Selling condo without agent?

If you arent in a hurry, you can either go with www.fsbo.ca or go with a realtor that charges a flat fee ($500-999). The only problem is that you wont get much traffic because realtors will see that youre not offering any commission. Still, you will get some traffic because you live in a desirable area and people do go on realtor.ca to preview homes by themselves.

Hmmm, didnt think of that. How does the buying agent make money then? Immmm definitely not paying him anything.
Would agents not recommend my purdy little condo to their clients since i would be independant?

kingkelly wrote: ↑Im going to need to sell my condo at yonge and eglinton in the next couple of months, and was pondering whether its doable without an agent.

My place is worth about 300k a year ago when i bought it, and now i unexpectantly have to move and sell it. I dont know much as im just diving into this now, but its my assuption that i lose 5% to the agents when i sell? (i.e 15k!)

So if i can sell it on my own, then its definitely worth the trouble.

Has anyone tried this, or would recommend for/against it? i just dont see a real estate agents efforts being worth 15k with their bad photography and cheesy descriptions to sell my place.

Be careful. You can negotiate rate to 3.5%. I just did two months back. Same situation.

I would go with agent. Condo market is hot. I can PM you my brokers name/No if you like.

My thinking was better lose some money than getting ripped of by buyers.
I had very bad experiences with Indian buyers. Just bargaining like hell. pissed me so much.
Went with brokers and done in 4 days.

Now you can even list it at a flat rate through a real estate agent for $999 with full brokerage service (open houses/MLS listing etc.).

Instead of $999, cant I just list it myself on MLS for less? is that allowed now?
A grand to list on realtor sounds like a lot to me. I can do my own open house too, dont really need a realtor for a 10 minute tour. When i bought my place, the realtor was just sitting on a chair while i walked around.

kingkelly wrote: ↑Hmmm, didnt think of that. How does the buying agent make money then? Immmm definitely not paying him anything.
Would agents not recommend my purdy little condo to their clients since i would be independant?

The problem is that if the buyer has signed an agreement with their agent, it will almost always say that they (the buyer) are responsible for the commission if the seller is not providing it. As I buyer, I would tell my realtor not to show me any of those properties as I would not be willing to pay a cent. If I did see one of those properties and found out I'd have to pay the commission, I wouldn't consider it.

kingkelly wrote: ↑Instead of $999, cant I just list it myself on MLS for less? is that allowed now?
A grand to list on realtor sounds like a lot to me. I can do my own open house too, dont really need a realtor for a 10 minute tour. When i bought my place, the realtor was just sitting on a chair while i walked around.

You've got a variety of options:

1. List privately for free on non MLS (ie. Craigslist, Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace)

2. List on MLS as a "Mere Listing" with 0 commission offered to the buyer agent, typically for about $499 - your listing goes on public (Realtor) and agent (TREBnet) MLS for exposure, and an agent comes and takes measurements for you. No lockbox, open-houses or any other Realtor services in this case. All calls will come to the Brokerage office, who will provide your contact information to callers and you will handle all appointment bookings, confirmations, paperwork as well as negotiations. Due to $0 being offered to buyer agent, don't expect much (if any) agents bringing their buyer clients in. The $499 listing fee will be upfront and typically non-refundable, unless you switch to a full-service package.

3. List on MLS as a "Mere Listing" with a reasonable market rate commission offered to the buyer agent, typically for about $499 (plus buyer agent commission). Same deal as above, except if there is a reasonable market rate commission offered, buyer agents will actively bring in their clients.

4. List with a "Big Shot Realtor" for 4-6% total commission, where you sit back and they handle everything from start to end.

5. List with a Realtor for a flat fee, ie. $1799 plus buyer agent commission, and like above, sit back and have everything handled for you from start to end.


Weigh all your options, pros & cons of each before you make a decision. Good luck!

Oh nice, thanks for all that!

Sitting back would be niiice, but man, $15,000 compared to $500? I wouldnt mind putting in a bit of effort and reading if i can swing just the MLS listing.

