How can I buy a condo from someone without a realtor?
I am thinking to buy a condo from my friend’s classmate’s girlfriend. She owns the condo. Can we handle the whole purchase process all by ourselves without a realtor? How can we do that? What should we do ? what’s the procedure ? Or we have to find a realtor ?
Thanks a lot! Praying for Haiti!
Two things:
1) Why would you not want to use a realtor? There’s no charge to you, the buyer. All costs are paid by the seller. You will need a real estate attorney otherwise, if doing a transaction by owner. The seller should definitely pay those costs, because they will be far less than real estate commission if using a realtor.
2) More importantly, why in the world would you want a condo? Do you have any idea what you’re buying (or not buying) when you buy a condo? In a nutshell, you’re just buying air. You don’t own one wall or any part of your unit of the building. You only own the space inside the unit. Yet you will still be liable for property taxes. That’s right, you’re paying property taxes when you don’t own any real property or anything tangible. In addition, you’re paying a monthly association fee that can be as much as $200 a month, something you wouldn’t have if you bought a house. That $200 a month is much more than it would cost you to hire lawn/snow maintenance for your house. I would advise you to reconsider any condo purchase, and seriously look into buying a house. There are plenty of good deals on houses out there in this market.