than to scramble for tradespeople in the last few days. 

My advice to every seller 

Before the final inspection, have an electrician go through the home. Make sure every light and every power point works and the hard-wired appliances operate. It is a small cost that removes a lot of last-minute stress. 

Before settlement, sellers should make sure the property complies with Western Australia’s smoke alarm and RCD laws. In most residential sales that means compliant mains-powered smoke alarms that are in working order and less than 10 years old, together with the required RCD protection on the power and lighting circuits. If you are not sure whether your property complies, have a licensed electrician check it well before the final inspection. 

One myth worth clearing up. Selling an older home does not mean every hard-wired appliance, the oven, the air conditioner, the hot water system, has to be put on an RCD. That broader requirement applies to new electrical work, not to every existing house at the point of sale. A licensed electrician can tell you exactly what your home needs, and it is often less than people fear. 

WA law does not require an electrical compliance certificate, but I recommend getting one anyway. It is independent evidence that the smoke alarms and RCDs were checked before settlement, and it protects you if a question is ever raised later.

A note for hills properties 

Selling throughout Bedfordale, Roleystone, Mount Richon and the Kelmscott hills often involves equipment that many city homes do not have. If the property relies on a rainwater tank, a pressure pump, a household bore, a septic system or similar, those systems are part of how the home runs. If they are included in the sale, the buyer is entitled to expect them to be working at settlement. 

That includes the bore. If a home is sold with a working bore, the seller cannot say at the last minute that it stopped working a few weeks ago and leave it there. It needs to be repaired before settlement, or an adjustment made so the buyer can sort it afterwards. 

Do not expect a display home 

By the time you do your final inspection, the sellers are usually in the middle of moving. There may be boxes stacked everywhere, furniture already gone, cupboards empty. The home may not look as neat as it did at the home open. That is completely normal. The question is not whether the house is beautifully presented. It is whether the seller has met their obligations under the contract. 

The bottom line 

A final inspection should be one of the more enjoyable parts of buying a home. In most cases it takes less than fifteen minutes. If buyers understand what they are checking, sellers prepare properly, and everyone follows the contract, there is usually very little to worry about. 

After all, the next time you walk into the property should be to collect the keys and start the next chapter. 

Please feel free to view or download our Final Inspection Checklist by clicking on the PDF icon below:

This article is general information only and is not legal advice. Every contract is different. If you are unsure about your rights or obligations, speak to your settlement agent or a lawyer before settlement.

The post Final Inspection in Western Australia: What It Is, and What It Isn’t appeared first on Naked Real Estate: Real Estate Agency Perth, WA.

There is a question almost nobody asks their agent, and it is the one I would ask first if I were selling. 

Do you, or anyone connected to you, have any interest in buying my home? 

Most of the time the answer is a straightforward no, and that is the end of it. But it is worth asking out loud, and it is worth understanding why, because an agent’s job is to get you the highest price, and a buyer’s job is to pay the lowest. Nobody can genuinely do both at once. The moment those two roles sit in the same person, your interests and theirs are pulling in opposite directions.

That is not a small technicality. It goes to the heart of the relationship between a seller and their agent. 

Where it matters most 

This matters most when the seller is not in a position to fight for themselves. An elderly owner selling alone. Someone selling after their partner has passed. A family dealing with a deceased estate from another state. A home that has been let go and the owner is tired and just wants it over with. 

Those are the exact situations where an honest agent should be doing more to protect you, not less. 

What the rules actually say in Western Australia

You do not have to take my word for any of this. It is in the law. 

Agents in WA operate under the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978 and a Code of Conduct. A few things sit at the heart of it: 

An agent is required to act in your best interests, to comply with the Real Estate and Business Agents Act and the Code of Conduct, and to properly manage any conflict of interest. 

An agent must act fairly and honestly, exercise due skill, care and diligence, and must not engage in misleading, deceptive, harsh or unconscionable conduct. 

Conflicts of interest must be disclosed. Consumer Protection WA is explicit that where a conflict arises, an agent has to disclose it and obtain consent. 

And it is stronger than most people realise. Section 64 of the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978, headed “Conflicts of interest of agents”, says an agent must not have any interest, direct or indirect, in a transaction they are acting in, unless the client has 

given prior written consent. There is a penalty for breaching it, and a court can order the agent to hand over any profit they made. In other words, the law already forbids the exact thing this article is about, unless you have signed off on it in advance. 

And this is the part most people miss: consent does not wipe the slate clean. Even after a conflict is disclosed and consented to, the agent must still act in your best interests, and your consent does not stop you pursuing a claim later if you have been disadvantaged. 

So the framework is there to protect you. What it relies on is you knowing to ask, and the agent being straight with you.

The five questions worth asking any agent 

Ask them of me. Ask them of anyone you are considering. Save this list, or send it to whoever is helping you decide. 

1. Do you, your family, your staff, or any company you are connected to have any interest in buying my property? 
2. Will you tell me about every genuine offer that comes in, not just the ones you think I should take? 
3. If a conflict of interest ever arises, exactly how will you handle it? 
4. Would you recommend I get independent legal advice if anyone connected to your agency ever wanted to buy my property? 
5. Can my family sit in on our meetings and contact you directly? 

You are entitled to a clear answer to every one of those. If any of them get a vague answer, or a “don’t worry about that”, that is your answer. 

Our policy, in writing 

I will put ours on the record, because I think you should be able to hold us to it. 

Our standing policy is simple. Naked Real Estate® does not buy the properties we are engaged to sell. Not personally, not through family, not through a company. 

If some exceptional circumstance ever arose, we would not lean on a signature and call it fair. It would require full written disclosure, an independent licensed valuation obtained independently of us, independent legal advice for the seller, and a purchase price no lower than ten per cent above that valuation. Depending on the situation, we would also consider stepping aside as the selling agent altogether, so the owner has completely independent representation. In more than two decades, that situation has arisen once. 

Why ten per cent above an independent valuation, rather than at it? Because if there is even a hint that the person selling your home might benefit from it going cheaply, the only fair answer is to remove the incentive entirely, and then some. A discount is exactly what should never happen. 

I would rather tell you all of that up front than have you wonder. 

Bring your family into the room 

Here is the other half of it, and I mean this genuinely.

If your children, your family or your friends want to be part of the conversation, bring them. If they want to sit with us and go through everything together, or ring me directly and ask me whatever they like, that is fine by me any time. I will happily explain the price, the strategy, the fee and the process to anyone you want in the room. 

An agent who wants you on your own is telling you something. An agent with nothing to hide has no reason to mind who is listening. 

If something does not feel right 

• You have somewhere to go, and you should use it. 
• You can check whether an agent is licensed, and their status, through Consumer Protection WA. 
• You can make a complaint to Consumer Protection WA if you believe an agent has breached their obligations. 
• Complaints can be referred to the State Administrative Tribunal, which has power to discipline agents, including reprimands, fines, and suspending or cancelling a licence or registration. 
• If real money is at stake, see a lawyer. Do not just hope it works out. 

