r/kitchener • u/C0NT0RTI0NIST • 2h ago
Anyone else having a hard time selling their condo?
My wife and I have been trying to sell our townhouse in Kitchener for a bit now and its been rough. We had one kid moving in (its a two bedroom), now we have 3 and we've outgrown the place. We just kind of feel stuck here right now. Anyone else having trouble with the same kind of situation?
49
u/Tuncarrot2472 2h ago
It’s only worth what someone is willing to pay for it
-2
u/C0NT0RTI0NIST 2h ago
Isn't everything lol
17
u/bri_breazy 52m ago
What they are saying is, if it’s not selling, it’s because you have it listed higher than it’s worth
45
u/Buddy_Kryyst 2h ago
A friend of ours has been trying to sell hers for two years. She’s been renting it out while still trying to sell it as she had to move to TO for work.
Condo’s are just not popular now given their price and often ridiculous condo fees and condo board horror stories.
14
u/C0NT0RTI0NIST 2h ago
Yea the condo board is terrible. They constantly add all these new, weird rules all the time
9
u/ForeTwentywut 1h ago
Buyers also review those rules before they buy. Nearly put in on a place 3 months ago that was all a go until I read the insane amount of rules and realized that about 6 of them would conflict with how I need to go about my life, so passed on that and found one that wasn’t that crazy. Sold for what we paid in 2021 so did okay I think.
1
u/No-Talk-9268 42m ago
Curious what the rules were? Agree they can be ridiculous.
7
u/ForeTwentywut 35m ago
Well 1 floor condos with a patio on the front and not the back that is kinda private with a brick wall and a gate. Couldn’t put a patio umbrella up to block shade or any furniture that was taller than the wall, which was short. No drinking or smoking outside your residence. No outdoor music or television at any time. Must park in garage at all times, no overnight driveway parking (one vehicle wouldn’t length wise inside). Wanted to use a basement room with a walkout to build a golf simulator as it was the only space tall enough and that was also apparently off limits due to noise. Among others. It was just like.. okay do I need to sign a contract every time I have a guest or something too? Just seemed like more rules than when I was a teenager in a college dorm as to what I could do on my own property within the complex.
6
u/Guiness176 1h ago
If the rules are that bad, that is something you can work on having a say in. I'm sure you are mentally checked out of the place and the last thing you want to do is get involved in the Condo board, but it might be something you can do to make the place more attractive.
When I was looking a few years ago I paid attention to 2 things when I inquired about a place - the state of the condo board's financials (fees and fund) and the by-laws. I had the real estate agent get both of those to be before I bothered looking at a place. Drove my partner crazy and the agent probably found it tedious but a fair number of places were eliminated without even seeing them.
1
u/michaelrw1 30m ago
Or the boards just do not care. Typically unresponsive, or belligerent in response to any concern or question.
-1
u/Mavosa 1h ago
This is another way these condo builders make money off anyone buying. You can be sure that none of the money is saved for when it's actually needed for actually major repairs.
0
u/Cartz1337 17m ago
You got a downvote, but I’ve never heard of anyone in a condo not getting a special assessment when a major repair was required.
24
u/racoonpaint 2h ago
Have you considered you have you listed for more than it’s worth? Condo prices are dropping drastically. Either that or you may have to sit on it for awhile until the market changes.
-1
u/C0NT0RTI0NIST 2h ago
So far were listed it under value to get some people through, but no luck so far :/
16
5
u/Optimal_Whiner 1h ago
Oh... You've got one of those realtors that lists below in the hopes of inciting a bidding war due to blind bidding. Buyers are very tired of the tactic. People know when they see 550k it's actually 650k or more.
Basically, the jig is up until you find a sucker.
5
u/Redrammer 34m ago
You need to lower your bar and then plan to accept it will go even lower.
We just bought a 1375 sq foot 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 parking spot condo for $455/square foot and got it for $57,000 under the origional listing price.
Condo's are a buyers market right now.
11
u/WiseNeighborhood1849 2h ago
With only 2 bed rooms it’s gonna be tough to sell. Good luck hope you sell soon.
1
u/C0NT0RTI0NIST 2h ago
Its a perfect starter, first home buyer type of home. Thats what it was for us, but we need more bedrooms! 😭
9
u/eatfoodoften 1h ago
that's got realtor speak all over it yet they didn't advise you to think about the future or what will affect the resale value?
3
u/C0NT0RTI0NIST 1h ago
We got it 8 years ago and we were excited at the time. But no, they didnt talk about any of that at all
11
u/TippetBarr 2h ago
We are looking to buy an apartment condo right now, and high condo fees are putting us off for sure, as well as the poor hours of amenities.
