How to sell your house privately
Selling your house privately — for sale by owner, without an agency — is legal in Australia, the US, and the UK. Flat-fee listing services put your property on the major portals for a few hundred dollars, and on an average Australian sale that keeps roughly $17,000–20,000 of commission in your pocket. The portals solved marketing and public sold data solved pricing; the genuinely hard part left is the negotiation. That’s what AI now covers: a co-pilot that decodes buyer tactics and drafts your counters, or an impartial mediator that keeps your reserve sealed and closes with a written Deal Memo.
Negotiately is not a law firm or a licensed real estate agency, and this page is not legal advice. Contract, cooling-off, and disclosure rules differ by state and country — engage a conveyancer, solicitor, or attorney before you list.
Private sale, step by step
- 1
Know what the commission actually buys
An agent’s percentage — typically around 2–2.5% plus marketing in Australia, historically more in the US — pays for three things: marketing reach, an appraisal, and negotiating experience. Flat-fee listing services now cover the reach, public sold data covers the appraisal, and the negotiation is the piece this page is about. Decide to sell privately because you have a plan for all three, not just to skip the fee.
- 2
Get legally ready before you list
Engage your conveyancer or solicitor first — in several Australian states the contract and disclosure documents (like Victoria’s Section 32) must exist before the property is offered for sale, and in the US your state’s disclosure forms apply to FSBO sellers too. A buyer who asks for the contract and gets it the same day takes you seriously as a seller.
- 3
Price from sold comparables, not sentiment
Pull what similar properties actually sold for in the last three to six months — Domain and realestate.com.au in Australia, Zillow and Redfin in the US — and adjust for land, condition, and position. Then set two numbers in writing: an asking price you can defend with evidence, and a private reserve below which you walk. The reserve is the number you protect for the rest of the process.
- 4
List flat-fee and handle inquiries with a script
Flat-fee services list private sales on the major portals for a few hundred dollars. When inquiries come, answer property questions honestly — you have disclosure obligations everywhere — but keep your reserve, your timeline pressure, and your reasons for selling out of the conversation. Buyers probe private sellers precisely because there’s no intermediary filtering the signals.
- 5
Negotiate offers on evidence, in writing
Expect anchoring — some buyers assume a private seller will crack under a hard lowball. Respond to every offer in writing, justify your counter with the comparable sales, and never bid against yourself. When a buyer’s message reads like a tactic — “that’s all the bank will lend me”, “I need an answer tonight” — paste it into the co-pilot: it names the play and drafts your reply.
- 6
Protect your reserve with the mediator, not with bluffing
The private seller’s dilemma: negotiating well requires a firm reserve, but revealing it hands the buyer leverage, so you bluff — and bluffing is exactly the game a practiced buyer wins. The impartial mediator is the structural fix. You give it your true reserve in confidence; the buyer gives it their ceiling; neither number is ever revealed. It finds the overlap, or tells you early that there isn’t one.
- 7
Close through your conveyancer or attorney
When you and the buyer agree — directly or in the mediator room with its Deal Memo — the deal goes to your conveyancer, solicitor, or attorney to become a binding contract of sale, with cooling-off and settlement handled per your state’s rules. Nothing about selling privately changes this step; you were always going to pay for it, agent or not.
Where the $17–20k really comes from
The saving isn’t magic — it’s the difference between a percentage of your sale price and the fixed costs of doing the same jobs: a few hundred dollars of flat-fee listing, your normal conveyancing (payable either way), and your own time on inspections and calls. What the headline number hides is the second saving: a percentage-paid intermediary earns almost nothing extra by fighting for your last $10,000, so a disciplined private seller who holds their reserve can come out ahead twice — once on the fee, once on the price.
The private seller’s information problem
Buyers discount private sales because they expect an amateur across the table — someone who’ll reveal their floor, respond emotionally to a lowball, or crumble at “take it or leave it.” Every signal you leak confirms the theory and costs you money. Process is the antidote: numbers set in advance, counters justified with sold data, and — when you’re genuinely close — a neutral middle both sides can be honest with. The moment the negotiation runs on evidence and sealed numbers instead of nerve, the amateur discount evaporates.
FSBO in the US after the NAR settlement
Since the 2024 NAR settlement, buyer-agent commissions are negotiated explicitly rather than riding on the listing — which means a FSBO sale to an unrepresented buyer can genuinely have no agent commission on either side. It also means more buyers are shopping without representation and negotiating for themselves. Two principals, no intermediary, both protecting their numbers: that’s precisely the situation the impartial mediator was built for.
Selling privately: FAQs
Keep the commission. Keep your reserve sealed.
Run buyer negotiations with the co-pilot for $5, or bring your buyer to the impartial mediator.