Why I have bothered writing this 

Most agents you deal with in these hills are decent people doing an honest job. This is not a piece about them. 

It is a piece about the fact that you are selling the biggest asset you own, often at the hardest moment of your life, and you should not have to take anyone’s character on faith. Ask the question. Get the answer. Write it down. 

Our whole business is built on being able to answer questions like these without flinching. If you are thinking of selling in the Perth Hills and you want a straight conversation about what your home is worth and how we would go about it, with whoever you like in the room, get in touch. 

Ask the question. Get the answer. Write it down. The right agent will not be offended by any of it. They will expect it. 

Book a free, no-obligation appraisal

Important note 

This article is general information about a seller’s position in Western Australia. It is not legal advice and does not take your circumstances into account. Rules and codes change, so check the current requirements with Consumer Protection WA, and if you are concerned about a transaction, seek advice from a qualified lawyer.

The post The Five Questions Every Seller Should Ask Before Signing With Any Agent appeared first on Naked Real Estate: Real Estate Agency Perth, WA.

I have sat in a lot of kitchens over more than two decades in these hills, having the same conversation. It usually starts with someone quietly saying, “the place is getting a bit much.” And it usually ends with them deciding to think about it for another year. 

I understand why. But if there is one thing I could tell every hills family, it is this: the hardest part of downsizing is not the move. It is the timing. 

You are not selling a house 

Let’s be honest about what is really going on, because the practical stuff is not what stops people. 

You look out at the backyard and you see the spot where your son came off the swing and split his knee open. You see where the dog used to tear around. You see the 21st, the wedding, the Christmases where the whole family somehow fitted around one table. That is not a floor plan. That is your life. 

Nobody sells that easily. Anyone who tells you it is just a house has not been doing this long enough. 

Why the hills make this harder than most places 

This is not a general downsizing article, because our situation here is genuinely different. 

Our blocks are big. Half an acre in Mount Nasura or Mount Richon, a bigger original block up in the Kelmscott hills, acreage in Bedfordale or Roleystone with a paddock and a shed. That is exactly why you moved here, and it is exactly what becomes unmanageable first. A courtyard on a cottage block does not do this to you. Half an acre on a slope does. 

And the public transport is what it is. It exists, but it was never built for someone who cannot drive. So if a licence goes, or driving gets hard, the shops and the doctor and the family suddenly depend on cabs, an Uber, or someone else’s schedule. In a lot of Perth you can age in place. Out here it is a harder proposition, and it is worth being honest with yourself about that while you still have every option open. 

The honest case for staying 

I am not going to pretend this only runs one way, because it does not. 

If you are well, if the place is still manageable with a bit of help, and if living here is the thing that gets you out of bed, then staying is a perfectly good decision. Moving costs money. It costs energy. It costs the thing you cannot price, which is thirty years of knowing exactly where everything is and who everyone is. Plenty of people have looked at all of it and decided the trade is not worth it, and they were right for them. 

So the question is not whether staying is valid. It is whether you are choosing it, or drifting into it. Those feel identical from the inside and they end up in very different places. 

What the waiting actually costs 

There comes a point where a property gets away from you. It is never one big moment. It is gradual. 

The gutters do not get done. Then the roof gets a couple of leaks that do not get fixed straight away. The paint goes. The garden gets ahead of you, and then the cuttings pile up out the back because there is no easy way to shift them. 

And the house fills up. This is the one nobody thinks about. Every year seems to add another cupboard, another box in the roof space, another corner of the shed. Sorting through forty years of it is hard enough. Sorting through forty-five is harder again, and you will have less energy for it then than you have today. 

Meanwhile the home is quietly losing ground against every other property on the market. Not because the market moved. Because it stopped being maintained, and buyers price that in fast. I have walked into homes that were immaculate five years ago and are now worth a lot less than they should be,

for no other reason than time and tiredness. 

And at the other end, the place you would be moving into, the lower-maintenance home, the unit, the villa, is not waiting for you. In my experience those homes have not got any easier to buy. 

So the gap can widen from both ends. That is the part that sneaks up on people. 

“The kids will help” 

I hear this a lot, and it is almost always said with complete sincerity by everyone involved. 

The kids genuinely mean it. But they have jobs, and their own kids, and some of them are fly in fly out, and some of them live an hour away. So the help that was going to be every weekend becomes once a month, and once a month does not maintain a half-acre block in the hills. That is not a criticism of anyone. It is just what life does. 

I have also had children tell their parents not to sell, because it is still their family home too. That comes from a good place. But wanting the house to stay in the family is not the same as being able to look after it, and mum and dad are the ones living with the difference. 

Bring your family into it. Please. 

This is something I say to everyone, so I will say it here too, and I mean it as an open invitation. 

If your children, your family or your friends want to be part of this conversation, bring them. If they want to sit down and go through it all together, or ring me themselves and ask me anything at all, I have no problem with that at any time. Just let me know. 

This is not a decision anyone should be making alone in a kitchen with an agent they have just met. The more people who love you that are in the room, the better the decision usually is. I have never once minded being asked hard questions by someone’s daughter. 

The people who love you, and love your house 

Here is one almost nobody talks about, and I want to be careful how I say it. 

You have wonderful friends who come up for morning tea. They sit on the verandah, they look out at the trees and the view, and they say, “oh, don’t sell this, it’s beautiful. Why would you ever leave?” 

They mean every word, and they are not wrong. They can see something real. This place is beautiful, and they know you, and their view belongs in the room. 

Just be clear about what they are weighing. They get the cuppa, the birds, the view on a perfect morning. They are not there for the gutters, the roof, the ride-on that will not start, or the days when the place quietly asks more of you than you have got. They see the best of it. You live all of it. 

So take their love for what it is, which is real, and listen to them properly. Just make sure the person carrying the work gets a say too, and that person is you. 

The part people do not say out loud 

There is a fear underneath all of this that has nothing to do with money. 

If I move, I have to make new friends. At my age. Will they like me? Will I like them? Do I even want to start again? You have known your neighbours for thirty years. You know which checkout person asks after your grandkids. 

That is real, and it deserves to be taken seriously rather than brushed aside. But it is also worth asking honestly whether it is easier to build that new life at seventy or at eighty-five. From what I have seen, the difficulty of change does not stay flat. 

And when one partner passes and the other is left in a house they built a life in together, everything gets harder again. There is guilt in leaving. There is guilt in staying. There is nothing simple about it, and there is no version of this where a stranger should be pushing you. 

So what do I actually reckon? 

Not advice. Just the pattern I have watched for more than two decades. 

The people who do this well tend to move six or twelve months before they had to. While they are well. While they can still drive. While they can still walk the block and make the decisions themselves and enjoy the place they move to. They sold a home in good condition, they had choices, and they had a bit of fun with the next chapter. 

