Everything You Need to Know About Selling Your First Condo

You managed to successfully buy your first condo (congrats), you’ve lived in it for 3,4,5 or maybe 20 years, and now it’s time to sell. But where do you start? What do you do? What is even going on in the market?

These are common thoughts from many first-time condo sellers.

We often hear the phrase “first-time home buyer”, but being a “first-time home seller” is also a new experience, and most individuals who find themselves in this situation need information and guidance.

So that’s what this post is all about.

As experienced Toronto Realtors that have helped our clients buy and sell condos from North York, to East York, down to the water, and over to the west end, we have seen and been through a lot. Our experiences have helped us not only perfect our methods, but also create clear and approachable ways to share what we know, so our clients feel confident and informed every step of the way.

Welcome to your guide, where you will find everything you need to know about selling your first condo in Toronto.

Getting Started

Ready to get started? The first two items on your list should be to:

Select Your Team of Experts – Your Realtor and your Lawyer
Familiarize Yourself With All Home Selling Costs

Your experts will guide you on what happens and when, and they will also be by your side to advise on and execute a lot of the work. Make sure to do your research and hire professionals who are knowledgeable, experienced, and those who fit your personality type. Everyone works differently, so choose a Realtor and a Lawyer who communicate in a way that feels comfortable for you and matches the style you work best with.

Home selling costs include Realtor commissions, legal fees, home preparation costs, and closing costs. Being familiar with all of the costs associated with selling your home will help you prepare your finances, understand what you can realistically do with any profits, and avoid surprises.

Hiring Your Realtor

Let’s talk a little bit more about hiring your Realtor, as this is a crucial step.

You might be wondering, what should I look for in the Realtor I hire? Ultimately, there are some key traits, expertise, and qualities that should be at the top of your list.

Choose someone you trust. This cannot be overstated. Your Realtor will provide you with a lot of advise, information about the market, and the value of your condo, and if you don’t trust them, you’re off to a bad start.

Ensure they have a strong marketing strategy that will get your condo sold for the most amount of money in the least amount of time.

They should display strong negotiation skills. A lot of money can be won or lost during the offer negotiation process.

Did you know? In Ontario, a Realtor can represent both the buyer and the seller in the same transaction. This is called multiple representation. It’s important to ask your Realtor how they handle it, what it means for you, and whether it’s the right fit for your situation.

What Are You Actually Paying For?

There is a common misconception that all your Realtor will do is post your condo up on the MLS, fill out some paperwork, and receive a big cheque. And I’m happy to say, that this couldn’t be farther from the trust. A good Realtor actually spends a lot of time and money working for you, and utilizes years of expertise in the condo market to ensure that you are ecstatic about the results.

Some of your listing Realtor’s tasks include:

Understanding your goals and property details
Preparing your condo for the market (think: providing referrals, scheduling vendors, getting their hands dirty)
Crafting a listing strategy and marketing plan
Negotiating offers and handling paperwork
Closing the deal and managing logistics

Don’t forget! Throughout all of the above, they’re also supporting you emotionally and offering guidance whenever you need it.

Should You Buy or Sell First?

Many individuals who are selling a condo, are also looking to buy a new property. Therefore, it’s common to wonder what step to do first – selling your condo, or purchasing your new property.

Whichever order you choose, you should be aware of the pros and cons involved.

For example, if you sell your condo first, a pro is that you’ll know exactly how much money you have to put towards your next purchase. On the other hand, a pro to buying your new property first is that you can take your time and only move forward with a purchase when you find exactly what you’re looking for.

A breakdown for the pros and cons of both scenarios can be found in our video Should You Buy Or Sell Your Home First?

Ultimately, the right answer for you will depend on various factors such as your personal financial situation, your risk tolerance, and market conditions.

Should You Sell or Rent?

If you’re thinking about selling your condo, you might have also considered keeping it as an investment and renting it out.

It’s important to review this option with your mortgage professional and your Realtor to make sure it supports your next steps – whether you plan to buy a new property, travel, start a business, or anything else you have planned.

Once you confirm it’s financially viable, make sure you understand your condo corporation’s rules on renting, along with the City of Toronto requirements, and the provincial laws that apply to landlords.

I’ve put together a full breakdown in our video What Are The Rules For Renting Out Your Condo?