From my own personal view, I dont rely on realtors to bring me listings. I would think that most who are actively looking for a condo are checking realtor.ca everyday like I was. So i guess i dont weigh my listing on the realtors MLS too heavily.

Im most concerned about the buying agent not getting anything out of the deal. Would he start talking **** against my little condo? Do they do that to independant sellers?

Also, where would i get all the crazy paperwork when an offer comes in? I remember before that my agent and i had to fill out a whack of papers for an offer, even though it was all pretty much templates he printed out and signed.

kingkelly wrote: ↑Oh nice, thanks for all that!

Sitting back would be niiice, but man, $15,000 compared to $500? I wouldnt mind putting in a bit of effort and reading if i can swing just the MLS listing.

From my own personal view, I dont rely on realtors to bring me listings. I would think that most who are actively looking for a condo are checking realtor.ca everyday like I was. So i guess i dont weigh my listing on the realtors MLS too heavily.

Im most concerned about the buying agent not getting anything out of the deal. Would he start talking **** against my little condo? Do they do that to independant sellers?

Also, where would i get all the crazy paperwork when an offer comes in? I remember before that my agent and i had to fill out a whack of papers for an offer, even though it was all pretty much templates he printed out and signed.

If you list with an agent who is charging 5%, you will be out $16,950 (incl. HST) if your property sells at 300K

If you list with a flat-fee full service agent who is charging 2032.87 (1799 + HST) and 2.25% buyer agent (7627.50 incl HST) you would be out 9660.37 (incl HST) if your property sells at 300K

If you list with a "mere listing", you would be out around $620 (incl HST & admin) and with no buyer agent compensation given - it's the cheapest option, however unless it's priced extremely competitively (keeping in mind recent comparable solds) and the fact that a buyer that approaches you privately will ask for a further discount, it may take longer than anticipated to sell.

The only way you'd truly maximize the benefits from a TREBnet (Realtor MLS) listing vs. a simple listing on Realtor.ca (Public MLS) is if you offer a buyer agent commission. Although people can go and put an offer in themselves privately, truth is majority serious buyers still use a buyer agent for their purchases and obviously if the buyer agent wants to make money, they will actively send their clients the listings and take them out to showings.

If no compensation is listed on a particular property but the client is still interested, it's true that the agent will make all sorts of excuses in the book to a) avoid showing that property - or b) if they showed that property but realized there's no compensation after the fact, they will push their clients to another similar property where they will be making something. So to answer your question in a nutshell, yes, many agents will spread a negative word about your property if there is no compensation offered.

Case in point would be the many FSBO type listings (propertydudes, bytheseller.com etc) whose listings become stale after a few months, but then as soon as they're listed with compensation being offered to a buyer agent, they are quickly sold.

With regards to the paperwork, typically if you sign up for a "mere listing" with an agent, they will provide you with the papers and forms you need to complete the transactions - and at the same time will (should) be available for any inquiries or questions during the process.

If you need forms, pm me and even I can send them to you. They're also readily available on the net.

Good luck!

If you aren't in a rush, you can list on the various for sale by owner sites. We sold our condo (Yonge & Empress) privately back in 2007; but it took about 5 months.

We didn't do any open houses, just entertained visits by different people; mostly agents who wanted us to list the property with them.

Abechalfoot wrote: ↑Be careful. You can negotiate rate to 3.5%. I just did two months back. Same situation.

I would go with agent. Condo market is hot. I can PM you my brokers name/No if you like.

My thinking was better lose some money than getting ripped of by buyers.
I had very bad experiences with Indian buyers. Just bargaining like hell. pissed me so much.
Went with brokers and done in 4 days.

I agree. Those people will expect a lot lower price if you sell private. So at the end even you sold it private, you are not better off in term $ saved, but definitely lot of headaches dealing with those phone calls and viewing.

One guy even told me that he expected a lot cheaper if it is private sale. At the end, why would buyers do it when their buyer service is free from agent.