The people who struggle are the ones who waited for a reason to move. Because by the time the reason arrives, it is often a health event, and now you are making a very big decision in the worst possible circumstances, with a house that needs work and no time to do it. 

A change of mind is fine, by the way. I have had people go back and forth for months, and that is completely normal. This is not a transaction, it is an upheaval. Anyone who rushes you through it should not be in your kitchen.

Where to start: a checklist for the kitchen table 

You do not have to decide anything today. But these are the questions worth sitting down with, together, before the years decide for you. Do we actually know what this place is worth today, or are we guessing? 

• Have we been honest about what the block needs each month, and who is really doing it? 
• If we stay, what has to change to make staying work, and who is doing that? 
• If we move, what does the next chapter actually look like? Not the address. The days. 
• What would the next place realistically cost, and what would be left over? 
• Have we spoken to a financial adviser about how a move affects our position? 
• Have we had one conversation with the family all together, rather than five different phone calls? 
• Are we choosing to stay, or just putting it off again? 

This is a starting point for conversations with your family and your financial adviser. It is not a substitute for their advice. 

Where I fit in 

I am not going to tell you to sell. I have talked people out of it more than once, because it was not the right time for them. That is not a line. It is the job. 

What I will do is give you a straight answer about what it is worth today, what it would take to present it properly, and what the realistic options look like, so you can make the decision with real information instead of guesswork. Then you take that to your family, your accountant and your financial adviser, who are the right people for the money and the aged-care side of it. 

No pressure, no obligation, and no timeline from me. If the answer is “not yet”, that is a perfectly good answer. At least it is a decision you made, rather than one the years made for you. 

If you are in the hills and you have started wondering about it, even quietly, that is usually the sign it is worth a conversation. Book a free, no-obligation appraisal or just give me a call for a chat. 

Truth. Strategy. Sold. 

Send this to someone who needs it 

If this sounds like someone in your family, send it to them. Sometimes the hardest conversation is not about selling. It is about knowing when to start talking. 

Frequently asked questions 

When is the right time to downsize? 

There is no single right age. From what I have seen in the hills, the people who do it well tend to move while they are still well and still driving, six or twelve months before they had to, rather than waiting for a reason. The people who struggle are usually the ones who waited, because the reason that finally arrives is often a health event, and that is the worst possible time to be making a big decision. 

Is it better to downsize early or wait? 

Waiting is a perfectly valid choice if you are well, the place is manageable and living there is what you want. The risk is not waiting itself, it is drifting rather than choosing. A home that stops being maintained loses ground against the market quickly, and the lower-maintenance homes people move into have not got any easier to buy. 

What happens to a big hills block when it stops being maintained? 

It is gradual and it is expensive. Gutters, roof, paint and garden all slip, and buyers price that in fast. I have walked into homes that were immaculate five years earlier and were worth a lot less than they should have been, for no reason other than time and tiredness. 

Should my family be involved in the conversation? 

Yes, and I actively encourage it. Bring your children, your family or your friends, or have them ring me directly and ask me anything. Nobody should be making this decision alone in a kitchen with an agent they have just met. 

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

This article is general information based on my experience as a local agent. It is not financial, legal or aged-care advice, and it does not take your circumstances into account. Decisions about downsizing, retirement living, pensions and aged care should be made with a qualified financial adviser and, where relevant, a lawyer.

The post Downsizing in the Perth Hills: Don’t Leave It Too Long appeared first on Naked Real Estate: Real Estate Agency Perth, WA.

There is a home not far from me that has been on the market, on and off, for more than five years.

I appraised it five years ago. I told the owners it was worth somewhere around 1.4 to 1.5 million. They did not want to hear that, and I understand why.
Nobody wants to be told their home is worth less than they hoped. So they went with another agent who put it on at 2 million. It did not sell. They tried again with someone else, still at 2 million. It did not sell. Then it went on at offers over 2 million. Then offers over 2.5 million. Every campaign, for five years, sat in front of the market rather than in it.

It has finally just gone under offer, marketed in the mid 2 millions. Five years to get there.
Here is the part most people miss. In that same time, I sold home after home just a couple of streets away, because buyers who walked through that overpriced house then looked at mine and saw good value by comparison. Fighting the market does not just cost you price. It costs you years.

Price is not an opinion. It is evidence.

Most sellers think pricing a home is about finding the right opinion. Yours, mine, or another agent’s. It is not.

In a shifting market, price is about evidence, and the evidence comes from buyers. Not what you hope the home is worth. Not what another agent promised to win your listing. Not even what I think on the day I walk through. What buyers actually do once the home is live.

And they tell you fast. After two or three weeks on the market I usually know far more than I did on launch day, not because my opinion changed, but because buyers have shown me theirs. Every inspection, every second inspection, every offer, and every bit of silence, it all says something. The trick is being willing to listen.

Over the years I have found almost every home lands in one of three situations.
Situation one: no inspections, no offers This is the easiest one to read, and the clearest message the market can send.

Buyers have seen your home online and decided not to even come and look. It has not made their shortlist. Think about how people buy today. They scroll everything in their price range online, line every home up against each other on beds, bathrooms, block size, shed, side access and condition, then pick a handful to go and see. If nobody is walking through your door, your home has not made that handful.

Here is something a lot of sellers have not caught up to. The first inspection now happens online. People view your home on their phone, and that is where they decide whether it is worth seeing in person.

So your photography, your video and your presentation have to be spot on, because if one of them is weak, buyers scroll straight past and you never even know they were there.

That means no inspections is not always about price. Sometimes the price is fine and the marketing let buyers rule you out before they walked in. I hear this most when I take over a listing another agent could not sell. Buyers tell me they did not really notice the home the first time around. That is almost never something wrong with the house. It is that the price was chasing the market, the marketing did not do it justice, or both. But if the marketing is strong and they are still not coming, then you are simply sitting above where buyers see value.

I had one a while back that we appraised at 1.4 million. The owners did a lovely job getting it ready, so good that I said, let’s be a bit ambitious, put it on at 1.5 and see what the market does. Twenty-one days later we had had almost nobody through and no offers. To their credit, they listened. They dropped it to offers from 1.4. Within eight days we had three offers, and it sold for just over 1.5 million.

Same home. The only thing that changed was that we moved back into the range buyers were prepared to consider, and they came straight away. Testing a
slightly ambitious price for a couple of weeks is fine. Sitting on it for months is not.

Situation two: plenty of inspections, but no offers

This is where a lot of sellers get caught, because it feels close.

People are coming through. The home opens are busy. There is interest. But no second inspections, no real negotiation, no offers. What that tells me is your home has made the shortlist but not the top three. Buyers like it. They just like something else more, usually because that something else is priced better for what it offers.

I took on another listed at 1.6 million. The owners were adamant on that figure, and there was a reason. Their bank had done a desktop valuation, done from a computer without anyone setting foot on the property, and told them it was worth 1.6 to 1.65. So that is the number they anchored to. We put it on at 1.6, and we had people coming through, but not one offer.

