Selling your home
From deciding whether to move to handing over the keys, in the order the decisions actually arrive.
Ends with: A net proceeds figure you can rely on, and a settlement day with no surprises.
This pathway explains how selling works. It is not legal advice about your own sale, and it does not tell you which agency to use or what your house is worth. Have a property lawyer read the agency agreement before you sign it, and the sale and purchase agreement before you accept an offer.
Selling is not buying in reverse, and treating it that way is how sellers lose money.
A buyer's biggest signature comes at the end, on the sale and purchase agreement. A seller's often comes at the beginning, on an agency agreement, signed at the kitchen table at the end of a meeting where somebody has just told them what their house is worth. That document sets the commission, the length of the appointment, who pays for marketing and what happens if you want out. Almost everything after it is negotiated from a weaker position, which is why this pathway front-loads everything that happens before it.
The second difference is price. For a buyer it is an outcome. For a seller it is an input, and every other choice follows from it: which buyers see the listing, how the first two weeks go, and whether you negotiate from strength or from a property that has been sitting. The appraisal that wins the listing is not a promise of a sale price, and the gap between the two has a name in the industry.
The third is that a seller carries obligations to the very end. The warranties in the agreement, that the property is in the same condition and the listed chattels work, run through to settlement day. You can do everything right for five months and lose money in the final week because a heat pump failed and nobody mentioned it.
Running through all of it is the question of whether to use an agent at all. Selling privately is entirely lawful in New Zealand and needs no licence, and it removes the largest single cost. It also moves the pricing, the negotiation and the process onto you. Each step notes what changes when there is no agent, because that decision affects every stage rather than just the first one.
Every step pairs a guide with a calculator, and in this pathway the calculators matter more than usual. Selling is a subject where two offers can look different on price and be almost identical once conditions, settlement dates and carrying costs are counted. The arithmetic is the argument.
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Whether to sell, and in what order
The question before the question. Moving has real friction, and selling first or buying first is the decision that carries the most risk in the whole process.
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What selling actually costs
Sale price is not what you keep. Work out net proceeds before you list, because that number decides whether the move makes sense at all.
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Private sale or agent
The fork that changes every later step. Selling privately is lawful and removes the largest cost, and it moves pricing, negotiation and process onto you.
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Commission, and negotiating it
Commission is negotiable and so is its structure. Most large brands are franchise networks where each office sets its own fee, so there is no national rate to accept.
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The agency agreement, before you sign
The most consequential document a seller signs, and usually the first. It sets commission, term, marketing and cancellation, and you are entitled to take it away and have a lawyer read it.
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Pricing, and the appraisal gap
The highest appraisal is not the best one. Ask for the comparable sales behind the number rather than the number, because evidence can be checked and an opinion cannot.
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The paperwork a buyer will check
Freehold, cross lease, unit title and leasehold each carry different obligations, and a buyer's lawyer will read yours closely. Knowing what they will find is better than learning it from their solicitor.
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Marketing, and who pays for it
Vendor-paid advertising is the New Zealand norm, and in most agreements it is payable whether or not the property sells. Break the package into parts before you agree to it.
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Auction, deadline sale or negotiation
The method changes who holds the pressure and when. At auction the reserve is your protection, and it should be worked out before the day rather than in the room.
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Offers and conditions, from the seller's side
Read this one in reverse: the conditions that protect a buyer are the ones that leave you uncertain. A higher conditional offer can be worth less than a lower clean one.
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The sale and purchase agreement
The contract itself, including the warranties you are giving about condition and consents. Once it is unconditional the sale is committed and the remaining risk is yours to manage.
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Chattels, and what goes with the house
Listed chattels must be present and working at settlement, and anything unlisted is yours to take. This is where most settlement day disputes start, and a longer list prevents nearly all of them.
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Settlement day, seller's side
The pre-settlement inspection, rates apportionment, vacant possession and keys. Your obligations run to the last day, and most of what goes wrong here is avoidable.
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Tax when you sell
Ends here because it is the step most often discovered too late. The bright-line period is two years for sales from 1 July 2024, and the main home exclusion is not automatic.
When to stop and get someone else
Two pieces of professional help pay for themselves many times over. A property lawyer reading the agency agreement before you sign costs a fraction of a disputed commission claim, and it happens at the only moment when every term is still negotiable. A lawyer is required for the sale itself in any case, so bring them in early rather than at the point where the documents are already signed. If you have a complaint about a licensed agent's conduct, the Real Estate Authority runs a free process and you do not need a lawyer for it.
This pathway is information, not financial advice. Rates, thresholds and rules change; every guide carries the date it was last reviewed.
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