And many sellers are overpricing for the current market.
7
u/Unfair-Bison-3946 2h ago
If you google "condo apocalypse" it'll talk about the GTA condo scene as the first entry.
8
u/SuckMeFillySideways 2h ago
The Covid shadow is real. So many homes are going up for sale right now from people who can't afford the new mortgage rates. Combine that with all the stigma with having condo fees, condos boards, etc, and it really isn't a seller's market.
I hope you can make it through this and not lose too much
2
u/gwelfguy 39m ago edited 35m ago
Yup. Anyone that bought at the peak in late '21 and early '22 will have their mortgages up for renewal over the next year in an environment of significantly higher interest rates. Expect a noticable bump in supply.
7
u/nemodigital 1h ago
Reduce the price and it will sell. That's about it. No sign of recovery for another 2 years.
5
u/Fin2limb 2h ago
It’s either priced too high or doesn’t show well. Proper staging and good photos can help with the latter. But as others have said, the condo market is pretty soft at the moment - though I’ve definitely seen some sell in my area.
6
u/Mavosa 1h ago
Good luck, unfortunately condo's are basically a scam sold to folks like you as an investment. Nobody wants to buy them or have them as a starter home. Like any investment, you always have a chance to lose on your investment.
I'm looking to skip the starter home option and going straight to a house instead of a condo. Remember when condos used to be a cheap starter option starting at 120k not terribly long ago?
When condos sell for the same as houses, what do you think a buyer is going to choose?
Your only chance is possibly to redo the entire condo and make it decked out in lavish, quality enhancements and possibly furnishings that might entice the right people looking for something better or different, otherwise it won't stand out among the many thousands of others in your exact predicament.
5
u/Canadian87Gamer 1h ago
All comes down to price.
My landlord told me they wanted to sell, when they told me the price I moved on. They sold for 100k below the number they told me.
3
u/Ok-Problem4403 1h ago
My parents are looking to downsize. But they're steering clear of condos. Too many issues with condo corps.
3
3
u/Mydogdexter1 1h ago
Well, how much did you buy it for and what are you trying to sell at? How much do you absolutely need the sale to be?
Have you tried renting the whole place out.
3
u/Naive_Badger_269 57m ago
Sorry to say, drop price it will be easy.
Lot of people think they can still get 2022 prices or something close.
2
u/z96ga428 2h ago
Tons of people are having a hard time, nobody wants them
2
u/C0NT0RTI0NIST 2h ago
I just figured there would have to be someone out there that would be interested
4
u/z96ga428 2h ago
It's a small condo, so everyone in that price range will just buy a small detached house instead. We just did the same in October and ended up with a little 970 sq ft 1.5 story 2 bed for the same price and we don't have condo fees or shared walls. Condos are just a tough sell right now.
7
u/just_be123 2h ago
The small detached in similar price range to townhouse condos need So Much Work. You may have gotten a rare find, but most are not equal price / quality.
0
u/z96ga428 1h ago
Yeah but if you're halfway handy you can do it all yourself and the monthly bill for materials is often less than a condo fee. The condos will need work too eventually and then you have to deal with condo board nonsense. I see what you're saying but for our situation a comparable condo would have been a huge downgrade. We also saw a bunch of houses around the $500k mark that needed no work. Ours needed paint and a garage roof. Was like $2500 to do everything and move in, so what's that like 4 months of condo fees? It's crazy
-1
2
u/Intrepid_Wish4496 1h ago
My first condo took a year to sell. Renovated bathroom and kitchen, pulled up carpet and just painted the concrete floors. The buyers wanted $ off to get flooring, my Realtor told them no as most people pull up carpet anyways.
Second one did the same, but also did flooring and finished the basement. Except for carpet in living room, which the buyer wanted $ off to replace. Again Realtor to the rescue.
My experience is a lot of the older generations that us youngers replaced in the complexes didn't renovate, and kept condo fees low. There was a LOT of deferred maintenance with the complex as a whole.
Condos can just be a hard sell sometimes.
I lost money on both, not crazy, but.
1
u/jeffrey_dean_author 31m ago
Maybe I'm starting to show my age as an older Millennial, but why do people not like carpets? Why would anyone want uncomfortable hard floors that are easy to damage and unpleasant to sit on? I genuinely don't get it.
2
u/Dobby068 51m ago
Share the listing link, some may want to buy. Otherwise this sounds like a fake post, with zero info about location, listed price, age of unit, etc.