I kept telling them the market was talking. First they let me try 1.55, still near the top. Still nothing. It took ninety days before they finally accepted where the market actually was and let me put it on from 1.5. Within a week we had two offers, and it sold for 1.525 million.

Ninety days of stress for a result we could have had in the first month.

And notice where that wrong number came from in the first place: a valuation done off a screen by someone who never saw the home. A computer cannot
see what buyers actually pay for. It gives you a figure that feels official and sends you off in the wrong direction.

It works the other way too. More and more, buyers turn up already armed with a number, from a website or from asking an AI what your home and your area are worth. They come better researched than buyers ever have, and that is not a bad thing. But that number has the same blind spot the bank’s desktop did. It cannot see your block, your view, your shed, or what makes your home different from the one down the road. Part of the job now is showing a buyer what the machine could not, so a figure that was never right does not quietly cap what they are prepared to pay.

Situation three: strong inspections, strong offers

This is where every seller wants to be, and when you see it, you know the price is right.

I had a beautiful home we put on from 800,000. That figure was our honest midpoint estimate of where it would land, and I will be straight with you, I was even a little nervous it might be ambitious. But the owners presented it superbly, the marketing came up a treat, and we ran it through our Select Date Sale® system. We held the first home open on the Sunday and had thirty-eight groups of buyers through. By that afternoon we had six offers. I spent that night presenting them, it was a late one. It sold for 1.003 million, all done inside seven days.

That result did not come from underpricing. It came from presenting the home well, bringing the right buyers together at once, and letting genuine competition do the work. At that point price is not being set by anyone’s opinion any more. It is being set by competition. One buyer negotiates. Several buyers compete. There is an enormous difference between the two, and competition is what produces the results that beat expectations.

The biggest mistake is arguing with the market

The market does not care what you paid for the home. It does not care what you spent renovating. It does not care what another agent promised you to win the listing. It only cares what buyers are prepared to pay today.

At any time there are several thousand homes on the market across Perth, and far more agents than there are listings to go around. When agents are that
hungry for stock, a lot of them will tell a seller almost anything to win the listing, because the trade teaches you to get the listing first and work the price down later.

So sellers get told a big, exciting number, they sign, and then the slow grind down to reality begins. That is not honest, and it is not strategy. It is hope. Hope is a terrible way to sell a house.

The truly expensive part is not even the price. It is where those sellers were trying to move to. While they spent months or years chasing a number their home was never going to get, the homes they wanted to buy kept moving. For the ones who held out longest, the goalposts moved so far that even selling at their dream price would not get them where they were trying to go. They did not just lose time. They lost the plan.

So how do you know if your home is priced right?

Stop asking for opinions and start watching buyers.

If they are not inspecting, the market is telling you something. If they are inspecting but not offering, the market is telling you something. If they are competing, the market is telling you something good. Buyer feedback is not criticism. It is evidence, and evidence beats opinion every time.

There is really only one honest question a seller needs to answer before going to market. Do you want to sell in this market, or do you want to wait for a different one? If your number only works in a market that does not exist yet, then now might not be your time, and a good agent should be willing to tell you that rather than list you and let you find out the hard way over five years. If you do want to sell now, then price it to meet the market, watch what buyers do, and be prepared to move quickly if they tell you to.

My job is not to tell you the highest number so you will sign with me. It is to tell you the truth, and then run the strategy that creates genuine competition for your home, which is exactly what our Select Date Sale® method is built to do. The right price brings buyers. Competition between them is what lifts the result.

Find out what the market is really telling you

If your home is on the market and not doing what you hoped, or you are thinking about selling and want the truth on price before you commit, I am happy to walk you through what the evidence is actually saying and what strategy gives you the best chance of a premium result.

It is free, and there is no pressure. It is backed by our Best Service Guarantee.
Call the office on 08 6254 6333, or get in touch with me directly. Book your free appraisal today.

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

This article is general information based on more than two decades of selling property across the Perth Hills and Foothills. It is not formal valuation or
financial advice. Every property and every market is different, and the examples above relate to specific sales. For a figure you can rely on, get an appraisal
of your own home.

By Brendan Leahy, Naked Real Estate®

The post Is My House Overpriced? How to Read What the Market Is Telling You appeared first on Naked Real Estate: Real Estate Agency Perth, WA.

But I have also seen how badly it can go when it is done on a handshake. So this is a plain-
English look at what tends to go wrong, and the one simple step that protects everyone  before a cent changes hands.

First, the important bit. I am a real estate agent, not a lawyer or an accountant. Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice. It is general information from someone who has watched a lot of these arrangements up close. When it comes to your own family, get proper advice. I will say that more than once, because it matters.

Why “we’ll sort it out later” is where the trouble starts

The common thread in almost every one of these situations is the same. The money moved, and the paperwork did not. Everyone was close, everyone trusted each other, and nobody wanted to make it awkward by writing things down. Then something changed, a relationship, a marriage, a death, an illness, and suddenly two people remember the same conversation completely differently.
Australian courts have dealt with plenty of these cases, and a few patterns come up again
and again. A loan that was never really treated as a loan. If parents lend money but never ask for a repayment or set any terms, a court can later decide it was in fact a gift. What you call it matters far less than how you behave over the years that follow. In fact, Australian law generally starts from the opposite of what most people expect: money from a parent to a child is presumed to be a gift unless there is clear evidence, set up at the time, that it was a loan. That is a big reason lawyers are so firm about documenting these arrangements
properly, and then actually sticking to the terms.

One person thought it was a loan, the other thought it bought them a share of the house.
Without something in writing, that disagreement can end up being settled in court, years
later, from memory.
Money put toward a “granny flat” or the right to live somewhere for life, with nothing to
formalise it. In one Queensland Supreme Court case, Cook v Alderson (2025), an older
woman sold her own home and put her savings into her daughter and son-in-law’s property on the understanding that she could live there for the rest of her life. That arrangement was never documented as a legal interest in the property. When the relationship broke down, she had to go to court, and the court awarded her more than $400,000 to compensate for the loss of that right. She got there in the end, but only after years of stress and legal cost that a clear agreement up front would very likely have avoided.

Sweat equity that counts for nothing. If a family member puts in months of labour instead of cash, expecting to be repaid, they are often shocked to learn that unpaid work, without an agreement, can carry little or no legal weight when a property is eventually split.
None of these people set out to end up in court. They just trusted that it would never come
to that.

The one step that protects everyone

Here is the part I can say plainly, because it is common sense rather than legal advice. Put it in writing, before the money moves, with proper help.
A lawyer can document whether the money is a gift or a loan, what happens if the property
is sold, what happens if a relationship ends, and what rights each person actually has. An
accountant can walk you through the tax side. Lawyers who work in this area often point out that the cost of drafting a clear agreement is a tiny fraction of what a dispute costs later. From what I have seen, they are right.

