Private Sale vs Real Estate Agent: Which Is Better for You?

The worry we hear most from people weighing up a private sale is simple: what if I get less for it without an agent? Close behind it: how much of my life is this going to take?

Both are fair questions. So this isn’t a cheer squad for selling privately. It’s a way to work out which suits your property and your situation, and when an agent genuinely is the better call.

The short answer

A private sale suits you if you can price the home to the market, get it in front of buyers on the major portals, and make yourself available for enquiries and inspections. An agent suits you if you can’t give it that time, can’t be there, or would rather pay someone to carry the negotiation. The commission is the price of that help: most agents charge between 2% and 3%, a median of about 2.65% in 2026, which is around $21,200 on an $800,000 home before GST.

Selling privately doesn’t mean selling alone. PropertyNow, for example, is a licensed real estate agency that lists your home on realestate.com.au and Domain for a flat $999, runs the listing until you sell or withdraw it, and has a support team on hand seven days a week, 9am to 5:30pm AEST. You do the showing and the deciding; you keep the commission.

Private sale vs agent at a glance

	Real estate agent	Private sale (with a listing service)
What you pay	Commission, usually 2% to 3% of the price, plus marketing costs that are often payable whether it sells or not	A flat listing fee, plus whatever extras you choose (photos, signs, floorplans)
Getting onto realestate.com.au and Domain	Arranged by the agent; the portal fees usually sit in the marketing bill you pay	Through a licensed service; private individuals can’t list on the major portals directly
Pricing advice	An appraisal from someone who wants your listing	Your own research, free value reports and recent sales
Enquiries and inspections	The agent takes the calls and runs the opens	You do, on your own timetable
Negotiation	The agent sits between you and the buyer	You deal directly with buyers
Contracts and settlement	Conveyancer or solicitor either way	Conveyancer or solicitor either way
Control	Shared, and bound by an agency agreement	Yours, start to finish

Notice the row that doesn’t change. The legal work is done by a conveyancer or solicitor whichever way you sell (in Queensland and the ACT it has to be a solicitor), so our guide to whether you need a conveyancer to sell privately covers that side in full.

Will you get a lower price selling privately?

You’ll see claims that agents achieve a few percent more than owners do. We haven’t found an Australian study with a published method that settles it either way, and the people making the claim usually make their living from agent referrals. Private sales are a small slice of the market, and the sellers who choose them aren’t a random sample, so a clean comparison is hard to come by.

What does set the price is simpler. Buyers pay what the market says a home is worth, and they pay more when more of them want it. Two things drive that, and neither depends on who’s holding the phone:

The asking price is right for the market. Overpricing is the most common reason any listing sits, private or agent. Our guide to researching and setting your selling price walks through the comparable-sales method.
Enough buyers see it. Most buyers search on realestate.com.au and Domain, so being listed there properly, with good photos and a clear ad, matters far more than who wrote it.

Where an agent can add money is in the negotiation: a good one keeps buyers competing and doesn’t flinch at the first offer. That’s a skill, and it’s worth something. But it’s also a skill you can learn, and you have one advantage an agent doesn’t: nobody knows your home, your street and your bottom line better than you. Our negotiation tips for private sellers cover the practical side.

How much more would an agent need to get?

On an $800,000 home, a 2.65% commission is $21,200. Against a $999 listing fee, that’s $20,201 you’d keep by selling privately. For the agent to leave you better off, they’d need to sell for roughly $20,800 more, about 2.6% above what you’d achieve yourself, before any extra marketing costs and before GST on the commission (which pushes the figure past $23,000).

Sometimes a good agent will do that. Whether yours would is the question no study answers for you, so run your own numbers. Put them into the commission calculator and see where yours sits.

