Last month, we decided to sell one of our investment condos.
Obviously, as REALTORS ourselves, we give a lot of advice to Sellers about selling their property for top dollar. But what would we do when faced with the same scenario?
- We listed at market value, even though we didn’t want to OK, I’ll admit, we wanted to list high. Sure, we can see what condos in our building usually sell for, but our condo was special! Surely it was the best condo in the building and should be sold at a premium? We eventually smartened up and listed at market value (which worked – we had 2 offers in 2 days).
- We brought in a photographer – Funnily enough, we were tempted to save the $200 on a photographer and take the pictures ourselves. I know, that’s ridiculous, given we know more than anyone that good photos go a long way to selling a property. In the end, we spent the money and brought in a professional, just as we do for all our clients.
- We listed the condo on MLS – As real estate agents, we have access to a ton of Buyers and we get 700 people a day on our website. It’s not inconceivable that we could have found a buyer for our property ourselves (thus saving the commission). Knowing the importance of having a property seen by as many buyers as quickly as possible, we listed it on MLS and were happy to pay for the other agent’s services.
- We brought in our cleaners This is standard practice for our listings, so bringing in our cleaners/stagers was a no-brainer to showcase the loft.
- We were flexible with showings We allowed people to see the property whenever they wanted, with or without notice (it helps of course that we weren’t living there).
- We marketed the heck out of it We treated our own property like we treat our clients’ homes, and in the mere two days it was on the market, had over 200 people view the property on our website (and who knows how many on MLS). In fact, we’re still getting calls from people wanting to see it.
- We struggled with which offer to accept I have to be honest, I didn’t truly appreciate how hard it is to choose between two very similar offers. In the end, it came down to money, but the size of the deposit and the ‘story’ of who the buyers weighed on us.
- We messed up our own paperwork. We’re sticklers for initials and paperwork always being 100% right, but in all the excitement, we forgot to initial a few things. I guess that’s what a REALTOR is there for – unemotional reading of the legal stuff.
All in all, selling our own condo was a good learning experience and a reminder about the fears and challenges our clients go through when listing their homes.