And write it down at the time, not afterwards. Agreements made when everyone is happy
and on the same page carry far more weight than ones reconstructed later, once memories
have drifted apart.

One option worth raising with your lawyer

If you are going to own the property together, how you own it matters, and it is worth asking about early. In Australia, co-owners generally hold property in one of two ways. As joint tenants, everyone owns the whole thing equally, and if one owner dies their share passes automatically to the others. As tenants in common, each person owns a defined share, and it does not have to be equal. Parents and a child could hold a third each, for example, or any split that reflects what each of them put in, and each person’s share forms part of their own estate rather than passing automatically to the others. Neither is right or wrong. Which one suits your family is a legal question, so raise it with your lawyer or settlement agent before you buy, not after.

Where a real estate agent actually fits in

I cannot draft your agreement, and I would not try. But there is one thing that sits at the
front of every one of these decisions, and it is the thing I can help with. Knowing what the property is really worth.

Almost every Bank of Mum and Dad decision starts with a number. How much equity is
genuinely in the family home. What a property might sell for if the plans change. What a fair share looks like when more than one person is contributing. Guess that number, or get it wrong, and every decision built on top of it is shaky.

So if you are a hills family weighing up helping the kids, or thinking about selling to free up
equity, the sensible first move is an honest, current valuation of your home. Not an online
estimate, a real appraisal from someone who knows these streets. That gives you and your
advisers solid ground to build on.

We have been doing exactly that across the Perth Hills since 2002, from our office on
Brookton Highway. No pressure, no obligation. Just a straight answer on what your home is worth, so you can make good decisions with the people who matter most.

Before you help the kids buy: a starting checklist

• Have we had a current, honest appraisal of our home, so every decision starts from a
  real number?
• Have we spoken to our accountant about the tax side?
• Have we spoken to a lawyer about how to set this up?
• Have we agreed, and can we show, whether this is a gift or a loan?
• Does everyone involved understand the arrangement the same way?
• Has it been documented properly, at the time, not later?
• Have we talked through what happens if someone dies, a relationship ends, or someonewants to sell?

This checklist is a starting point for conversations with your lawyer and accountant, not asubstitute for their advice.
Book a free, no-obligation appraisal

Important disclaimer

This article is general information only and does not take your personal circumstances into
account. It is not legal, financial or tax advice. Naked Real Estate® is a licensed real estate
agency, not a law firm or a financial adviser. Before lending, gifting or co-owning property with family, please seek advice from a qualified lawyer and accountant.

Source note
The case referred to, Cook v Alderson, was decided in the Supreme Court of Queensland in
2025 and has been reported by multiple Australian news outlets. The full judgment is
available on the public court record.

The post Helping the Kids Buy a Home? What Every Perth Hills Family Should Know First appeared first on Naked Real Estate: Real Estate Agency Perth, WA.

The reason is simple. A valuation estimates value. Competition between the right buyers decides the final price. That gap is where most online estimates fall down.

Online estimates are not useless. They are a fair starting point for a standard house on a standard suburban lot. But out here in Bedfordale, Kelmscott, Roleystone, Mount Nasura, Mount Richon and Seville Grove, the things that actually move your price are the exact things a website cannot see. Run your place past these seven before you trust a number off a website.

1. Your land, not just your house

How big the block is, how much of it is actually useable, flat against steep, cleared against treed. A website counts square metres. It cannot judge which parts of the land buyers will actually pay for.

2. What the block could become

Zoning and subdivision potential. In parts of the Hills and Foothills the land is worth more than the house sitting on it. An online estimate values the house and misses the opportunity completely.

3. Your water

Mains, bore or tanks. On a hills block this matters a great deal, and it is exactly the kind of detail no website knows about your property.

4. The view and the aspect

A valley outlook, where the sun lands, what you see when you walk out the back. People pay a lot for this, and a model cannot see any of it.

5. Sheds, workshops and outbuildings

And whether they have power and are actually useful. Buyers out here care about these. An automated estimate barely counts them.

6. The build and the feel

Character homes, high ceilings, non-standard builds like pole or log or rammed earth. The things that make a buyer fall in love are the exact things a spreadsheet cannot measure.

7. Who is competing for it

This is the big one. A valuation estimates value. Competition between the right buyers decides the final price. Get that part right and the finishing figure can land well above where you started.

If your home has even two or three of these, an online estimate is probably not telling you the truth, in either direction.

The only way to know what your property is really worth is to have someone who knows the area stand on it, assess it properly and tell you the truth. That is free with us, and there is no obligation.

Want the real number? Book a free appraisal, or call the office on 08 6254 6333.

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

The post The 7 Things That Decide What Your Home Is Really Worth appeared first on Naked Real Estate: Real Estate Agency Perth, WA.

Seville Grove is not like the hills. It is a suburb of mostly standard homes on standard blocks, a lot of them built in the last couple of decades, with plenty of similar properties selling nearby. That is the kind of suburb where an automated estimate has the best chance of landing somewhere near the mark. So people trust it here more than they should anywhere else. Then they price off it, and they leave money on the table, because the one thing that number can never see is the thing that actually sets your final price.

Let me show you what I mean, with a home I sold right here in Seville Grove.

Why the estimate looks reliable here, and why that is the trap

An automated valuation works by looking at recent sales of similar homes nearby and doing the maths. In a suburb full of near identical homes on near identical blocks, it has plenty to work with, so it can get reasonably close on the bricks and mortar. That is fair enough.

But here is what it is really telling you. It is giving you an average. It is saying your home is worth about what the last few similar ones sold for. What it cannot tell you is what happens when you take an ordinary home and put it in front of the right buyers, presented properly, with a campaign built to make them compete for it. That depends on who turns up and how badly they want it, and no model can predict that.

The estimate prices the house. Buyers price the competition. Those are not the same thing, and the gap between them is where sellers in Seville Grove either win or lose.

A real Seville Grove example

I sold a home here in Seville Grove not long ago. A completely standard property, a one-storey home, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, on a block just under 500 square metres. Nothing unusual about it at all. It was the kind of home an online tool should get close to, because there are plenty like it in the area.

The automated valuation put it between $712,000 and $810,000, with a midpoint around $750,000. Honestly, that was not a silly range for the house on paper. I thought around $800,000 would likely be the top of it, and I told the owners that if we got to $850,000 we would be doing very well.

We guided it from $800,000 and ran it through our Select Date Sale® system. The owners did a terrific job getting it ready. They decluttered exactly the way I suggested, presented it beautifully, and the marketing we put together made it stand out from the other homes for sale in Seville Grove at the time.

We held the first home open and had 22 groups of buyers walk through. By the end of that day we had five offers, all of them in the mid $800,000s, already past the figure I thought would top it out. Then that evening a buyer who had asked to go and speak to their broker came back to me. By the time the dust settled, the owners had signed off on a sale of $907,700.

