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The following was a question that was asked to me by a reader. I thought it would be a good read for anyone looking to sell their Condo privately.
How good is BYTHEOWNER.COM (for selling condos in Mississauga / GTA) as compared to MLS.ca?
Excellent question…
I guess the deep rooted question here is, “Do you see value in what a REALTOR can do to sell your home?”
The main difference between what MLS.ca has to offer versus any other Private Real Estate Sales website is Service that you receive. What are you trying to achieve when selling your home? Trying to find the right buyer for the property. To find the right buyer, you need to have maximum exposure. Here’s a trend graph from Google Trends that shows the activity that takes place on different private sale websites vs. MLS.ca
Having said that, let’s talk more about what you’re question is.
Selling a Condo (I’m assuming an apartment not a townhouse) is hard as it is when listing it on MLS. There are a couple of factors that come into play when selling a Condo.
Common Elements: Even before the buyer gets to the condo, they have to be sold on the common elements. The front entrance, the buzzer, the lobby, the elevator, the stairs, the hallway and then it’s time for the condo. I’ve seen it happen where my buyers won’t even go to the Condo or will go to the condo just to show that they came but their decision is made as soon as they enter the front door. What this means for Sellers is longer time on the market.
Advertising: This is another issue when selling a Condo. Most condominium corporations won’t allow you to place For Sale Signs in front of the building which means that you can’t get the inquiries (which tabulates to about 15% of all inquiries) that come off the sign. Also, you can’t hang any signs in your balcony to attract buyers either!
Open houses: They help when selling properties. Having an open house in a building is not only hard but is stressful enough to drive people mental. If you have security at the entrance, your potential buyers will have a hard time getting to the condo.
Now let’s compare notes between any or all private sale website and MLS.ca.
REALTOR all share MLS.ca and send out notifications to their buyers if a new property matching their criteria comes up for sale. Private For Sale Websites do that as well but it depends on which site you use and how many buyers are registered.
REALTOR and Sellers will both have to rely on old school and highly technical marketing methods and make the contact point high impact.
Old school means that you will have to find your buyer through face to face conversation or through an integrated website that will make a positive impact and cause them to inquire further about the property. You (REALTOR and/or Private Sellers) will have to go knock doors in the building to see if anyone knows anyone that is looking to move there. This can also be done by flyers.
Highly technical would be to incorporate virtual tours, lots of pictures, including of common elements in the listings to ensure buyers that click on your property are intrigued and want to see the place in person. This also means that the property has to be staged very WELL and completely clutter free.
In a nut shell, they both represent their unique challenges. I won’t recommend you to go one way or another but rather experiment. If you have time and can endure people calling you at odd times to setup appointments, try selling your home privately first before going with a REALTOR.
I have a program for private sales in which I share how I go about selling homes that are in tough situations as this and getting the maximum results for my clients. PM me and I can email you the report for your review.
I hope that answered your question!
The contributing factor,
Addy Saeed
Real Estate Sales Representative
Re/max Active Realty Inc., Brokerage
http://www.HeyAddy.com
