Timing is Everything - Decide the Right Time To Sell Your Condo

Pinpointing when to sell your condominium will be based on many different considerations, including:

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Comparable listings in your building - The quantity, quality and list price of the current comparable units listed in your condo building must be considered.

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Time of year - Real estate in the Waterloo Region, as in most markets, is seasonal. With December and January generally being slower months. However, there is surely something to be said for listing your condo when competition is at a low point and inventory is low.

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State of the real estate market - Consumer confidence and interest rates may affect the price of your condo.

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What's Motivating you? - If you're moving out of the region or have already purchased a new property, then that time line will likely trump all else when considering the sale of your property.

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Current competition for comparable condos in comparable buildings - While less important than what's going on in your building, if you have a one bed+ den and there are more on the market than usual, that will impact how long it takes your condo to sell.

Get your condo ready to hit the market

When preparing your condo for sale, its important to consider these 3 goals:

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One of the biggest challenges of condo living is space. Its important to utilize and emphasize each square foot as much as possible. This can be achieved by decluttering. When decluttering, the goal is to make the space look as big as possible. Remove all personal items, bulky furniture and anything that could distract possible Buyers. Smaller furniture makes the rooms within your condo look bigger. A good tip when trying to make a bedroom look larger is to consider switching your large king-sized bed that takes up the whole room for a smaller one. In the living room, a good idea is to replace the L-shaped couch consuming the entire space with a more compact version.

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Make sure every room is presented to its optimal use. For example, if you have been using your second bedroom as a walk-in closet, it's important to convert it back to be a bedroom during the listing. Buyers often have a hard time imagining things, so put a dining table in the dining room and a bed in the bedroom.

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The cleaner your condo is, the better and faster it will sell. Buyers typically look beyond the surface - they'll look inside your closets, your kitchen cupboards and your bathroom vanity. Make sure everything shines!

Pricing Your Condo for Sale

Attempting to pinpoint the value of a condominium is often much easier than valuating a house. This is generally because within a condo, there are likely identical or nearly identical units that have sold in your building. When determining the value of a condo, realtors and appraisers figure out the price per square foot of recent sales and use that as a benchmark when providing a value for your condo. For example, an 800 sqft condo may be worth $900 per square foot or $720,000.

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It's important to note:

Diminishing per square foot returns on size - the larger the condominium, the lower the cost per square foot. Each square foot becomes less valuable as there are more of them.

Showings

When Buyers make an appointment to view your condo, keep the following in mind:

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Leave the condo! Buyers find it very distracting when they have to walk around the owner.

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Ensure flexibility with showing times - Due to high levels of competition in the market, its important to make it easy for buyers to see your condo.

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If your condo is occupied by a tenant, a notice of at least 24 hours will need to be provided for all showings. If the sale is quick, it will be less intrusive for your tenant, so their cooperation in maintaining cleanliness and de-cluttering will go a long way.

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It's important for buyers to have easy access to the building facilities. A good way to assure this is to make sure the realtors have access to a FOB so they can show your facilities!

Closing Day

As closing day gets closer, you'll need to make sure to:

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If you can, book the elevator for your move out. Do this early because there are usually time and day restrictions!

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Inform your property manager that you are moving and cancel your monthly maintenance fees.

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Inform utility companies of your impending move.