Selling a Condo, Co-op, or Home in Leisure World

I’ve written quite a few blog posts about Leisure World from a buyer’s perspective, so I thought it would be helpful to write a post about selling a home in Leisure World.  It’s not too different than selling a home anywhere else, but I thought it still might be something someone would be searching the internet for information about.

Many homes in Leisure World aren’t sold by the owners of the home, condo, or co-op, because the owners have passed away or they’re in an assisted living or memory care facility.  If you’re selling a home (from here on out I will say home to mean condo, co-op, or patio or townhome) on behalf of someone else, you need to make sure you have the legal documents in place to rightfully sign all the documents needed to sell the home.  Often, I work with Personal Representatives or Trustees to sell a home.  Your first step is to contact an attorney and make sure you have the documents in place needed to represent the owner to sell the home.  If you’re already the owner of the home (you are listed on the title), you can skip this step.  If you’re the owner of the home and someone else is on the title with you that has passed away, you’ll need to have the death certificate of that person, and possibly some other documents as well.  I am not an attorney so please contact your attorney to ask exactly what you will need.   I do often work with an attorney who conducts many closings at Leisure World, so if you’d like to speak with him, please let me know and I can provide you with his information.

After you get the documents you need, the next step is to contact a real estate agent about selling the home.  I sell many homes in Leisure World and would be happy to help.  There are a lot of great agents who sell homes in Leisure World—I recommend working with an agent who has expertise in Leisure World.  Leisure World requires some disclosures for the sale (I won’t go into them here) that other, outside sales don’t require, so you want an agent who won’t leave anything out, and who has a working relationship with some of the managers at Leisure World, in order to streamline things.

Once you contact an agent, they can inspect the home and let you know what they recommend you do to get it ready for sale.  If you don’t live in the area, the agent can often take care of these details on your behalf.  Of course, just like any sale, there are things you can do to the home that will most likely increase the sales price you can get for the home (new carpet and paint are two that spring to mind), and there are things you can do that might increase the sales price, but not enough to be worth the expense of doing them (brand new kitchen).  Of course, all of this varies on a case-by-case basis.  You can also choose to just sell the home without improving or refreshing it at all.  The agent you hire should be able to give you a rough idea of what price you could sell the home for, depending on what you decide to do.

In order to sell the home, the agent will have you complete and sign a listing agreement and the disclosures needed to sell the home. Then they will list the home for sale.  Once you have a contract on the home, you or your agent will need to order what’s known as a “resale package” or “condo docs.”  Those cost about $300 or $400 dollars, and they will contain all the budget information, the by-laws, etc. of the mutual and home that is for sale.  As part of these documents, a mutual representative will inspect the home and make sure there are no violations the owner needs to correct.  If they find any, the owner will need to correct the violations before the sale closes (and the inspection report will be included in the resale package).  It usually takes a couple weeks for the resale package to come in, once ordered, and then once they’ve come in (over e-mail unless you pay extra and request a paper copy), the buyers have seven days to review the information, and back out of the deal if they see something in them that’s a deal breaker.  The buyers will also most likely want to do a home inspection.  After the home inspection they will probably present you and your agent with a list of items they would like fixed or given a credit for at closing.  Your agent can advise you about negotiating those items, if any.

Closing is typically anywhere from 21 – 60 days after the property is under contract.  The most typical timeframe is 30 days.  By closing, all the repairs requested in the home inspection will need to have been completed— you usually need to show the invoices for the repairs, to prove they’ve been done and who did them.  By closing, you’ll also need to make sure you have all the keys, fobs, and possibly even garage door opener that come with the home.  There can sometimes be several different keys—the home key, the mailbox key, the storage room key, the key for the padlock on the storage cage, etc.  If you don’t have them or can’t find them, that’s good information to know before closing so the mailbox can be re-keyed, or a new key can be bought for the storage room, etc.

Does this sound like a lot of work?  I can’t say that selling a home is ever tons of fun, but with a good real estate agent working for you, things will be easier, and at closing you will have the proceeds from the sale to show for all the effort.  If you have a home you’d like to sell at Leisure World, I’d be happy to help. Please feel free to contact me.  Thanks!