How Does a REALTOR® Improve the Final Sale Price of a Condo?
By Condo Culture
In a strong condo seller’s market it’s not unusual to see homeowners contemplating selling their property by themselves or through a limited services brokerage to save on commission fees.
You have to ask yourself this one simple question - is your core condo selling goal to maximize your profit? Most homeowners and investors care most about the bottom line profit number, and want to do everything possible to ensure that no money is left on the table.
For most homeowners, their home is one of the biggest assets they own. Because of this, it’s important to focus on finding the most skilled professional to help you maximize it’s value, not the cheapest.
What’s your condo worth? Get a free estimated value for your unit complete with personalized video analysis to help you understand what it could potentially sell for if marketed and sold through Condo Culture.
There might be a bit of a misunderstanding about what it actually takes to sell a product that’s in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some homeowners and investors may tell you that listing your condo or townhome for sale on MLS and REALTOR.ca is all you need to do and wait for the offers to roll in. The problem with using this marketing tactic alone is that it more than likely won’t help to maximize the final sale price or profit number. Selling a real estate product requires a more diverse multi-pronged marketing approach if the end goal is to walk away with as much money as possible when a deal closes.
Working Through the Numbers
On average, studies show that a property sells for 13% more when a brokerage and REALTOR® are involved compared to a private sale using similar properties as references. Let’s break down the numbers to see what this means using a condo selling example. Let’s say a private condo sale ends up being $500K and costs $2,000 between the MLS listing and other marketing expenses - the resulting profit is $498K. Now breaking down a brokerage sale, let’s take our 13% more on average stat from above and apply it to that $500K private sale - meaning that same unit could have sold for roughly $565K. Let’s use 4% for the total commission fee which is typical in the Waterloo Region, so $565K - 4% (or $22,600) = a profit of $542,400 or $44,400 more in profit than the private sale.
It’s completely understandable that you may be concerned about paying thousands in commissions, but think more about the higher sale price that a REALTOR® and his or her brokerage can produce, and the larger profit that ultimately goes to you. Your primary goal shouldn’t be to save as much as possible, but to make as much as possible once your deal closes. Selling on your own can also be a huge undertaking and time commitment.
Discount and Limited-Service Brokerages
If you don’t have the time, energy, and experience to sell your condo by yourself, then perhaps you have been looking at discount and limited-service brokerages as potential options, but there are some key things to keep in mind about these types of businesses.
- They aren’t motivated to maximize your profit > their end goal is to sell your property as quickly as possible and move on to the next customer.
- They don’t provide the highest quality content which is the initial foundation for attracting the most and best buyers.
- They don’t typically do much for marketing and heavily rely on MLS and REALTOR.ca to find their potential buyers which is very limiting.
- They often don’t provide outstanding customer service since, again, they are structured to handle volume and lack the bandwidth to develop a solid relationship with every client.
How We Position Your Condo For Success
Condo Culture is a very tech-driven and forward-thinking premier condo brokerage with a plethora of value-added services. We employ in-house photographers, videographers, designers, tech developers, marketers, and other business professionals, plus our REALTOR® team is second to none with deep expertise in the condo market.
Our website is the top condo search site throughout the Waterloo Region with nearly 100K unique visitors annually and growing. Through our website and marketing efforts, we have attracted thousands of active buyers and investors looking for their next property to purchase, and as a result, condo listings on our website get plenty of views and tour requests.
Every new condo listing first starts its journey by having the highest quality content possible created so we can market the unit to the best of our abilities. We capture beautiful and extensive images of each unit, shoot virtual video tours and can even grab aerial drone footage for our townhome-style condos, along with creating interactive 3D/360-degree experiences where potential buyers can look closely at every cubic foot.
Once we produce a condo’s listing content, it’s time to start crafting stories around the unit. We use a variety of marketing outlets including our various social media channels, promotion of listings in our weekly newsletter, provide exposure on our popular blog, showcase listings on our large windows at our Uptown Waterloo store (below the Bauer Lofts at 191 King Street South), plus there is matchmaking happening behind the scenes between our team and buyers and investors who are always eager to quickly pounce on properties that interest them.
These are just a few of the reasons why the average Condo Culture REALTOR® sells 42 condos per year, whereas the average agent at brokerages with non-specialized condo experience sells under 2 annually.
For most homeowners, their home is one of their biggest assets. To protect that asset, goals need to be closely aligned between condo sellers, brokerages, and REALTOR® pros, and it’s important to have the most experienced and skilled team in your corner to help you achieve your exciting goals. Learn more about how we help homeowner clients strategically market and successfully sell their condos for top dollar.
To truly maximize your condo’s final sale value, it’s imperative that you work with a professional team with deep condo expertise that Condo Culture has in abundance. The cheapest option may have some appeal at first glance, but keep in mind that their marketing and sales services are limited, and as a result, aren’t positioned to produce the most profit possible for their clients. At the end of the day, if your primary goal is to walk away with as much money as you can, then you need the condo experts on your side to achieve the greatest success. We don’t want to see you leave money on the table, and would love to be your condo selling partner and celebrate with you once your big deal closes!
Just to recap - selling condos and townhomes is possible to do yourself or through limited-service brokerages, but you most likely won’t maximize your profit margin unless you work with a premium services brokerage such as Condo Culture. Each real estate transaction has many unique intricacies and nuances that are best handled by professionals to save you tons of time and make you more money.
To see firsthand how we can help you successfully achieve your exciting condo selling, buying, leasing, or investment goals - contact us online, call us at 226-773-4505, or visit our Waterloo store at 191 King Street South which is located beneath the Bauer Lofts. We look forward to connecting with you and demonstrating why we are the area’s premier condo brokerage.
To read about what our wonderful clients are saying about us as a brokerage, a team, and the value we provide, visit our Google Reviews page.