15 Steps to Selling a Condo in Any Market

Team Diva’s detailed guide on Selling a Condo in Any Market shares everything you need to know about selling your Seattle condo.

What do you need to know about selling a condo in any market? In Team Diva’s “15 Steps to Selling a Condo in Any Market,” we outline exactly how to navigate this process. Seattle’s condo market tends to be a lot more volatile than the single-family home market. The COVID pandemic is the perfect example of this—while single-family home prices started increasing in April 2020, condo prices dropped and started to rebound in early 2022. In Team Diva’s 20+ years as Top Real Estate Agents in Seattle, we have seen first-hand how volatile the condo market can be. We’ve seen how condo prices and demand are more likely to be impacted by economic changes, interest rates, and global issues.

That’s why today we are sharing our secrets for how to sell a condo in ANY market!

What Are the 15 Steps to Selling a Condo in Any Market?

Choose the Right Realtor
Do a Walkthrough with Your Realtor and Create a To-Do List
Review the Market Analysis
Move Out
Order the Condo Resale Certificate and Supporting Documents
Complete Your To-Do List
Clean, Clean, Clean!
Have Your Home Professionally Staged
Determine the Final List Price for Your Home
List That Condo!
Review Offers and Get In Contract
Work Through the Transaction
Prep the Home For Closing
Sign Your Closing Documents
Closing Day!

In the detailed 15-step guide below, we are sharing what goes into each of Team Diva’s steps for selling your condo in any market. Let’s dive in!

What Are the 15 Steps to Selling a Condo in Any Market?

The majority of listing brokers do not know the ins and outs of how to sell a condo. Before you get started check out our guide How to Sell a Condo in Seattle. The following steps below are here to make sure you have even more detail when it is time to sell your condo.

Step One to Selling a Condo in Any Market: Choose the Right Realtor

Successfully selling your condo in Seattle no matter what the market conditions may be begins with choosing the right Realtor. Hire a Realtor who has experience selling condos, knows the market you are in, and knows how to market the heck out of your home. Your Realtor should be able to price your home right. This will require that they have an in-depth understanding of the hyper-local condo market you’re in. Your Realtor also needs to have a high-level marketing plan, but more on that later. Choose your Realtor wisely!

Start Here: Check out our “Questions to Ask a Listing Agent Before You Hire Them”

Step Two: Do a Walkthrough with Your Realtor and Create a To-Do List

Doing an in-person walkthrough of your condo is essential. This gives you and your real estate agent the opportunity to work together on creating a list of “To-Dos” to get your home market-ready. The To-Do list we create during our walkthroughs of your condo is key in preparing your Seattle condo for listing day. This will include things in your condo that need to be fixed, any necessary updates, and how to “make it pretty”! We then take that list and collaborate with you on scheduling all of the necessary vendors. This includes scheduling with cleaners, landscapers, interior designers, stagers, and handypeople. And for those of you who want to learn even more, check out our blog How to Prep Your Home for Sale in Seattle or watch the video on YouTube.

Step Three: Review the Market Analysis

A Competitive Market Analysis (or CMA, as we call it), provides a snapshot of comparable homes in your area that are Active, Pending, and Recently Sold. You will want to review the Market Analysis with your Realtor to make sure you know their suggested list price range for your home and marketing strategy. And here at Team Diva, we go the extra mile by reviewing the Demand Rate. Roy did a great job explaining what the Demand Rate is in his Coffee With Roy series.

Step Four: Move Out

If you haven’t already moved out of your Seattle condo, then it is time to go! Moving may seem like a pain, but juggling showings while you are working is the best way to spike that blood pressure. And truly, no buyer wants to be touring your home and smell that stinky litter box after your kitty has done her business. The best way for us to get you top dollar is for you (and your cat) to move out and let us work our magic.

Step Five: Order the Condo Resale Certificate and Supporting Documents

Order the resale certificate and supporting documents BEFORE you list the home. We have had several condo sales fall apart because we didn’t know there were issues in the building. The best way to understand the full process is to order the resale certificate and supporting documents in advance.

Reviewing the Resale Certificate is Important for Two Reasons:

Because even as an owner you may not know ALL the issues coming down the pike in your building. It’s best to know these before your home is on the market.
Providing the Condo Resale Certificate and all those supporting documents to the buyer BEFORE they submit an offer is super important. This ensures there are no surprises for them that could kill the deal in the process.

Pro-Tip: You need to think like a buyer. What is in the resale certificate that might be a concern to the buyer or their lender? Check out our blog Reviewing the Resale Certificate when Buying a Condo in Seattle.

Step Six to Selling a Condo in Any Market: Complete Your To-Do List

As we at Team Diva like to say, it’s time to “Fix What’s Broken and Make It Pretty!” Get out that list of to-dos we made in Step Two and make a plan. Get bids on what it will take to get the work done. You may need new paint, new carpets, or new lighting. Maybe you need to fix some trim work, your front porch, or a leaky faucet. Now is the time to get everything working perfectly and looking its very best and ready for the market.

Step Seven: Clean, Clean, Clean!

It is time to get your home looking sparkly from top to bottom! And when we say clean, we mean CLEAN! This means not just vacuuming carpets and mopping your floors—this is a deep clean. We’re looking at cabinets, the fridge, windows, baseboards, and so much more!

