Stress-free apartment sale: Expert advice on how to sell property quickly
Kyiv • UNN
Expert Larisa Stavynoha shared tips for selling property quickly. It is important to choose a realtor, correctly determine the price, and prepare high-quality advertising content.
Selling real estate often becomes a challenge for a family, as it's not just about placing an ad and waiting for a buyer. Too low or too high a price, legal errors, and fraudsters can ruin a deal or significantly delay the process. UNN spoke with the president of the Union of Real Estate Specialists of Ukraine, Larisa Stavynyha, to understand how to prepare for selling an apartment.
Sequence of selling an apartment
When planning to sell a home, the first thing to do, according to the expert, is to choose a reliable realtor or real estate agency that will assist you.
If a person decides to sell an apartment and plans to contact a real estate company, they should choose a company they will cooperate with. You can ask acquaintances who they have worked with and get recommendations. You can browse real estate agency websites and read reviews. That would be better, probably. Read reviews about realtors' work and choose one specific specialist.
When choosing a realtor, she advises considering their specialization – some work with primary housing, others with commercial real estate or land. It is also worth checking if the specialist is a member of a professional public organization.
After choosing a specialist, the client contacts them for an initial consultation and property inspection. The realtor visits the site, inspects the apartment, conducts market analysis, and proposes a format for further cooperation. The next step is signing a contract that records all agreements and sale conditions.
After that, the realtor moves on to the next stage – creating advertising content.
First, recommendations for pre-sale preparation of housing: how to refresh the apartment's appearance, what to tidy up or change to interest a buyer.
If the client follows these tips and the contract is already signed, it's time to agree on a sales strategy: whether it will be an open sale or an exclusive deal, which channels will be used for promotion. It's important here for the realtor and the seller to find a common vision. "Because today you can sell using various techniques, various methods. And a good specialist knows all of this," the expert emphasizes.
As a result, if all recommendations are followed and the owner's expectations match market reality, the sale is not delayed.
Usually, if the specialist's recommendations are followed, and the owner does not have inflated expectations, the apartment sells even in today's market, usually within a maximum of two to three months.
How to prepare an apartment for sale
Before putting an apartment up for sale, it is important to determine its real market value. This is done by a realtor who visits the property. They inspect the apartment, analyze market offers, and based on this, form a justified price. However, this is not the same as a state expert appraisal.
The property is never sold at the appraisal price (state expert appraisal - ed.). It's usually a very inflated price.
In other words, such an appraisal does not take into account the individual features of your apartment, such as the quality of renovation, the condition of the building, or the district's infrastructure.
Can you sell an apartment yourself?
At first glance, selling an apartment in Ukraine seems like a simple matter. But, according to the expert, only until you encounter reality.
"I recommend contacting professionals. When you encounter these calls, viewings, comments, document collection, it turns out to be difficult overall. You need to know a lot, be able to do a lot, and have connections to resolve everything quickly," she explains.
Nevertheless, you can sell an apartment yourself, but you must remember the risks. "A person enters into a transaction, they don't know who they are meeting. They don't know what this person's ultimate goal is – just to buy the apartment, or to find out where you live. These are uneasy times," says the specialist.
In the practice of agencies, Stavyvnyha says, there have already been cases where "buyers" turned out to be thieves. They called as interested parties, came for a viewing, "inspected" the apartment, and then returned to steal the property.
Therefore, professional realtors usually pre-check the potential buyer's documents, clarify their details, and record this in special viewing sheets.
When a person shows their passport before a viewing, when they conclude some document – it protects the seller. If a person has something in mind, they won't show their passport, leave their details, they won't want to be visible.
Also, according to her, most often when sellers go to the market independently, they encounter difficulties with documents. Meanwhile, buyers may have cash on hand and need to move in immediately – especially those relocating from affected regions. Thus, delays due to unprepared documents can cost a lost deal.
That is why agencies usually put documents in order immediately so that as soon as a buyer appears, they can go to the notary right away.
Moreover, selling an apartment yourself for a higher price, as the expert notes, is practically impossible. Realtors hired by potential buyers will find a way to "knock down" the price and buy your apartment favorably for their client.
"Owners who sell independently often give away their apartment for 30% (and sometimes more) cheaper than they could have received if they had worked with an agency and paid a commission," the expert also adds.
How to write an ad for selling an apartment
"For effective sales, quality photo content, video content, and voiceover are needed," notes the expert.
She advises preparing not one, but at least five different text options for one property to vary the ads. It is also important to have many photos so that each text is accompanied by a corresponding photoshoot – this helps make the ad more attractive and diverse.
Where to post an ad for selling an apartment
Most often, Ukrainians use several proven platforms. The most popular option is OLX, where you can post an ad for free, and if you wish, pay to boost it in the listing so that more potential buyers see it. Another popular resource is DOM.RIA. It specializes specifically in real estate and requires real photos with geolocation. LUN.ua is also in demand, which collects ads from various websites and allows buyers to easily compare options.
Who pays for realtor services: seller or buyer
Stavyvnyha emphasizes that there are no laws on the market that define who exactly should pay – the buyer or the seller.
"If you want to get the maximum price for your property, you should contact professionals who know all the nuances and tricks of the market. They can ensure that the apartment sells for 15-20% more, and sometimes even 25-30% more. If you want to buy an apartment as cheaply as possible – contact a realtor with this request, and they will help 'knock down' the price," the expert adds.
How to quickly sell an apartment
There are properties on the real estate market that remain without a buyer for years – and the reason is often not the condition of the apartment or its location, but the owner's inflated expectations.
As the real estate expert explains, if the seller insists on a personally set "internal" price that significantly exceeds the real market value, "the apartment can 'walk the market' for years – buyers come, look, but don't buy."
What is a property that walks the market? It sells from one to five years. Each time the seller's expectations are higher, and higher, and higher. And the market doesn't work that way.
According to the expert, modern buyers act very cautiously: they study the market, monitor new listings, and make decisions unhurriedly – sometimes over a year or even longer. But if an apartment appears with a reasonable price, interest arises immediately.
"As soon as a new (property – ed.) comes onto the market, they will immediately come, look, and immediately offer some money. And then you can negotiate, slightly raise the price, look at the parties' interest. There are various technologies for how to do this," notes Stavyvnyha.
If the owner ties the price not to the market, but to their own life plans, then, as the expert explains, everyone sees that the price is too high, and they go buy something else. That is, "you help others sell their apartments." After that, demand for your property sharply drops – and they stop looking at it. You have to lower the price.
Delaying the sale is very dangerous. Many think that the longer an apartment sells, the better. In reality, the faster, the more effective.
Also, in the expert's opinion, it's better when one agency handles the sale, "then all demand is concentrated with it. It can quickly process all calls, maintain contact with buyers, inform about price changes, and stimulate interest."
Selling an apartment or a room
"When selling a room, it is important to consider legal nuances and check the document package," notes expert Stavyvnyha.
Selling a room in dormitories or communal apartments presents a separate complexity.
"You need to get the consent of all co-owners who have the pre-emptive right to purchase at the declared price," explains Stavyvnyha.
If someone is absent or cannot be found, a written notarized notification by mail is used. After that, if none of them express a desire to buy the room within 30 days, the transaction can be concluded.
However, to bypass this procedure, some resort to the gift procedure. But if one of the co-owners proves that funds were transferred, such a contract can easily be declared invalid.
"It's risky. And depending on the circumstances, it can even lead to criminal liability," the expert emphasizes.
