Selling a condo by owner is a little different than selling a home by owner. Depending on the size of your building, you may have to notify neighbors, the condo association board, even your doorman. Use this checklist to navigate to unique the steps you’ll take from pricing your condo to the paperwork a buyer will need during negotiations and closing.
- Check with your neighbors and the association to be sure that you are not scheduling your open houses to coincide with parties, maintenance, renovation or even deep cleaning of the common areas.
- If you’ll be out of town over the course of your listing, arrange with friendly neighbors to show your unit. Don’t forget to say thanks with the occasional muffin basket.
- Promote your listing through your HOA intranet and related social media, not to mention the bulletin board at the fitness center.
- Loop in your HOA’s management firm. Ask the manager for your complex to cross-post the listing for your unit to the other associations it manages.
- Calculate the price per square foot so buyers can easily comparison-shop.
- Explain your rationale for your asking price. Show how your unit compares to others and how each difference affects the price per square foot. For example, the value of high-rise units rises with each floor – to quantify the ever-more-sweeping view. Find out what the additional value is per floor – $2,000 per unit? More? – and add the explanation to your pricing sheet. Make a copy of this for the appraiser.
- Get the doorman on your side. You already know his sweet spot – a fresh cup of coffee from your kitchen as you’re headed out the door to work? Fresh flowers for the front desk? You’ll be relying on his goodwill to welcome potential buyers, so cultivate that goodwill early and often.
- Find out what regulations apply to signs in the windows of your unit and on the parkway or lawn of the building or complex. You will need to check with both the homeowners association and the municipal zoning department.
Have all the paperwork ready. Your buyer will need multiple copies, for herself and for her lawyer. Essential documents are:
- Copies of the legal description, including parking & storage spaces
- CC&R – Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions
- Articles of Incorporation
- Bylaws
- Rules and regulations currently enforced
- Most recent financial statements of the homeowners’ association
- Current operating budget
- One year’s minutes of HOA meetings
