Chatswood Probate Sale: How an Executor Avoided a Fire Sale by Going Off-Market

Graham, the executor of his late mother's estate in Chatswood, was managing everything from interstate. The house — a well-maintained 4-bedroom brick home on a 780m² block near Chatswood High School — had been in the family for 38 years.

A traditional agency campaign would take 8–12 weeks at minimum: appraisal, photography, styling, signboard, digital marketing, 4 weeks of open homes, auction day, then a 6-week settlement. Graham did not have that kind of runway.

We mapped out what a standard agent-managed probate sale would have looked like:

The commission alone — $53,750 — is a significant chunk of any estate. On top of that, probate auctions often achieve lower prices because buyers know the vendor (the executor) is motivated to sell quickly. That dynamic works against the estate.

We matched the property with a buyer from our off-market network — a professional couple whose extended family needed a larger home in the Chatswood school catchment. They had been searching for 4 months but kept losing out at auction to investors and developers.

Here is how the timeline played out:

The whole process — from first contact to unconditional contract — took 21 days. A traditional auction campaign would not even have produced a marketing brochure by that point.

This does not account for the discount buyers typically demand at probate auctions. Domain data shows that estate properties sold at auction in 2025 averaged 5–8% below comparable non-estate sales. On a $2.15M property, that could mean another $107,500 to $172,000 loss.

"I was dreading the agent song and dance — the appraisal meeting, the pitch about how they would 'position' the property, the weekly calls urging me to drop the price. We just wanted the thing done properly and privately. The whole thing took three weeks and we were done." — Graham, executor of the Chatswood estate

The estate saved an estimated $107,500 in commission and marketing costs. The buyer was a local family who planned to renovate and move in — not an investor or a developer. The house stayed off all public databases, so neighbours and extended family never saw a "For Sale" sign.

Most importantly, the three siblings received their inheritance within 9 weeks of the initial contact, rather than the 4–6 months a public auction campaign would have taken.

If you are handling an estate in NSW, here are a few things that matter:

• You can sell off-market as an executor — there is no legal requirement to put a deceased estate on the open market. The executor's duty is to get the best price reasonably achievable, not to run a public campaign.
• Probate must be granted first — you cannot exchange contracts until probate is officially granted by the Supreme Court of NSW. However, you can find a buyer and negotiate terms while probate is processing.
• Get a valuation for the estate — you will need a probate valuation (usually a registered valuation or a real estate appraisal) for NSW Trustee and Guardian purposes. We can help arrange this independently.
• Capital gains tax may apply — if the property increased in value between the date of death and the date of sale, CGT may be payable by the estate. Speak with a tax agent or accountant before committing to a sale.