I used www.flatfeeanthony.com, its 500 bucks to list your home on the MLS and set up your buying commission %. Give 1.5% if you wish. You can ask for his recent sales... He's really good, the best thing is he is a Homelife Agent, not a no name real estate company.

Flat fee anthony is awesome. If you want good service PM me for a referral. He will give you all the market statistics of what has sold within your building and is helpful deciding on a price and what not. He list's on both private and public MLS which means you get maximum exposure. (this beats property guys public only mls listing hands down) Unfortunately you cannot be that cheap and offer the buyers agent 1.5% people won't view your house. The Standard is 2.5%. We offered 2.25% and it sold fast but would not go any lower then 2.25% and stay at 2.5% if you can.

kingkelly wrote: ↑Im going to need to sell my condo at yonge and eglinton in the next couple of months, and was pondering whether its doable without an agent.

My place is worth about 300k a year ago when i bought it, and now i unexpectantly have to move and sell it. I dont know much as im just diving into this now, but its my assuption that i lose 5% to the agents when i sell? (i.e 15k!)

So if i can sell it on my own, then its definitely worth the trouble.

Has anyone tried this, or would recommend for/against it? i just dont see a real estate agents efforts being worth 15k with their bad photography and cheesy descriptions to sell my place.

OP, just following up - any updates regarding your condo sale?

Thanks for the wakeup y2J.

Still getting all my stuff together, planning/hoping to list it by end of august. Still not sure who/what way to go.
Might do up propertyguys just because I can call and bug them along the way.

Still not sure what incentive a realtor would have to even show up with his client and make the deal with me.

This is off-topic, but didn't want to start a new thread. Does anyone know where I can go to get information on recent house sales in my area (I live in Durham)? Or even the original floor plans/model for my house?

Thanks!

Definitely on topic, id like to know that too!

kingkelly wrote: ↑Thanks for the wakeup y2J.

Still getting all my stuff together, planning/hoping to list it by end of august. Still not sure who/what way to go.
Might do up propertyguys just because I can call and bug them along the way.

Still not sure what incentive a realtor would have to even show up with his client and make the deal with me.

In my opinion a good agent is well worth their commissions....however, a good agent is hard to find.

I have bought and sold quite a few condos now in Toronto and have been very tempted to do it on my own. However, I found that as soon as people see a for sale by owner listing not only do they just assume that they can pay 5% less then the asking price as there is no commissions to be paid out but no agent will want to show their clients the property for many reasons including no commissions and they do not want to have to deal with a seller instead of another agent.

There is no incentive for a seller to buy a property from an owner. The commissions come from the sale price anyway so the only people who want to buy a sale by owner is to either get a cheaper price (and in that case you may as well use an agent, ask more and have less headache) or the property is unique and they want it regardless. When i told people in my building I was selling, everyone one of them said "oh before you hire an agent, i know someone who will buy it directly.Its great as there is no commissions and they get a deal"....Huh? why bother not using an agent if i am just going to reduce the price?

When buying, as soon as I saw its a for sale by owner, i didn't bother to even look at the property....unless i knew the person.

My last agent brought in a professional photographer, did amazing brochures,a great website, had a professional to come in and stage the place and negotiated to get me the best price possible. When the condo market is like it is now in Toronto with so many for sale, these things made the difference when others in my building that looked like crap, not staged and had poor images stayed on the market for months, just to lower their prices.....

When i bought a house uptown i used an agent specifically for that area and when I sold my downtown places i did the same.

Just my opinion and experience but I would never make another real estate transaction without these agents.....and to give you an idea of how much i see their value, i have a lot of family in real estate and didn't use them...not that i dont like them but If i am paying 5%, i want to see that value returned as strongly as possible.

oh..and no I'm not an agent nor have anything to gain by the above statement

Im meeting with the propertyguys guys on monday to see whats the dealy with them.
Will post updates to see if its worth it.