Seller's Guide
The Real Cost of Selling a House in Quebec
Most sellers calculate their net proceeds like this: sale price, minus the mortgage balance, minus broker …
Anyone in real estate who claims every transaction goes smoothly is either new or not being honest. A transaction is a complex event involving multiple parties, significant money, legal obligations, emotional decisions and tight deadlines.
The deals that go wrong tend to resemble each other, and they always teach the same thing: the problem was detectable before the offer.
A typical condominium case
A buyer signs a promise to purchase on a condominium in a building that appears well managed. Three weeks before closing, during the notary’s title search, a registered notice appears: the condominium corporation has registered a legal hypothec against the unit, tied to a special assessment left unpaid by the previous owner.
The amount is rarely catastrophic, often a few thousand dollars. But discovering it ten business days before a scheduled closing creates a cascade of urgency: the payment has to be coordinated out of the sale proceeds, a release obtained, and the date held.
This kind of file almost always gets resolved. It simply costs several days of avoidable stress.
The checks that would have changed everything
A title search is not a formality. Assuming that an uneventful offer period means clean title is unreliable. Charges are registered independently of the transaction in progress.
Condominium minutes get read before the offer, not after. A special assessment never appears out of nowhere: it was discussed in meetings, often for months. Two years of minutes are usually enough to see it coming.
The state of the contingency fund is the best indicator of future risk. An undercapitalized building transfers its debt to the next buyer, in the form of a special assessment.
What makes the difference when a problem does surface
Transparency and speed. A buyer informed immediately, with a clear explanation of what happened and what the resolution path looks like, handles the situation far better than one who discovers the problem in fragments.
Most difficult files are difficult not because of the problem itself, but because of the delay between discovering it and communicating it.
Dealing with a complex real estate situation? Let’s talk.
Georges Matar
Residential Real Estate Broker · RE/MAX DU CARTIER INC.
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