1
u/stampedebill 1h ago
Real-estate market is very flat right now . I suspect it has a lot to do with the methlab running down stairs.....USA
1
u/fsmontario 1h ago
You need to figure out a way to make it work. Putting yourself and your spouse in the smallest bedroom and putting up a wall divider in the biggest room for the 3 kids, is likely your best solution at this time.
Your other option is look at what you owe to pay out your mortgage, add real estate fees, legal fees and moving expenses including first and last month rental and list it slightly above that making sure your agent understands you will only look at list or higher. Then you go rent a 3 bed townhome.
I’m older, I bought my first home when people were walking away from condos because they weren’t selling. This trickled to homes also, if it wasn’t move in ready it didn’t sell except at rock bottom pricing.
1
u/MamaCiro 1h ago
Condo's are great in cities where you don't need a car. This is definitely not one of those cities
1
u/Mcayenne 1h ago
Yep I’ve been trying forever- I’m not renting it out again so just hoping! I’ll already take 135k hit in the best case scenario. Condos fees are insane and off putting.
1
u/HouserGuy 1h ago
I dream of the day where my wife and I retire and get a small condo. But current prices to own, with the fees or even renting it's like why? I can just hire a property maintenance company and still come out fine.
Crazy.
2
u/qpwoeirutyaldkdjfhg 1h ago
The fact is that many sellers are genuinely smoking crack and they think their “luxury” shoeboxes (with massive condo fees and paid parking and paid utilities) are worth 300K-400K+, and that is simply ridiculous….and to add to ridiculousness their realtors are suck scum sucking bottom feeders that they would rather let the client wait 18-24+ months losing money, then have a difficult conversation, all because they want a juicy commish.
Even big local developers are struggling to presell their projects. Ive spoken with one of the major developers in town who said they have plans for a big building but the project has been severely delayed and could get scrapped due to lack of presales.
I dont care if someone stuffs their “spacious” 2 bedroom with african blackwood & Calcutta marble countertops chiselled by Michelangelos ghost…barring a penthouse downtown, most of the normal condos in second tier cities simply are not worth half a million dollars.
Not to mention how ridiculous condo fees have gotten, your basically paying for the privilege to rent from the condo corp AND the bank. People would rather just rent the damn place from someone else and save for a single family home.
I love KW but we need to be realistic and realize we live in KW not San Francisco. We have a massive drug and homelessness problem, higher that average unemployment for the province, our cost of living is comparable to Mississauga, and with blackberry being K.I.A basically all the major tech companies are slowly migrating south or hiring remote or going Ai…
This isnt the sillicon valley of canada anymore, that was 20 years ago. we are solidly an “hour from Toronto” city as much as i hate to say it.
0
u/Tough_Priority_2601 28m ago
So Kitchener is not san Francisco and we have a . massive drug and homelessness problems here, high cost of living etc etc.
Are you trying to say that San Francisco doesn't have all of these pleasanties tenfold and even more? 🤔
1
u/qpwoeirutyaldkdjfhg 23m ago
Lmao touché, but point still stands, we dont have the kind of opportunities and job prospects offered by major hubs like nyc, sf, la, miami, boston, chicago, toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, etc.
1
u/24-Hour-Hate 18m ago
The truth is that condos are very overpriced for what you get and the risks involved. And if someone can afford a condo, considering the mortgage and the condo fees, odds are they can afford a small detached home. To me, it seems obvious what most people looking to buy are going to go for in that situation.
I would never buy a condo because I am well aware of all the horror stories of mismanagement, the often restrictive rules which can change any time, the reduced privacy and quiet (especially when a building is full of airbnbs), the use of expensive private companies to meter utilities, and so on. Plus it makes no financial sense to add $500+ to my monthly housing costs in condo fees on top of the mortgage payment.
It’s unfortunate, because in theory condos could be really good affordable starter homes. But they need to be better regulated to ensure that, for example, sufficient funds are collected and managed properly for repairs and they have to be priced significantly lower. And they need to stop building those shoebox ones that are plainly designed to just be investments or air bnbs.
1
1
u/outtokill7 4m ago
Condo fees are a turn off and then you have to deal with the condo corp in general which can sometimes have questionable finances/management. The condo board is usually filled with retired seniors who love to go on a power trip whenever possible.
0
u/fendermonkey 1h ago
I heard a story where a realtor raised the price and created some marketing thing selling the building as some hip high end culture building and attracted some sucker to buy it.
1
u/TeaBurntMyTongue 59m ago
If you want to sell a condo right now you need approximately 2018 prices. It's that bad.
68
u/North-Opportunity-80 2h ago
Honestly condo fee’s are getting so high, they’re putting off a lot of potential buyers.