Step Eight to Selling a Condo in Any Market: Have Your Home Professionally Staged

We already determined back in Step Five that your condo will be vacant. And thanks to Step Six you know this condo is going to be sparkling like new! Now it’s time to make your Seattle condo come to life by having it professionally staged. Staging is crucial to selling your condo in any market in Seattle. We want your condo to look its best and to stand out from all of the other condos on the market. As soon as buyers see your condo, we want them to sit down, settle in, and fall in love.

Staging is the foundational block to the marketing Team Diva does for your home. We know that staging costs money, and some sellers may wonder if it’s worth it. But time and time again, we see real results when our Diva Dweller clients stage their homes. If you’d like to learn more, check out our blog Staging Your Home Will Help it to Sell for More Money.

Step Nine: Determine the Final List Price for Your Home

Hmm, didn’t we already figure out the list price back in Step Three when we reviewed the Market Analysis? Sure, we may have discussed a range, but markets change from week to week. We at Team Diva will always be checking the comps and the demand rate in your area right up until it is time to list. It’s important to do this to make sure we are still on the right track as far as price goes.

If you want to get super nerdy on how the demand rate works, check out Roy Powell’s monthly Coffee with Roy video and blog series!

Step Ten: List That Condo!

Once you’ve reviewed and signed all your listing documents, your Realtor can officially list your home for sale. Yay! And if you hired Team Diva, you can trust we will be rolling out a bevy of stellar marketing to snag you a buyer! Or two, three, or more…

From the day we list your home, it’s go time. We will be showcasing your Seattle condo on our website, publishing a blog post featuring your home, and sharing the video tour on Youtube and across all of our marketing platforms. At the same time, we will be sending out our email marketing, creating Instagram posts (including Reels), posting photos on Facebook, and more. We have an in-depth marketing checklist that we implement for every single Diva Dwelling! As you can see, we do whatever it takes to ensure buyers will fall head over heels for your home.

Dive into more detail behind our strategy and read “Selling Your Home Requires an Effective Online Marketing Strategy.”

Step Eleven: Review Offers and Get Into Contract

By now, you’ve made it through the toughest part of selling a condo in any market, which is prepping your home for sale. Now it’s time to review the offers and choose a buyer. Here is another part of the process where working with the right agent makes all the difference. Make sure your agent walks you through how to analyze and review the offers you receive. Not all offers are the same! The winning bid is not necessarily the highest bid.

Team Diva is extremely well trained to identify potential weak spots in offers. Our thoroughness ensures you have a clean contract and a solid buyer that will make it to closing as risk-free as possible. This is especially important with condos since there are more restrictions on lending with condos than with single-family homes.

Want to make sure your condo is prepped to receive multiple offers? Check out our Guide to Getting Multiple Offers on Your Seattle Home in 2022

Step Twelve to Selling a Condo in Any Market: Work Through the Transaction

This is where your Realtor steps in to make sure the buyer, the buyer’s agent, the lender, title, and escrow are all working together to get this deal closed. Depending on the situation, there may be an inspection contingency you will need to work through. And unless you have a cash buyer, there will also be a bank appraisal on the home.

Steps Involved During the Contract

And make sure you and the home are ready for closing!

Here is a pro-tip: Keep your condo looking staged and swank until all these details are finalized. You never know what could happen.

Step Thirteen: Prep the Home For Closing

Once the inspection is satisfied (if there was one) and the appraisal is complete, you are in the home stretch. It is time to address any minor inspection issues you need to complete for the inspection. You should also gather any additional information or documents to pass on to the buyer. And then you also need to make sure those extra keys and clickers are in the home. Check out our blog Home Seller Education: Final Closing Process and Guide. It goes into detail about everything you need for this stage.

Your Realtor will also be making sure the home is destaged, cleaned, and ready for the new homeowners!

Step Fourteen: Sign Your Closing Documents

With this step, we are so close to closing day! Escrow will be contacting you to schedule your signing appointment. Be as flexible as possible these last couple of days before closing. We want to make sure that we can get you in to sign your closing documents and make sure we close this deal ON TIME. Also just FYI, signing and closing will be on different days.

Step Fifteen: Closing Day!

Congrats! The buyer’s loan is funded, the documents are released to the county and recorded, and your transaction is CLOSED. It’s time to celebrate a successful deal and move on to the next phase of your life. And hopefully, you have a nice chunk of change ready for your new home or future purchase!

You Did It! You Read “15 Steps to Selling a Condo in Any Market”

Now that you have read Team Diva’s comprehensive guide on how to sell a condo in any market, you are set up for success. One more time, here are the 15 steps to selling a condo in any market in Seattle:

15 Steps to Selling a Condo in Any Market

Choose the Right Realtor
Do a Walkthrough with Your Realtor and Create A To-Do List
Review the Market Analysis
Move Out
Order the Condo Resale Certificate and Supporting Documents
Complete Your To-Do List
Clean, Clean, Clean!
Have Your Home Professionally Staged
Determine the Final List Price for Your Home
List That Condo!
Review Offers and Get In Contract
Work Through the Transaction
Prep the Home For Closing
Sign Your Closing Documents
Closing Day!

Now it is time to take that next step and contact the Divas. Or, you can get even nerdier if you need to! We have a ton of real estate guides to help you navigate every step of buying and selling, no matter what type of home you are working with. Here are just a few of our guides: