Your for sale by owner checklist: from “under contract” to handover

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The day your property goes under contract feels like the finish line. It isn’t quite. Between the signed contract and handing over the keys sits a stretch of a few weeks where a surprising amount can go sideways: insurance cancelled too early, the power cut off before the final clean, important mail landing in a stranger’s letterbox.

None of it is hard, but all of it is the kind of thing you forget while you’re busy celebrating.

So here’s the list: seven steps from “sold” to “settled”, built for people selling without an agent. (Still earlier in the journey? Start with our step-by-step guide to selling your home online, which covers pricing, marketing and offers, then come back here once the contract is signed.)

The 7-step for sale by owner checklist

Gather your settlement documents and confirm any agreed repairs are done.
Redirect your mail and notify the people who matter.
Round up manuals, warranties, keys and remotes for the buyer.
Book your utility disconnections, timed for after the final clean.
Do a proper final clean (or book one).
Keep your insurance until settlement day, then cancel it.
Prepare for the buyer’s final inspection and plan the key handover.

Now the detail on each, because the detail is where the traps are.

1. Gather your documents and finish what you promised

Your conveyancer drives the legal side of settlement, and they’ll do it faster when you’re responsive. Have on hand: proof that rates and water bills are paid, any certificates or approvals you agreed to supply, and receipts for repairs you committed to during negotiation. If you agreed to fix the leaking tap or replace the cracked window, do it now and keep the invoice; buyers are entitled to check, and they will. Not sure who does what at this stage? Here’s what a conveyancer handles in a private sale.

2. Redirect your mail and tell the right people

Set up mail redirection with Australia Post a week or so before you move; it takes a few business days to kick in and costs a modest monthly fee. Then work through the notification list:

Banks, super funds and insurers
Employer, Medicare, ATO and the electoral roll
Driver’s licence and vehicle registration
Schools, doctors, dentists, vets
Subscriptions and online shopping defaults

Ten minutes with this list saves months of chasing mail through the new owners.

3. Round up the manuals, warranties, keys and remotes

Ovens, dishwashers, air conditioners, pool equipment, garage doors: the buyer inherits them all, and it’s a genuine kindness (and a good look) to hand over the manuals and warranty paperwork in one folder. While you’re at it, collect every key, remote, and gate fob in the house, including the spare set at your mum’s place. Handing over one lonely front-door key on settlement day is a classic private-sale fumble, small, avoidable, and memorable for the wrong reasons.

4. Book utility disconnections, but time them right

Give your providers a couple of weeks’ notice for electricity, gas, water, internet and phone. Two timing rules keep it painless:

Keep power and water connected until a day or two after you move out, so the final clean and any touch-up repairs happen with lights and hot water.
Don’t cut the internet until you’ve moved, since half the notifications in step 2 happen online.

The connection question on the other side (getting services live at your next place before you arrive) is worth booking at the same time; connection lead times are usually the longer of the two.

5. Do a proper final clean

Leaving the home genuinely clean is partly courtesy, partly self-interest: the buyer’s final inspection happens right before settlement, and a spotless, empty home makes that inspection a formality instead of a negotiation. Clean whatever the departing furniture reveals: skirting boards, carpet lines, the oven. If the budget allows, a professional exit clean takes this whole step off your plate. Either way, our room-by-room cleaning checklist works just as well for moving out as it does for listing.

6. Keep your insurance until settlement day (this one matters)

You’ll read advice telling sellers to cancel building and contents insurance when they move out. Please don’t.

Until settlement is complete, the sale can still, occasionally, fall over, and if something happens to the property in that window you want to be covered, not arguing about who was. The safe pattern: keep your building cover in place until settlement has actually gone through, then cancel and ask your insurer for a pro-rata refund on anything prepaid. Contents cover can move with your belongings sooner. If you want certainty about the exact day risk passes to the buyer in your state, ask your conveyancer; it’s a one-line email and it’s their bread and butter.

7. Prepare for the final inspection and the handover

Buyers routinely do a pre-settlement inspection in the last few days before settlement. It’s not an ambush; they’re confirming the place is as it was when they signed, agreed repairs are done, and everything included in the sale is still there. Walk through it with them, hand over the manuals folder, show them the water main and the meter box, and tell them the bin night. Two minutes of that kind of generosity sets up the after-sale relationship you want, because minor post-handover questions come to you either way.

Then, on settlement day, your conveyancer confirms the money has moved, adjustments for rates and water are squared away between the legal teams, and the keys change hands. That part, pleasingly, mostly happens without you.

Who to notify: the quick reference

Money: bank, lender, super, insurers, accountant.
Government: ATO, Medicare, electoral roll, licence and rego, council (if you own pets registered locally).
Life: employer, schools, doctors, dentist, vet, pharmacy.
Services: electricity, gas, water, internet, mobile, streaming and deliveries.
People: the neighbours worth keeping, and anyone who posts you things.

The bottom line

Selling without an agent doesn’t get harder at the end; if anything, the last stretch is where a private seller’s directness pays off, because you and the buyer can sort the small stuff with a phone call instead of a game of telephone through two agents. Work the seven steps, keep the insurance until the money clears, and hand over a clean home with a folder of manuals and every key you own.

And if you’re reading this before you’ve sold, the whole journey is more doable than the industry likes to admit. See how selling a property privately works with a flat $979 fee instead of a commission, what the true costs of selling look like, and how long a typical sale takes from listing to settled.

Sell it yourself, with support the whole way

From listing on realestate.com.au and Domain to handover day, PropertyNow gives you the tools and licensed agent support for a flat $979, no commission.

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Frequently asked questions

What do I need to do after my house sells? Between contract and settlement: support your conveyancer with documents, complete agreed repairs, redirect mail, book utility disconnections, do a final clean, keep insurance until settlement completes, and prepare keys, remotes and manuals for handover.

When should I cancel utilities when selling a house? Give providers about two weeks’ notice, but schedule disconnection for a day or two after you move out so the final clean happens with power and water on. Never cut services for a date before the clean.

When do I cancel home insurance after selling? After settlement is complete, not when you move out. The sale isn’t final until settlement, and you want cover if anything happens to the property in between. Ask your insurer for a pro-rata refund of prepaid premiums.

What is the buyer’s final inspection? A pre-settlement walk-through, usually in the last few days before settlement, where the buyer confirms the property’s condition matches the contract and agreed repairs are done. An empty, clean home makes it quick.

Do I need a conveyancer to settle a private sale? You need a licensed conveyancer or solicitor to handle settlement whether or not you used an agent to sell. They manage the legal documents, the money movement and the rates adjustments on the day.