Sell for what it is actually worth.

Budget for real estate commission, which is negotiated in the listing agreement and split between the listing and buying brokerages, plus HST on that commission. Then legal fees of roughly $1,200 to $2,000, a mortgage discharge fee of about $250 to $400 if you are paying out early, any prepayment penalty, and adjustments for property tax and utilities. On a typical Mississauga sale the all-in figure usually lands somewhere between 4 and 6 percent of the sale price.

It depends far more on price than on marketing. A correctly priced freehold home in a well-served Mississauga neighbourhood usually goes firm within two to four weeks. Condos and condo townhouses generally take longer because buyers have more comparable inventory to choose from. A property that sits past six weeks is almost always a pricing problem, not an exposure problem, and repricing early costs less than repricing late.

In a balanced or slower market, sell first. Knowing your actual net proceeds means you can make a firm offer instead of one conditional on your sale, and conditional offers are routinely beaten by unconditional ones. In a fast rising market the calculus flips, but bridge financing carries real cost and real risk. This is a numbers decision specific to your equity position and it is worth an hour of conversation before you list.

If the property was your principal residence for every year you owned it, the gain is generally exempt from Canadian capital gains tax, though the sale must still be reported on your return. If it was a rental, a second property, or partly rented out, some or all of the gain is taxable. Non-residents face withholding requirements at closing. Speak to an accountant before you list, not after you close.

Paint, deep cleaning, decluttering and lighting return more than almost anything else, and they are cheap. Fix anything that reads as deferred maintenance: a running toilet, a broken screen, a stained ceiling from a leak that was repaired years ago. Do not renovate a kitchen to sell. You rarely recover the cost, and you delay the listing through the months where a buyer might have paid for the potential instead.

By recent comparable sales in your immediate area, adjusted for condition, exposure, lot, finishes and the current level of competing inventory. Not by an online estimate, and not by what a neighbour listed at. The online tools are useful for a rough starting point and are linked on this site, but an automated model has never seen inside your house and cannot price a renovation or a bad layout.

You do not have to order one in advance, but you should. Buyers ask for it and the condominium corporation has up to ten days to produce it, which is ten days of a conditional offer sitting on your file with nothing happening. Having it ready shortens the conditional period, and if there is a problem in it you find out on your own timeline rather than in the middle of a negotiation.

The listing agreement runs for a set term and then expires. If a property has been exposed properly for six weeks with real showing activity and no offers, the market is telling you the price is wrong. The options are to reduce, to change the presentation, or to withdraw and relist later. What does not work is waiting quietly, because days on market is public and buyers read it as leverage.