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A guide to methods of sale

How to sell your home: picking the method

A home can be sold in more than one way, and the way you choose decides two things: the moment a buyer is bound, and where your say over the price sits. NSW’s government names the two main ways as private treaty and auction. Other official pages add a fixed-date sale in Victoria and a sale by tender in the Northern Territory.

This is a guide to those methods from the seller’s side, published by Dotto from the official sources listed at the foot of each page. Every rule here names the state that wrote it.

Four routes to a signed contract

Each line below is one method. Each stop is something an official page says happens on it, with the state that says so. Read along a line to see where the price is set, and where the buyer’s chance to walk away sits or disappears.

  1. Private treatyOffers to you or your agent; no auction

    1. You name the lowest price you will take, called the asking price in a private saleVictoria
    2. Buyers make offers, out loud or in writingVictoria
    3. Buyers do not know what others are offeringNorthern Territory
    4. Both of you sign the contract, and the property is soldVictoria

  2. AuctionPublic bidding at a set date, time and place

    1. You give your reserve price in writing before bidding beginsNSW
    2. The auction is advertised for a specific date, time and placeNorthern Territory
    3. Bidding passes the reserveNSW
    4. Sold at the fall of the hammer, and the buyer gets no cooling-offNSW

  3. Fixed-date saleVictoria’s name for a deadline sale

    1. For sales on and from 16 October 2026, your agent publishes your reserve at least 7 days aheadVictoria
    2. Buyers must make their offers by the date and time you setVictoria
    3. Once the sale is unconditional, the final price is publishedVictoria, for sales on and from 16 October 2026

  4. TenderOffers opened together

    1. Buyers are invited to submit an offerNorthern Territory
    2. All offers are considered at a specified timeNorthern Territory
    3. A contract for a home sold by tender carries no cooling-offACT

What the method changes

The buyer’s window

Choose private treaty and, in several states, the buyer keeps a cooling-off period after signing. In Victoria it is three clear business days for private sales of homes and small rural properties, with exceptions: one is a purchase made within three clear business days before or after a public auction. Choose auction and the window closes: Victoria’s page says plainly that at a public auction there is no cooling-off period, and NSW, Queensland and South Australia say the same. Western Australia’s consumer protection agency points out that real estate contracts made in WA carry no mandatory cooling-off period.

Your control over the price

At auction your control is the reserve. Queensland’s guide for sellers says you do not have to set one, but if you do not, you must accept the highest bid. In a private sale your control is the yes: Victoria’s guidance notes that a seller may turn down an offer for reasons other than price, such as the conditions attached to it.

The paperwork clock

Some states time the seller’s documents by method. South Australia requires the Form 1 vendor’s statement for an auction to be available at the auctioneer’s or agent’s office for 3 business days before, and at the site for 30 minutes before; for a private treaty sale it must reach the buyer at least 10 clear days before settlement. From 1 June 2027, Victoria will require agents to make the section 32 vendor statement available at least 14 days before an auction or fixed-date sale, or within 14 days after a private sale is advertised, or before the buyer signs if the home is not advertised or sells within 14 days of being advertised.

Even the agent’s authority can run on a different clock. In Victoria, if an exclusive authority states no period, it runs by default to 30 days after the auction, or 60 days after signing for a private sale.

Selling rules differ between states on almost every point. Where a state is missing from a page, it is because the official pages this guide is built from do not cover it, and the page says so.

The five guides