Learn more about getting started with these posts next:

Preparing Your Condo For Sale

One of the most important steps in the selling process, is getting your condo ready! Ensuring that your condo looks it’s best both online and in person, will not only help get it sold faster, but also for a higher amount – how great is that?!

There are many things that you as the homeowner can do to prepare your condo for sale, these include:

Decluttering
Depersonalizing
Minor repairs
Gathering warranties, contracts, and repair or upgrade documentation

Your Realtor will also organize, facilitate (and potentially pay for) a variety of tasks such as:

Handyman services
Professional painting
Deep cleaning
Styling or complete staging

To Stage or Not to Stage

When you stage a condo, the process involves using carefully selected furniture, thoughtful layouts, and well-chosen decor to emphasize the condo’s selling features and create a space that appeals to a wide range of buyers.

While some buyers naturally visualize potential, many struggle with it. Professional styling and / or staging helps buyers picture themselves living in the condo and can make your unit stand out from a similar one that isn’t staged.

In my professional experience, staging works and often leads to a stronger sale price. Just keep in mind there is a cost involved. Depending on the Realtor, staging may be included, it may be an added fee, or it may be something the seller pays for directly.

Pro tip: When selecting a Realtor to sell your home, ask them if your property needs staging, and if so, who is responsible to cover the cost.

Learn more about everything you need to know about staging your condo for sale in this video:

Pre-List Home Inspections

Another step to consider when listing your condo is completing a home inspection and providing the report to any buyers who request it.

This is a very common practice for house sales, especially when they want to give buyers confidence to submit a firm offer on their offer date (more on offer dates later). However, in the condo market, this practice is far less common since many buyers don’t feel they need an inspection.

That said, if you’re selling a condo townhouse with internal systems you own, such as a furnace, AC unit, or hot water tank, and you plan to hold an offer date, considering a pre-list home inspection can be worthwhile. It can strengthen your marketing, answer key questions upfront, and help buyers feel comfortable submitting firm offers on the offer date.

Get a closer look at the topics covered in this section with these posts next:

Listing Your Condo For Sale

Now that your condo is fully prepared and ready for it’s close-up, it’s time to list it on the MLS and tell the world about it!

Pricing Your Condo

One of the choices that you and your Realtor will make together, is deciding on which listing and pricing strategy you’d like to use. There are a variety of options and nuances involved. The three main listing strategies are:

Listing At True Market Value, and Accepting Offers at Anytime
Listing At Below Market Value, and Setting an Offer Date
Listing High With Built-In Room for Negotiation

You will learn more about each strategy on listing your condo for sale in the following video:

Marketing Your Condo

Your condo looks beautiful, your listing strategy is in place, and it’s now LIVE on the MLS – wouldn’t it be a shame if no one saw it?

Of course it would.

This makes effectively marketing your condo for sale essential. And just to be clear, it’s your Realtor’s job to market your listing.

Effective marketing includes understanding your target market, writing compelling listing copy, and obtaining high quality media. Then your Realtor needs to put all of that to work, and at a minimum, you should see the following included in your condo’s marketing plan:

Just Listed Postcards mailed out to neighbours
Feature Sheets placed in the condo and available to all visiting buyers
Description Cards placed around your condo highlighting selling features
Dedicated property website
Syndication of your listing to various real estate websites (local, national, and international)
Social media promotion (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube)
Open House – If permitted by your condo rules and bylaws

Extra Marketing Tip: If you choose the “List Low, Offer Date” pricing strategy, having your condo’s Status Certificate Package ready to view by interested buyers, will help market your condo, and provide buyers with confidence to submit a firm offer.

Prepare Your Condo for Showings

You’ve built a great listing plan and your marketing is working hard for you, so let’s keep the momentum going. Preparing your condo for showings is just as crucial as every other stage.

You want someone to enter your condo and think “this is even nicer than the photos!”, not the opposite.

Here are my top tips to achieve this:

Keep your condo spotless – make sure it is free from dirt, dust, and clutter.
Maximize natural and artificial light – Open blinds and turn on overhead lights and lamps.
Eliminate unpleasant odours – This is best accomplished by opening windows and deep cleaning. Masking odours with other scents can be as equally off-putting to buyers.
Accommodate all showing requests – Buyers want to view properties at their convenience, make that possible.
Vacate the property during showings – Allow buyers to fully explore and feel at ease
Lock up or remove valuables – This tip is precautionary, and is included for peace of mind for you, the seller.

Taking the time to prepare your home for showings can make a real difference. A clean, welcoming space helps buyers picture themselves living there and can lead to a faster, more successful sale.

Zoom in on the topics included in this section with these posts:

From Offer to Next Steps

When a buyer submits an offer, it kicks off an important stage in the sale. Understanding what comes next will help you feel confident and prepared.

The Offer Process

As soon as your Realtor receives an offer to purchase your condo, they must let you know as soon as possible. This is required under TRESA and the RECO Code of Ethics, and it also protects your time because every offer includes an expiry period called the irrevocable. You want enough time to review and consider the offer, especially if that irrevocable is only an hour or two away.

Your Realtor will walk you through the key details of the offer, including the price, closing date, deposit, irrevocable, any conditions, and all clauses in the buyer’s Schedule A. From there, you’ll decide together how you want to respond: accept, counter, or reject. This is where your choice of Realtor really matters, since you want someone who can clearly explain every part of the offer, and this is also where their market expertise and negotiation skills become especially valuable.

Learn more about why your listing agent’s negotiation skills really matter in this video next:

Pro Tip: Never reject an offer, always counter! You never know what the other side is willing to do, and it’s best to keep the offer alive.

Once both sides are happy with all details in the Agreement, and the offer is finally accepted, you will have either conditionally sold your condo if there are conditions, or sold your condo firm if there are no conditions.

If conditionally sold, the buyer will have a specified and agreed upon amount of time to do their due diligence on those topics, and either fulfill their conditions – thereby firming up the sale – or notify you that a deal breaking discovery was made and that they won’t be proceeding with the deal.

Stay Informed: Understanding conditions in real estate offers is important for both buyers and sellers. When you know what each condition means, it becomes much easier to assess the offer as a whole and decide whether you want to accept it or negotiate changes.

Whether the offer is firm from the start, or the buyer removes their conditions later, once you reach this point the deal is official. Congratulations! Backing out now can have serious consequences for either party, and you can feel confident that the sale will close on the agreed closing day.

Learn more about when it is too late for a buyer to back out of a home purchase in Ontario.

From Firm Offer to Closing

Once the offer is firm, the focus shifts to preparing for closing day. This is the day that title for the condo changes from the seller to the buyer, and the buyer receives the keys to the unit and building.

As the seller, your main tasks are practical ones. You will schedule your move, arrange for utilities to be cancelled or transferred, book the elevator for your move out, and start packing. Your lawyer will also reach out to request any documents they need and will handle the financial side of the transaction, including the final statement of adjustments.

Stay In The Know: If it’s been a while since you were the buyer, here is a refresher on closing adjustments.

During this period, your Realtor stays involved with you every step of the way. They will keep communication open with the buyer’s agent and your lawyer, monitor timelines, and help coordinate any access needed for the buyer. Most Agreements of Purchase and Sale include a set number of buyer visits, which allow the purchasers to measure the space, plan renovations, and ensure everything is in proper working order (unless otherwise specified in the agreement). Your Realtor will coordinate with you to schedule these visits at convenient times and ensure everything runs smoothly.

What Happens on Closing Day

As closing day approaches, your Realtor will check in to review your final responsibilities with regards to leaving your unit and the state it should be left in.

Closing can happen at anytime on closing day up until 6pm, including the morning, and once it’s official, you as the seller are no longer legally permitted to be inside the unit. Therefore, if you’re unable to move out prior to closing day, you’ll want to ensure you organize your move out for as early and as quickly as possible.

Here is a standard checklist for how your condo should be left for the buyers:

Remove all personal belongings, garbage and debris.
At minimum, leave the condo in “broom swept condition”, although a thorough cleaning is appreciated.
Leave all items that are included in the agreement, including any chattels and any fixtures that were not excluded.
Ensure one unit key is still in the lockbox, and place all other keys, fobs, access cards etc. pertaining to the unit, locker, parking and the building on the kitchen counter for the buyers to retrieve. Pro Tip: Label the keys for the buyer, take a picture, and send that photo to your Realtor.

Watch this video next to understand exactly what happens on closing day, including the steps going on behind the scenes and with both lawyers.

Explore this section in more detail with the next set of posts:

With guidance from your Realtor, once closing day arrives, you’ll be all set for a seamless transfer to the new owner.

Unique Situations

Not every real estate transaction is straightforward, and many come with their own twists. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It simply means you want solid guidance from your Realtor as your situation unfolds, whether the complexity relates to your condo itself, the buyers and their offer, or something unexpected that comes up during the process.

Two of the more common unique situations include selling an estate condo, and selling a condo that is tenanted. Let’s dive a little deeper into each of these.

Selling an Estate Property

Selling an estate condo can feel like a lot to take on, especially when you’re grieving and trying to make sense of the legal steps at the same time. One of the first things families often encounter is probate. In Ontario, probate gives the executor the legal authority to handle the estate and move forward with decisions like selling the condo. In some cases, the First Dealings Exemption may allow the property to be sold without obtaining probate, but this is rare when it comes to condos, and needs to be confirmed by a real estate lawyer.

When it comes to probate, there are two important things to be aware of: the cost and the timeline.

Probate fees, known as the Estate Administration Tax, are based on the total value of the estate, so the condo’s market value plays a role. And in terms of the timeline to obtain probate, well this varies. Simple applications may be processed within weeks, while more complex estates or missing documentation can extend the process into many months.

You can list a condo before probate is complete, however you can’t close without probate, so buyers will often write conditions or other protections into the Agreement to account for the possibility of probate still not being granted by the time the closing date arrives. Best practice is to wait for probate to be complete prior to listing the condo for sale.

Here are a few things that make estate condo sales a bit different from a regular listing:

The listing must clearly state that it is an estate sale.
The condo is often sold “as-is” since the executor cannot make warranties about the condition.
Timelines may be tied to the probate process.
If there are multiple heirs, all parties must agree before the sale can move forward.

While the process can feel complicated, the right lawyer and Realtor will help you navigate each step with clarity. With proper guidance, bringing an estate condo to market becomes much more manageable and far less stressful for the family.

Dive deeper into this topic with the full post here:

Selling a Tenanted Condo

Selling a tenanted condo in Ontario is allowed, however the process can feel somewhat challenging as it is shaped by strong tenant protections under the Residential Tenancies Act.

You cannot evict a tenant simply because you have the intention of selling, and a tenant’s lease continues even if the condo is sold. Fixed-term tenants can stay until the lease ends, and month-to-month tenants can only be asked to leave if the buyer intends to move in and an N12 is served with proper notice. Even then, the tenant doesn’t have to agree to leave, and if this happens, you’ll need to go through the Landlord and Tenant Board to obtain an official eviction. The Agreement of Purchase and Sale indicates that the buyer will receive “vacant possession”, so if the tenant won’t leave by the closing date, the seller will potentially be in breach of the contract.

Here are a few challenges and things to keep in mind when selling a tenanted condo:

Showings require 24 hours’ written notice.
Tenants may not always keep the unit in perfect showing condition.
Some sellers offer incentives to encourage cooperation from their tenants
Proposing a Cash for Keys agreement to the tenant is an option if you’d prefer to sell the condo vacant (they don’t have to accept)
If the tenant remains in the condo when it’s listed for sale, marketing the property to investors might be your smartest move
Selling a tenanted property usually reduces the buyer pool

With the right preparation and guidance, selling a tenanted condo can still be a smooth experience.

Understanding your obligations and having knowledgeable professionals help manage communication and legal requirements makes all the difference.

Dive deep into these two unique situations:

What Comes Next

Selling your condo is a major milestone, but the relationship doesn’t end on closing day. A good Realtor stays connected long after the sale, whether you need advice on planning your next more, you’d like to be kept in the loop regarding market conditions, or support regarding anything having to do with homeownership.

If your next step is buying a new home, when you work with us you’re already ahead of the game. We’ll guide you through the full process, connect you with trusted professionals, and help you make a confident move.

Working with my team means having a dedicated partner throughout your real estate journey. From strategy and preparation to negotiation and closing, we offer hands-on support and expert guidance every step of the way.

If you’re thinking about selling or want to map out your next move, reach out any time. We’d love to help you plan what comes next.

Get in touch today by filling out the form on this page, calling me directly at 416-909-9235, or emailing info@yaelandco.com.

Everything You Need to Know About Selling Your First Condo in Toronto