That is nearly $100,000 above the very top of the automated range, and more than $150,000 above its midpoint. On a standard suburban home that the computer should have had every chance of getting right.

Was that just a lucky day? No, and here is why

It is a fair question. One big result can look like a good day and two keen buyers. So let me be straight about what did and did not happen here.

What happened was not luck. It was a method. More than 730 sellers across the Perth Hills and Foothills have sold their homes using our Select Date Sale® method, and the whole point of it is to do deliberately what a private negotiation leaves to chance: bring the interested buyers to a set point at the same time, then let them put their best foot forward without knowing what anyone else has offered. One buyer on their own negotiates you down. Several buyers who each want the home, and each know they might miss it, compete you up. That is not a fluke you hope for. It is a process you can run on purpose.

What I will not tell you is that every home leaps a hundred thousand dollars past its estimate. That one did. Plenty do not, and I would be lying if I said otherwise. What the method does reliably is make sure that if the buyers are there, they compete, so you capture the top of what the market actually holds rather than settling with the first person through the door.

Wondering what a proper campaign could do for your home? A free appraisal will tell you both what it is worth today and what it could reach with real competition. Book yours here.

What actually moves the number on a standard Seville Grove home

Even in a suburb of similar homes, two places that look alike on a website rarely sell for the same figure. When I appraise a home here, the things I am weighing are:

• Condition and presentation, because in a market of comparable homes this is often what separates the top result from the average one.
• The floorplan and how it actually lives, not just the bed and bath count a website reads.
• Block size, orientation and whether the outdoor space is genuinely useable. Side access, parking, and shed or workshop space, which buyers out this way do pay for.
• Where in Seville Grove you are, because the better pockets, and proximity to schools, parks and transport, move the number.

An online estimate flattens all of that into an average. A local appraisal reads it on your specific home, which is where the real number comes from.

So how do you actually find out what your Seville Grove home is worth?

You get someone who sells here to look at it properly, and to be honest with you about two different things.

First, what your home is genuinely worth on the day, based on real local knowledge, not an average off a website. Second, and this is the part most sellers never get told, what it could reach if the campaign is run to create real competition rather than just to find a buyer. Those can be very different numbers, as that standard three by two showed. That is not something a computer can do, and it is not something an agent can do from behind a desk either.

Frequently asked questions

What is my Seville Grove house worth?
There is no reliable single answer from a website. In a suburb of standard homes an online estimate can price the bricks and mortar reasonably well, but it cannot account for presentation, the specific pocket you are in, or the competition a proper campaign creates, which is often where the real result comes from. The only accurate way to know is a local appraisal of your specific home.

Are online property estimates accurate in Seville Grove?
More accurate here than in the hills, because there are plenty of similar sales to compare against, which is exactly why sellers over-trust them. The estimate gives you an average of past sales. It cannot see what buyers will do when they compete for your home, and in a recent local sale that gap was more than $150,000 above the midpoint estimate.

How does competition increase the sale price?
A single buyer negotiating on their own has every reason to offer less. Several buyers who each want the home, and each know they could miss it, have every reason to put their strongest offer forward. Our Select Date Sale® method is built to bring those buyers to the same point at the same time so that competition can happen. More than 730 sellers across the Perth Hills and Foothills have now used it.

How much does a property appraisal cost?
Our appraisals in Seville Grove are free and come with no obligation. You get an honest figure for what your home is worth today, and an honest view of what it could reach with the right strategy, with no pressure to list.

Find out what your home is really worth

If you want to know what your Seville Grove property is genuinely worth in today’s market, not what a website guessed, get a proper appraisal before you make any decisions. You can also read more about the area in our Seville Grove suburb guide.

We are based right here in the area, we have sold across Seville Grove and the wider Foothills since 2002, with more than 1,500 sales, and we hold a 4.9 star rating on Google across more than 160 reviews and 4.9 on RateMyAgent. We will give you an honest figure and an honest strategy, not the number that sounds nicest to win your listing.

It is free, and there is no pressure. It is backed by our Best Service Guarantee.

Call the office on 08 6254 6333, or get in touch with me directly. Book your free appraisal today.

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

This article is general information based on more than two decades of selling property across the Perth Hills and Foothills. It is not formal valuation or financial advice. Every property and every market is different, and the figures in the example above relate to one specific sale. For a figure you can rely on, get an appraisal of your own home.

The post What Is My Seville Grove Property Worth? appeared first on Naked Real Estate: Real Estate Agency Perth, WA.

Unlike suburbs where the homes are much of a muchness, Kelmscott has an enormous range of property. You can have a modest brick-and-tile home on a standard block, a character home on half an acre, a redevelopment site with subdivision potential, or a lifestyle property tucked up in the hills. Two homes only a few streets apart can differ in value by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That is exactly why an online estimate can lead you badly astray here. Since 2002, across more than 1,500 sales in the Hills and Foothills, the most expensive mistakes I see come from people assuming every Kelmscott property is valued the same way. This article explains what really determines value in Kelmscott, where the online number is roughly okay and where it falls apart, and how to find out what your home is genuinely worth before you make any decisions.

Where online estimates are okay, and where they fall apart

Let me be straight with you. An online property valuation can be genuinely useful on a standard suburban block, but in parts of Kelmscott it can also be seriously misleading.

If you are in central Kelmscott on a standard block, surrounded by similar homes that have sold recently, an automated estimate can land somewhere in the ballpark. The model works by comparing recent nearby sales of similar properties, and where there are genuinely similar properties, it has something to work with.

The trouble is that even in central Kelmscott the estimate misses the thing that often matters most, which is potential. And the moment you move off a standard block, into the hills, onto acreage, or onto anything with development upside, it stops being a guide at all. There are simply too many variations for a model to read, and it has nothing genuinely comparable to measure your property against. That is when it can be out by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Let me show you exactly that.

A real Kelmscott example

I sold a home up in the Kelmscott hills, on about three acres. The automated valuation system put it at $885,000.

The reason the model was so far out is simple. Going along that street, the other properties are ordinary residential homes on blocks of around 700 to 800 square metres, and that is what the system compared it to. But this was nothing like those homes. It sat on three acres with 180-degree uninterrupted valley views, high raked ceilings, a genuine character feel, finished beautifully throughout, and it had mains water connected, which is not a given on a hills block.

We put it on the market from $1,100,000 using our exclusive Select Date Sale® system. We held the first home open four days later, and around 48 groups of buyers came through by the Sunday night. The driveway alone winds for around 200 metres, and we had a traffic jam in it and out onto the street. By the end of that weekend we had five offers, and it sold for $1,300,000.

That is roughly $415,000 above the automated number, and $200,000 above our own starting figure, on the same street the algorithm was comparing it to. There is no automated system on earth that gets that property right, in any market, because everything that made it valuable was invisible to the model.

And here is the distinction that matters most. A valuation, automated or otherwise, only estimates value. Competition between buyers is what determines where the final price actually lands. Five buyers all wanting the same one-of-a-kind home is what carried it to $1.3 million, and no model can predict that.

If you are wondering whether your property is one of the ones online estimates get wrong, you can request a free appraisal and we will explain exactly why, with no obligation.

Kelmscott is several markets, not one

The big valuation mistake is treating Kelmscott as if it has a single median value. It does not. It is really a few distinct markets, and which one you are in changes both your buyer and your number.

Central Kelmscott, close to the station, schools and shops, draws families, first-home buyers and investors, and this is where an estimate is most likely to be roughly right, with the big exception of development potential.

The hills-side around Clifton Hills draws lifestyle buyers who pay a premium for elevation, outlook, trees and quiet. Here estimates are weak, because no two blocks present the same way.

The larger hill blocks further out, on the southern side of Canning Mills Road and around Buckingham Road and the Canning River, run from around half an acre up to some of about ten acres. These are lifestyle purchases as much as homes, and they are the hardest of all for a model to value.

And the redevelopment and investment pockets are where the zoning, not the house, is the story. A site with the right zoning can be worth well beyond its value as a place to live.

The part the estimate never sees: development potential

Even on an ordinary central Kelmscott block, the question that can move your value the most is whether the block can be subdivided, and an online estimate has no idea.

As a rough rule of thumb, the things I look at are whether there is side access of around four metres, whether there is enough useable land at the rear, in the order of 350 to 380 square metres including the driveway, and how close the property sits to the train station, because being within around 800 metres of the station can matter. None of those are hard-and-fast rules, they are simply the kind of things that flag a block worth investigating. The actual subdivision rules depend on the zoning and the current planning requirements, and they must be confirmed with the City of Armadale before you rely on them.

These are only indicators that tell me a property deserves a closer look. Some properties that do not meet every one of them can still have development potential, and others that tick every box may not. Every property has to be assessed individually, which is exactly why an online estimate, which assesses nothing, cannot tell you whether yours has any upside at all.

I have seen what this is worth. Two neighbouring blocks I sold had been valued by three other agents at $500,000 to $550,000 combined. They had all valued the houses. A zoning change meant the land could be redeveloped, and the two sold together for $1.2 million. The houses were exactly the same. The zoning had changed. If you do not know what your block is zoned and what it could become, you do not yet know what it is worth.

What buyers are really paying for

In much of Kelmscott the house is only part of the value. Depending on where you are, buyers are paying for the block size, the zoning and any subdivision or development potential, the hills position and the views, useable land, sheds and workshops, privacy, mains water, the character and feel of the home, and proximity to schools, transport and shopping.

Every property is a different combination of those things, which is precisely why no calculator can weigh them, and why two homes that look similar on paper sell for very different prices. The three-acre home did not reach $1.3 million by chance either. It got there because enough of the right buyers were brought together at once that they had to compete for it, and an algorithm cannot see that competition coming. A local agent who knows the buyer pool can.

If your question is whether to spend money improving any of this before you sell, that is its own decision, and our guide on renovating before selling walks through how to tell the improvements that pay from the ones that do not.

So what is your Kelmscott property worth?

The honest answer is that it depends, and not because agents like dodging the question. It depends because every Kelmscott property is a different mix of house, land, zoning,  position and buyer demand, and those are the things that decide the final price. The only way to know your number is to have someone assess the home, the land, the zoning and the current market together, in person.

Frequently asked questions

What is my Kelmscott house worth?

There is no single answer from a website, because Kelmscott is several markets in one suburb. A central block, a hills home, a lifestyle acreage and a development site are all valued differently, and the same suburb median can be wildly wrong for any one of them. The only reliable way to know is a property appraisal in Kelmscott that looks at your specific home, land, zoning and current buyer demand.

Are online property estimates accurate?

Sometimes roughly, sometimes badly wrong. On a standard central Kelmscott block surrounded by similar recent sales, an online estimate can land in the ballpark. In the hills, on acreage, or on anything with development potential, it has nothing comparable to measure against and can be out by hundreds of tthousands of dollars, as the three-acre example in this article shows.

Does subdivision potential increase value?

It can, significantly, because a developer or investor may pay well beyond a property’s value as a home. But potential has to be real and confirmed. Whether a block can actually be subdivided depends on its zoning and the current City of Armadale planning rules, so it should always be checked before you rely on it.

How much does a property appraisal cost?

Our property appraisals in Kelmscott are free and come with no obligation. You get an honest assessment of what your home is worth and why, including any potential in the block, with no pressure to list.

Find out before you assume

If you are even thinking about selling, the most valuable thing you can do first is get the block assessed properly, before you assume your home is just another Kelmscott house, and before you set a price off a website.

We are based right here in Kelmscott, we have sold across this suburb and the Foothills since 2002, and we hold a 4.9 star rating on Google across more than 160 reviews and 4.9 on RateMyAgent. We will tell you what your property is genuinely worth, including any potential in the block you may not know is there, and we will be honest about it.

It is free, there is no pressure, and it is backed by our Best Service Guarantee.

Call the office on 08 6254 6333, or get in touch with me directly. Book your free Kelmscott property appraisal today.

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

This article is general information based on more than two decades of selling property in the Perth Hills and Foothills. It is not formal valuation, planning or financial advice. Subdivision and development potential depend on zoning and current planning rules and must be confirmed with the City of Armadale. The figures in the example relate to one specific sale. For a figure you can rely on, get an appraisal of your own property.

The post What Is My Kelmscott Property Worth? appeared first on Naked Real Estate: Real Estate Agency Perth, WA.

That, in plain terms, is a subject to sale offer. And the question behind it is one of the most common we hear from homeowners across Bedfordale, Kelmscott, Roleystone, Mount Nasura, Mount Richon, Seville Grove and the wider Perth Hills and Foothills. Should we buy first, or sell first?

The honest answer is that it depends on you. Sometimes buying first is exactly the right move. Other times it turns into an expensive mistake. After personally helping people buy and sell more than 1,500 homes since 2002, I have seen both approaches work, and I have seen both go badly wrong. Here is how to tell which one you are looking at.

The short answer

If your finances allow it, selling first usually puts you in the strongest position. You know exactly what your home has sold for. You know how much equity you have to work with. You know your budget with certainty. And you become a far stronger buyer, because you can make an offer without needing to sell anything first.

But life is not always that tidy. You may have found the home you really want. You may want to avoid moving twice. Or you may need the money from your current home to fund the next one. That is where a subject to sale offer comes in. The important thing is understanding exactly how it works before you sign anything.

Here is how the three paths compare at a glance:

What is a subject to sale offer?

A subject to sale offer lets you make an offer on another property that only becomes unconditional once your own home is sold. It can be an excellent solution. It also carries risks that a lot of people do not fully understand until they are in the middle of one.

The truth about subject to sale offers

These offers have picked up a bad reputation over the years, and in my experience it is mostly undeserved.

We do a lot of them, partly because of where we are. In the Hills there is a steady stream of people moving up from the flats into a bigger home on a bigger block, and most of them need to sell before they can buy. Across my own sales over more than two decades, and I have handled hundreds of these, roughly three in four of the buyers we work with are also sellers. That is a figure from my own records, not a market statistic, and it is simply how this part of the market moves.

So why do so many agents dislike them? Because they are more work. They need careful planning, constant communication, realistic pricing and someone actively managing two transactions instead of one. It is easier to deal with a straightforward cash or financeapproved buyer.

Here is the part I have never understood. A lot of agents will flatly refuse. No, we do not take subject sales on this home. I take them on, and I win a good number of listings precisely because the agent down the road would not. Helping people move is the job. For a lot of ffamilies, a subject to sale offer is simply the most practical way to make that move happen.

These offers can benefit sellers too

A buyer who has finally found the home they want, and who needs that exact property to make their move work, will sometimes pay a premium for the chance to buy it subject to the sale of their own home.

From the seller’s side, accepting a well prepared subject to sale offer is not always a disadvantage. If the buyer’s home is ready for sale, their price expectations are realistic and the deal is managed properly, the seller can come out ahead of where another buyer would have left them. Like most things in real estate, it is not about whether a subject to sale offer is good or bad. It is about how well it is structured.

A recent example from Bedfordale shows how this works in practice. I had clients who had found the home they wanted in Bedfordale but needed to sell their own place first. Rather than lock them into a 48-hour clause, I sat down with the sellers and walked them through the situation. They were happy to give my clients a few weeks without the 48-hour clause being invoked, so my clients had room to get their own home ready and onto the market properly.

They trusted the advice. We got the home ready. We launched it. Nine days later it was  sold. Both sides came out happy: the sellers in Bedfordale got their result, and my clients secured the home they had moved for. No scramble, no two-business-day countdown hanging over anyone. Just a prepared buyer, a reasonable seller and an agent willing to negotiate the breathing room. Planning beat panic.

Pricing your home honestly is what makes it work

This is make or break, and it is where most failed subject to sale deals actually fail. When one falls over, it is almost always because the home was overpriced. It sits, it takes too long, sometimes it does not sell at all, and the buyer loses their dream home in the process. That is not the fault of the strategy. It is the fault of an agent who would not sit across from the seller and tell them the truth on price.

Remember why you are moving. A bigger block. Room for the kids. A workshop. A bigger kitchen for the cook in the family. Keep your eyes on that and the pricing decision gets a lot easier. Your goal here is not to set a suburb record. Your goal is to move.

Sometimes that means accepting that chasing your absolute top number is the expensive option, not the safe one. The seller who holds out for the last five or six per cent and loses the home they were moving for walks away worse off on both ends of the deal. Pricing to sell is how you protect the thing you actually came for.

Have your home ready to go, that day

One of the biggest mistakes buyers make is finding their dream home before getting their own property ready.

When you sign an offer with a subject to sale condition, the contract says your home goes on the market straight away, that day, at a set price. You do not get two or three weeks to get it ready. A week to declutter and tidy is fine. A full renovation to chase a higher price is not, and trying to squeeze one in is how people lose the home they were moving for.

So before you go looking, have it all lined up. Photography, marketing, presentation and price, ready to launch on day one. The faster your home hits the market, the better your chance of securing your next one.

Not ready to call yet? Before you do anything else, find out what your home is actually worth. It is free, it takes the guesswork out, and it is the one number every other decision depends on. Book a free appraisal

What is the 48-hour clause?

Many subject to sale contracts include a special condition commonly called the 48-hour clause. The name is misleading and the detail matters.

It lets the seller of the home you want keep marketing their property while your sale is pending. If they receive another offer they want to accept, usually an unconditional one, they must formally notify you. From that notice you get two business days, not a literal 48 hours, to do one of three things: waive your subject to sale condition and go unconditional, secure a contract on your own home, or arrange home to home finance (what used to be called bridging finance). If you cannot do any of those inside the two business days, the contract is cancelled, your deposit is returned to you, and the seller is free to accept the other offer.

Here is the part most agents will not tell you. That clause is negotiable. It is not automatic and it is not compulsory. When I represent the seller of a home a subject to sale buyer wants, and the offer in front of me is genuinely strong, I will often advise my seller to give that buyer three to four weeks with no 48-hour clause at all. The reasoning is simple. A buyer who was instead subject to finance would tie the property up for three to four weeks anyway. So a well prepared subject to sale buyer, with a realistically priced home ready to launch, is not necessarily exposed to the pressure people fear. That is my own practice, not a rule, and clause wording varies from contract to contract, so always read yours and get advice before you sign it.

Choosing the right agent matters more here than anywhere

If you are buying before selling, the agent you choose becomes the whole game. You are not just looking for someone to advertise your home. You need someone who will actually take a subject sale on, who will tell you the honest truth on price, who understands how these transactions work, who can communicate properly with the agent on the other side, who already has buyers to bring through your home, and who can keep two deals moving toward settlement at the same time. Experience is the difference.

Are there other options?

Depending on your financial position, alternatives can include:

• Negotiating a longer settlement so you have time to sell.
• A rent-back arrangement after settlement.
• Home to home (bridging) finance.
• Selling first, then negotiating a longer settlement on your purchase.
• Selling with a strategy built to create buyer competition, such as our Select Date Sale® method.

Every situation is different, which is exactly why strategy comes before paperwork.

So, should you buy before selling?

Sometimes. If you are financially comfortable and you understand the risks, it can work extremely well. If your finances are tight and your home is not ready for market, selling first is usually the safer road. There is no one size fits all answer. The right call depends on your equity, your borrowing capacity, the current market, the property you are chasing, and your appetite for risk.

Before you fall in love with another property, know three things:

• What your current home is worth.
• What it is realistically likely to sell for in today’s market.
• Which selling strategy gives you the best chance of success.

Those three answers remove most of the uncertainty. They are also completely free to find
out.

Thinking about your next move?

If you are planning a move anywhere across the Perth Hills or Foothills, we are happy to talk it through. We will explain the strategies open to you, give you an honest estimate of what your current home is worth, and help you decide whether buying before selling is the right move for you.

No pressure. Just straight advice backed by more than 1,500 personal home sales since 2002.

Call the office on 08 6254 6333, or get in touch with me directly.

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

Book your free appraisal today.

This article is general information based on more than two decades of selling property in the Perth Hills. It is not legal advice. Subject to sale and 48-hour clause wording varies from contract to contract. For your own situation, especially anything involving the contract terms, finance or settlement, speak to a licensed settlement agent or a property lawyer.

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

The post Should I Buy a House Before Selling Mine? (WA Subject to Sale Guide) appeared first on Naked Real Estate: Real Estate Agency Perth, WA.