First things first. To make your condo ready for sale, you need to clean and spiff up the place. If there are small, nagging little repairs that need to be made, contact your maintenance contractors immediately and get those done. If you can move out most of your stuff to leave rooms open and fresh, do so. And, if the landscaping crew has been a bit sloppy, ask for special attention to get the outside of your unit looking good. The polishing up is merely cosmetic, but it can help clench a sale for an interested buyer.
Tell everyone you know that you are selling your condo. That includes your condo neighbors, your coworkers, friends, and local merchants. This type of viral marketing can be amazingly effective, especially since many of the people you know may want a condo for the same reasons that you did. Also be sure to list your condo on FREEhomeownerlistings.com. It’s free and gets lots of exposure. If you plan to use an agent to help sell your condo, now is the time to find one that you feel comfortable with. You can find qualified agents in your area at Respond.com and most major realtors also have specialists to assist you in selling your condo.
If you decide to use a real estate agent or broker to help sell your condo, you have three types of listing options: An open listing that allows one or more brokers to offer the property and also gives you the right to sell the condo yourself and not pay a commission; an exclusive-agency listing with one broker that still preserves your right to sell the property yourself; or an exclusive-right-to-sell listing which gives only one broker the right to represent you and guarantees the broker a commission.
How to advertise your condo for sale. Although you will want to have basic information on size, number of bedrooms, and bathrooms, the key task in selling your condo is using “grabbers” that reflect what your potential buyers are looking for in selecting a condo. These grabbers might include: