How Much Does it Cost To Sell a Home Today?

Are you planning on selling your home in the near future? Now is a great time to sell; many homeowners have equity in their properties and, with interest rates heading in the right direction (so far), you may want to find a new home that is more suited for you. However, there are some costs associated with selling your home. If you have not sold a home before or it’s been quite a while, you won’t want to be caught off guard by some of those expenses. I’m sharing a few of the more common costs associated with selling your home and a few things you can do to secure the best price from your buyer.

1. Costs before the sale. There are a number of ways you can prepare your home before listing on the MLS. You may want to have an inspection performed – or at least consider making repairs to any known issues - make updates or renovations, organize your home, and have deep cleaning done. While most of these options are not 100% necessary, I recommend them so that we can secure the highest offer with the best terms in the most timely manner. I always take the opportunity to walk the home with my sellers so we can discuss all the recommendations and what actions will bring the best “return” for the seller’s dollar. I also suggest ways to stage a home with your current furniture and décor or, if the home is vacant, we do light staging and/or virtual staging to make the home more inviting for those viewing it. Please consider having a pre-listing meeting with your agent to go over all of the pre-listing costs and to come up with a listing strategy.

2. Costs of selling. When selling a home with a real estate agent, there will be negotiation of the listing broker’s professional fee. You will also want to have a discussion about your current market and the expectations around potential negotiations of buyer concessions or a contribution to buyer’s broker commission. Depending on your agreement with your listing agent, those commissions could be a flat-type of fee or a percentage of the sale of the home. Many agents have differing commission packages. If you have an experienced agent with great negotiation skills and a proven track-record, it could be worth the extra cost of a higher fee the agent is able to get you the highest price for your home. All of those fees can be (and should be) discussed at length with your real estate professional.

3. Closing costs. These costs go towards transferring the ownership of a property from one person to another and include things like title insurance and escrow fees, mortgage insurance, interest (interest is paid in arrears so it has to be paid through the closing date), taxes, seller concessions, if there are any, notary fees, and potentially HOA transfer fees if you are living in an HOA community. While seller concessions can be negotiated, and closing costs can vary based on the value of your property, your real estate professional should be able to provide a “general” idea of what those closing costs will be.

Planning for a home sale is a lot of work, but that is one more reason you have me. I can walk you through each step and discuss any questions or concerns you may have. I do not want you to ever wonder “What is next?” We commit to providing CANE CLIENT CARE, where I will Communicate, Advocate, Navigate and Educate no matter what unique market we are in. You always deserve uncompromised service for all your real estate needs.