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-- Selling a condo yourself?
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I was a realtor for a few years, here's some information.

There are a number of methods you can use to sell a place, with different amounts of work and expense involved:
1 - sell all by yourself with no realtors, you do some work & save big
2 - pay a real estate assistance company a few hundred $ for a sign and some forms & advice
3 - Do not MLS list but offer "courtesy to realtors" so you pay half the usual commission
4 - "exclusive listing" or non-MLS at half commission rate
5 - discount MLS listing, being offered by some new agencies
6 - MLS listing, this is the easiest but most expensive

1 - Definitely get some books that have advice & legal forms to help sell a property in your area & pre-contact a lawyer or notary public who you will use to handle the sales contract when you get an acceptable offer. Make a nice information sheet about your place and put the information and pictures on the Web. Consider paying an inspection company to do a written report on the state of your property if for example it is an older house. The more information the buyer has about your property, the more likely they are to buy it. No information = no sale. Just putting up a sign is not enough.

2 - To sell your place you could use one of those real estate assistance companies that charge a few hundred dollars and you get a sign & some help.

3 - If you end up deciding you need help from a realtor, you can offer "courtesy to realtors" on your property description sheet and web page. You offer a fee that is about half the usual total commish to the licensed agent that brings in a buyer. That way you are not listing your place on MLS and avoiding paying 2 realtors. The agent or realtor who lists your house on MLS normally does very little work so you are cutting him out.

4 - The next level is to sign an "exclusive listing" or non-MLS agreement where the realtor is required to find a buyer and the commission should be half the usual MLS rate. Usually this does not work because the agent doesn't know enough buyers, he gets hassled by other realtors who want to bring in a buyer, so he ends up pressuring you to go MLS at double the cost.

5 - A full MLS listing at reduced commission rates is offered by some new agencies. I would check these guys out if I wanted to sell a property and didn't have time to do the job myself. However, the listings from these companies are sometimes ignored by realtors at the full-rate established companies, because they want more commish money. In my area these new companies are the only agencies that actually advertise their commission rates. For consumers, this is a good thing, it makes the marketplace of real-estate services more competitive.

6 - If you actually put your place on MLS with one of the conventional old-school real estate agencies, push for a low commission, and consider asking the listing agent to take a smaller share of the commission than the buyer's realtor. Normally the 2 realtors get 50% of the commission each, but the listing realtor does much less work. Tell the agent to NOT advertise your place. The sign, MLS catalog, and MLS website is where the realtors and serious buyers find out about your place. Newspaper & R.E. flyer ads real purpose is not to advertise your place but to get the realtor's name known & bring him in new listing deals. If you tell the listing agent to not advertise, that saves him money and is another reason for you to justify asking him for reduced commish. Another thing you can do is arrange that YOU should be contacted direct by the buyer's realtor to set up an appointment when they want to take clients through the place. That saves the listing realtor a lot of hassle and is another reason for you to ask for a reduced commission rate. Basically most of the listing realtor's expense and work is advertising your place (those lame newspaper ads) and handling appointments so if you eliminate those things he has an expense-free and hassle-free listing that he should be willing to do for a low commission.

As a former realtor I can tell you that IMO the industry is bent, many of the people are unethical and in some cases dishonest, so be very careful when dealing with them. Even the honest realtors are forced to go along with certain practices that cost you (such as minimum commission rates, they are illegal but in reality everyone uses them).

A typical thing they will do to get your listing is to over-price your place and tell you it's prime property and will be easy to sell fast. Then after it's listed and does not sell, they persuade you to lower the price. So you've wasted time by listing with a dishonest person who lied to you about the price estimate. What else will they be dishonest about? Better to have listed with a more honest realtor who gave you a realistic but lower price estimate.

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When you are buying, watch out for realtors who steer you to buy their listings. They do not need to share the commish with another realtor in this case so they make DOUBLE the usual amount. If you want to buy that agent's listing ask him for a big price reduction, or put in writing on the "offer to purchase" that the listing commission will not exceed what is half the usual amount in your area. If they or the seller won't do that, get another realtor.

BTW the realtors are required by law to present all your offers to the seller. They cannot just tell you your offer is inadequate and not pass it on to the seller. You should complain to the local real estate board and the realtor's manager if that happens.

quote:

Originally posted by psychosomatica One day, ebay is going to smoke the real estate market... the middleman will disappear.

and they will all become plumbers

quote:

Originally posted by AwakenedAddict Using a real estate agent to sell your house/condo may result in a quicker sale, but using a real estate agent reduces the ultimate selling price of your real estate. Think of it this way. If you are going to sell your condo for $300,000 the real estate agent will make a $9000 commission (3%). However, if you want your real estate agent to look for a better selling price, he will most likely advise you to take the offer now. That is because it's not worth it for him to go through all the work of finding a buyer that might pay $20,000 more, since the commission to him will only be 3% of that or $600.

I am not sure about what kind of realtors you have worked with, or known in the past, but this is not true. I work at a real estate office, I am in the process of obtaining my licence and this is not something that happens a lot, unless u r dealing with the wrong people. A realtor sells themselves. Don't u think that if they were to "advise you to take the offer now" (by the way, if the council were to find out about this, you could get sued) that it would hurt their reputation? They would become known for this and lose loyal and potential clients.

quote:

Originally posted by MarkT sure, you could rent out to someone else...but will the rent cover your costs (mortgage payment, condo fees and property taxes)? Also, not all banks will use 100% of the rental income to offset those property costs when qualifying you for the mortgage on the 2nd property. CIBC used 50% of rental income, for example.

Also, don't forget that rental income adds to your taxable income just the same as employment income so what you keep is 25-50% less then what you will keep (depending on your bracket). Plus it could put you into a higher bracket all together which is always a pain in the ass.

quote:

Originally posted by Moral Hazard Also, don't forget that rental income adds to your taxable income just the same as employment income so what you keep is 25-50% less then what you will keep (depending on your bracket). Plus it could put you into a higher bracket all together which is always a pain in the ass.

Having rental income also opens you up to some sweet ass deductions that would otherwise be unavailable.

^^^

true...anyone who reports anything near their actual rental income needs a new accountant.

you can write off all of the maintenance (everything from actual repairs to cutting the grass), for example...plus the interest on the mortgage as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Moral Hazard Also, don't forget that rental income adds to your taxable income just the same as employment income so what you keep is 25-50% less then what you will keep (depending on your bracket). Plus it could put you into a higher bracket all together which is always a pain in the ass.

yes...rental income naturally needs to be declared, though some legal accounting practices usually will substantially reduce how much is taxable income (deducting mortgage interest, maintenance, etc)

The whole "puts you in a higher tax bracket" thing is so misunderstood though, IMHO.

When you pass a certain income threshold, a higher tax rate applies...but it's not your *entire* income that is subject to the higher tax rate, just that portion of your income that falls into that higher tax bracket.

Take a look at your completed Federal Tax form (Sch.1, I think?) and this is pretty clear to see.

What is true is that the rental income would be added "on top" of your income and subject to the higher of the two or more tax brackets to which your income may be subject...I think that's what you mean?

quote:

Originally posted by MarkT ^^^ The whole "puts you in a higher tax bracket" thing is so misunderstood though, IMHO.

With all the crap he posts he must be in that bracket anyhow.

save yourself the trouble.. get an agent.. your time is worth money as well..

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