Real sellers have found it goes the other way too. Robyn in Rye Park had agents suggest about $600,000 to $650,000; selling it themselves, they got $720,000. Robyn says it was hard work and plenty of stress, but $90,000 ahead was worth it. In Canberra, Amanda was under offer in eight days at the $1.5 million she wanted and saved around $45,000 to $50,000 in fees, while similar homes sat on the market or passed in at auction. One sale isn’t proof of anything, but they show a private seller isn’t automatically the one leaving money on the table.

When an agent is the better choice

We sell privately for a living and we’ll still say it: an agent can be the right call. Consider one if:

You can’t be available. Buyers ring on Tuesday lunchtime and want to see it Saturday morning. If work, travel or family means enquiries sit unanswered for days, you’ll lose buyers.
You can’t be there. Selling from overseas or interstate, with nobody local you trust to open up, is much easier with someone on the ground.
The owners don’t agree. Separations and some deceased estates go more smoothly with a neutral party between the owners and the buyer.
You’d rather not negotiate yourself. In a private sale most of the back and forth happens by text or email, so you have time to think before you reply. But if dealing directly with buyers isn’t for you, someone in between can be worth paying for.
You want an auction or an agent’s buyer list. Auction campaigns need a licensed auctioneer, and an active local agent may already have buyers looking for exactly your type of home.
You simply don’t want to. That’s a legitimate reason. Selling privately takes some effort, and paying to avoid it is a fair trade if the money matters less to you than the time.

When selling privately makes the most sense

Selling privately tends to work best when:

the home is in reasonable demand and there are recent comparable sales to price from;
you can answer calls and messages the same day and run a couple of inspections a week;
you’d rather keep the commission than pay for someone else’s time;
you want to make the calls yourself, from the asking price to the settlement date.

When we ask sellers why they chose to sell privately, two reasons come up again and again: they wanted to keep control of their own sale, and they didn’t trust an agent to put their interests first. If either sounds like you, that’s a fair reason to go private, and sellers we’ve worked with often say being in control was the best part.

A quick self-check before you decide

Answer these for yourself. Mostly yes means a private sale is a good fit; a couple of firm noes point to an agent.

Can I research recent sales nearby and set a price I’d defend to a buyer?
Can I respond to most enquiries within a few hours?
Can I be home, or have someone home, for inspections most weekends?
Am I comfortable telling a buyer “no, but here’s what would work”?
Will I engage a conveyancer or solicitor early, before the home goes on the market?
Would I rather keep the commission (roughly $15,000 to $25,000 on a $600,000 to $900,000 home) than hand over the whole job?

The bottom line

Neither way is automatically better. An agent is worth the commission if you genuinely can’t give the sale the time or presence it needs, or would rather pay than negotiate. For most sellers who can price it properly and pick up the phone, a private sale can keep tens of thousands of dollars in your pocket without costing you the result. Price it to the market and get it in front of buyers where they’re looking.

If you’d like to go private with support behind you, here’s how selling privately with PropertyNow works.

Weighing up the two? Start with the numbers.

Put your likely sale price into the commission calculator and see what an agent’s percentage would cost you, next to a flat fee.

Work out the commission

Frequently asked questions

Is it better to sell privately or with an agent?
It depends on your time and your property. If you can price to recent sales, list on the major portals and handle enquiries and inspections, a private sale saves the commission (about $21,200 on an $800,000 home at the 2026 median). If you can’t be available or would rather not negotiate, an agent may suit you better.

Do you get less money selling privately?
We haven’t found reliable Australian data that settles it either way. What sets the price is buyer demand, a realistic asking price and how many buyers see the listing. An agent can add value in negotiation, but on an $800,000 home they’d need to achieve roughly $20,800 more just to match what you’d keep selling privately.

Can I list on realestate.com.au without an agent?
Not directly. realestate.com.au and Domain take residential sale listings from licensed agencies. A licensed flat-fee service like PropertyNow lists your home on both for you while you run the sale.

What does a real estate agent do for their commission?
Appraises and prices the home, arranges marketing, lists it on the portals, handles enquiries and inspections, and negotiates with buyers. The contract and settlement are handled by a conveyancer or solicitor either way.