Selling your own home online has never been easier. Here’s how.

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Once upon a time, the only practical way to sell your home was through a real estate agency. They had the client base, the promotional tools and the market know-how to get the best price.

Today it’s a totally different story. The overwhelming majority of Australian buyers find their next property online, which means the audience an agency once controlled is now open to any seller with a listing on the right websites. And with agent commissions running into the tens of thousands, taking the owner’s route has never made more financial sense. (Yes, you can absolutely sell without an agent; NSW Fair Trading covers the basics if you’d like the government’s neutral take.)

Here’s what selling your own home online actually involves, and how to choose the help you’ll want along the way.

Get on the websites that matter

There are plenty of websites dedicated to getting houses sold, and they are not created equal. The big players are realestate.com.au and Domain: polished listings, enormous buyer traffic, and where nearly every serious buyer sets up their search alerts.

One thing to be blunt about: you MUST be on realestate.com.au, or it’s like you’re not on the market at all. Don’t get caught paying for a private-sale site that doesn’t list your property where your best buyers are searching; you’d be throwing money away. Because major portals only accept listings through licensed agents, the practical route for an owner-seller is a flat-fee licensed service: list with PropertyNow for a flat $979 and your home goes onto realestate.com.au, Domain and more, until sold.

Take photos that do your home justice

With every phone generation, DIY property photography gets more doable. We’ve covered real estate photography tips in detail, but the gist:

Clean and tidy the home properly before a single frame
Shoot wide, from corners, at hip height
Use natural light: open the curtains and pick the bright part of the day
Less is more: lead with your best shots rather than padding with mediocre ones

Not confident behind the camera? A freelance professional shoot is a modest cost that pays for itself, and it’s one of the extras we can arrange.

Write a property description that sells

No one knows your property like you do, and buyers respond to that. The short formula: a punchy headline, an opening line that makes them want the details, three or four sentences that paint the lifestyle rather than list the specs, and a closing line that tells them what to do next. We’ve broken the whole craft down, with examples, in how to write real estate ads that sell. And if writing your own copy sounds like your personal nightmare, professional copywriting is another extra we can arrange in a few clicks.

How to choose the right provider

The flat-fee field has grown, and providers vary more than their homepages suggest. Run any provider (including us) through this checklist:

Portal coverage: are you actually going on realestate.com.au and Domain?
Licensing: check their real estate licences are valid in every state. If licences lapse, realestate.com.au can suspend the account, and your listing (and money) goes with it.
Talk to a real person about how their process and enquiry handling work before you pay.
Support: know exactly how much help you get from listing through to negotiation, and when it’s available.
Updates: check how you make changes to your listing and how fast they go live.
Campaign length: “listed until sold” beats a campaign window that expires without warning.

You can do this, and you won’t be doing it alone

Selling your own home online is a series of very learnable steps, and we’ve mapped every one of them in our step-by-step guide to selling your home online, with a matching for sale by owner checklist for the pointy end. When your listing goes live, a bit of social media amplification spreads the word further for free.

With PropertyNow you stay listed and fully supported until sold, with no hidden or ongoing charges, and our team is on hand seven days a week. Want company on the road? Our Facebook community is full of people who’ve sold with us and are happy to share what worked.

Your home, on the sites that sell homes

List on realestate.com.au, Domain and more for a flat $979, listed until sold, with licensed agents supporting you seven days a week.

Get started

FAQ

Can I sell my house online without an agent in Australia? Yes. You handle the sale yourself and use a flat-fee licensed service to access the major portals (which only accept listings via licensed agents). It’s legal in every state; a conveyancer or solicitor handles the contract side as usual.

How do I list my house on realestate.com.au privately? Through a flat-fee agent service such as PropertyNow: you build the listing, we publish it under our licence to realestate.com.au, Domain and more, and buyer enquiries come straight to you.

How much does it cost to sell a house online? With PropertyNow, a flat $979, listed until sold. Add your conveyancing (payable however you sell) and any optional extras like professional photography.

Is selling your own home online hard? It’s a set of learnable steps: prepare, photograph, write the ad, price it, run inspections, negotiate. Tens of thousands of Australians do it; support from licensed agents is there whenever you hit a step you’re unsure about.