Step-by-step selling guide

From open home advice to the benefits of listing your home in summer, we have all the tips to help you sell your home and make it more attractive to buyers.

Here are the important things to know and the steps you need to take:

1. Be prepared - decide to sell

The first step you need to take is deciding when or if you want to sell.

Before you put your house on the market, it’s important to know your competition, and what the market is doing.

To make an informed decision, you can look at property prices, interest rates, capital gain, rental prices, yield and any recent or likely changes to government policy.

To get an idea of how the market is performing:

View our market reports containing the latest housing prices with commentary from our Managing Director, Peter Thompson, as well as rental and suburb reports.
You can also check out our sold properties.

2. How to choose a salesperson

Your salesperson will expose your property to the marketplace and negotiate with buyers on your behalf.

Finding the right person is an important part of the process, so we've put together this guide to help you choose the right one.

Our top tips for choosing a real estate agent

3. Why choose Barfoot & Thompson?

We have over 1,800 salespeople across Auckland, Northland, the Bay of Plenty and Waikato who are all working for you. Our salespeople are free to introduce their buyers to your property – which gives us greater reach and selling power. This, in turn, gives your home more exposure and gives you a better chance of getting a premium price.

4. How to get your home ready to sell

It's important to make sure that your house looks its best.

Read our top tips on how to prepare for open homes and present your home when selling.

5. Finding a lawyer

Before you sell a property, we recommend getting independent legal advice.

Finding the right lawyer is an important part of the buying and selling process.

Agency and Sale and Purchase Agreements are legally binding, so consult before you sign.

6. Choose how you want to sell

There's more than one way to sell property in New Zealand.

Here are the most common ways of selling a property:

Find out more about different selling methods.

How to decide the best way to sell your property

Watch this video where our salespeople share their top tips on how to decide what method of sale is right for your home.

7. Marketing your property

We pride ourselves on holding nothing back when it comes to promoting your property.

Find out about our marketing options.

8. Accepting an offer

By law, all written offers – irrespective of price – must be presented to you.

Our salespeople will be there for advice and will help guide you through the process. Our salespeople are skilled negotiators and will work with the buyer, on your behalf, to get you the best price possible.

Once your offer has been accepted:

There may be conditions on the offer, such as the buyers being satisfied with a building report. If so, these will need to be met before the offer becomes unconditional
Once an agreement is unconditional, neither the buyer or the seller can change their mind, and the buyer must pay the rest of the purchase price on the settlement day
We'll hold your house keys at the Barfoot & Thompson office until your solicitor advises us, in writing, that the settlement has taken place
Deposit payments are made by the buyer to the real estate agency, which is required by law to hold the money in an audited trust account, only releasing when legally authorised to do so.

9. Settlement

Settlement day is the date on which the balance for the property is paid.

Usually, it is the same date as the date the buyers get possession – the keys – but that is not always the case.

What happens once you've sold?

To find out more, read our from sale to settlement guide.

Need some help?

Contact one of our salespeople, they'll be happy to help.

For additional resources, visit the settled.govt.nz provided by the Real Estate Authority (REA) where you’ll find tools and tips on what to do and what to think about during the selling process. It provides comprehensive checklists, tools and videos to help you through the selling process.