The 10 Step System to Get Your Condo Sold Fast and For Top Dollar
Selling your condo is one of the most important steps in your life. This 10 step system will give you the tools you need to maximize your profits, maintain control, and reduce the stress that comes with the condo selling process:
- Know why you’re selling and keep it to yourself.
The reasons behind your decision to sell affect everything from setting a price to deciding how much time and money to invest in getting your condo ready for sale. What’s more important to you: the money you walk away with, or the length of time your property is on the market? Different goals will dictate different strategies.
However, besides your realtor who is on the same team, don’t reveal your motivation to anyone else or they may use it against you at the negotiating table. When asked, simply say that your housing needs have changed. - 2. Do your homework before setting a price.
Settling on an offering price shouldn’t be done lightly. Once you’ve set your price, you’ve told buyers the absolute maximum they have to pay for your condo, but pricing too high is as dangerous as pricing too low. Remember that the average buyer is looking at 15-20 condos at the same time they are considering yours. This means that they have a basis of comparison, and if your condo doesn’t compare favorably with others in the price range you’ve set, you won’t be taken seriously by prospects or agents. As a result, your condo will sit on the market for a long time and, knowing this, new buyers on the market will think there must be something wrong with your condo. - Do your homework.
(In fact, your agent should do this for you). Find out what condos in your own and similar neighborhoods have sold for in the past 6-12 months, and research what current condos are listed for. That’s certainly how prospective buyers will assess the worth of your condo. - Find a good real estate agent to represent your needs.
Nearly three-quarters of condo owners claim that they wouldn’t use the same realtor who sold their last condo. Dissatisfaction boils down to poor communication which results in not enough feedback, lower pricing and strained relations. Two other FREE reports titled:
“10 Questions to Ask Before You Hire an Agent” and
“6 Mistakes to avoid when picking a realtor to sell your condo “
give you great pointers and straight, to-the-point questions you should be asking when you interview agents who want to list your condo. send me an email or call and ask for these reports
- Maximize your condo’s sales potential.
Each year, corporate North America spends billions on product and packaging design. Appearance is critical, and it would be foolish to ignore this when selling your condo.
You may not be able to change your condo’s location or floor plan, but you can do a lot to improve its appearance. The look and feel of your condo generates a greater emotional response than any other factor. Clean like you’ve never cleaned before. Pick up, straighten, unclutter, scrub, scour and dust. Fix everything, no matter how insignificant it may appear. Present your condo to get a “wow” response from prospective buyers.
Allow the buyers to imagine themselves living in your condo. The decision to buy a condo is based on emotion, not logic. Prospective buyers want to try on your condo just like they would a new suit of clothes. If you follow them around pointing out improvements or if your decor is so different that it’s difficult for a buyer to strip it away in his or her mind, you make it difficult for them to feel comfortable enough to imagine themselves an owner. - Make it easy for prospects to get information on your condo.
You may be surprised to know that some marketing tools that most agents use to sell condos (e.g. traditional open houses) are actually not very effective. In fact, only 1% of condos are sold at an open house.
Furthermore, you want to make sure your realtor is tech savvy since more than 90% of the buyers look for condos online. You need to ask your realtor about the websites they are planning to advertise your unit, the frequency and check the traffic of their websites. This makes an enormous difference to find out which realtor can give your condo the most exposure. And remember, the more buyers you have competing for your condo the better, because it sets up an auction-like atmosphere that puts you in the driver’s seat. - Know your buyer.
In the negotiation process, your objective is to control the pace and set the duration. What is your buyer’s motivation? Does s/he need to move quickly? Does s/he have enough money to pay you your asking price? Knowing this information gives you the upper hand in the negotiation because you know how far you can push to get what you want - Make sure the contract is complete.
For your part as a seller, make sure you disclose everything. Smart sellers proactively go above and beyond the laws to disclose all known defects to their buyers in writing. If the buyer knows about a problem, s/he can’t come back with a lawsuit later on.
Make sure all terms, costs and responsibilities are spelled out in the contract of sale, and resist the temptation to diverge from the contract. For example, if the buyer requests a move-in prior to closing, just say no. Now is not the time to take any chances of the deal falling through. - Don’t move out before you sell.
Studies have shown that it is more difficult to sell a condo that is vacant because it looks forlorn, forgotten, simply not appealing. It could even cost you thousands. If you move, you’re also telling buyers that you have a new condo and are probably highly motivated to sell fast. This, of course, will give them the advantage at the negotiating table. - 10. Do not underestimate the power of staging
Staging helps buyers to visualize how they could place their own furniture best in the condo and when professionally done, it gives a perfect impression to your buyer as to how to decorate the unit with high quality furniture with designer touch.
Staged units also look larger than empty units! Ask me for another free report titled “ Does home staging help me sell my condo?! 8 Hints “ for more info on staging.
At Home Leader, we pride ourselves in being specialists in resale and pre-construction condos for the past two decades. We are committed to get you top dollar. Use our services and we guarantee you’ll like the result and you will join the pool of our happy clients.