(Newswire.net — October 9, 2021) —
In 2020, approximately 5.64 million people sold their homes.
While you can make some money by selling a house, it’s important to know that you’ll also have to pay fees to sell a home.
If you’re thinking about selling, you might want to find out the average cost to sell a house before putting yours up for sale. When you learn the costs of selling, you can determine your approximate profit before listing it.
Here is a guide to help you learn more about the costs you should expect to pay when selling your home.
The Staging Costs
Before selling a house, most homeowners must complete some work to prepare their homes for sale. Realtors often call this process “staging a home.”
Staging your home might involve just a few minor steps that don’t cost much, or it could involve many steps that cost a lot of money. It depends on your home’s condition and your desire to sell it quickly.
More buyers want turnkey homes today, which means they don’t want homes that need work. Therefore, if you want to sell your house faster, you might need to fix it up first.
If your home needs a lot of work, you might spend $10,000 or more on the staging efforts. If it doesn’t need a lot of work, you might be able to stage it for under $1,000.
You’ll need to decide what tasks to complete and the amount of money you’re willing to spend on these efforts. If you’re on a tight budget, you might not want to spend much.
The Commission
The next expense of selling a home is for the realtor fees. If you decide to list it for sale with a realtor, you’ll be stuck paying a commission to the agents that work on the sale.
The commission rate is around 5% to 6% on average, which adds up to a lot of money on an average sale. If you sell your house for $200,000, for example, you’ll spend between $10,000 to $12,000 on commissions.
If you have to pay this much money when selling your house, it can greatly cut into your profits. Yet, you might wonder how you can avoid paying commissions.
One way to avoid paying commissions is by selling your home to cash home buyers. Cash home buyers make offers on homes, and the homeowners won’t have to pay commissions.
If you want to avoid paying commissions on your home sale, you can consider selling your house this way.
The Costs for Repairs From the Contract
Part of the home selling process involves negotiating with the home buyer. The home buyer makes an offer to you for your house. You can then accept it, reject it, or counter it.
In any case, you should read through the purchase offer very carefully, as it will state all the contingencies and requests the buyer has. Some of the requests might involve home repairs.
For example, if the homebuyer wants new countertops in the kitchen, they might add this to the contract. If you accept the offer they make, you’ll be responsible for paying for the new countertops.
New countertops can cost a lot of money, but you’ll have to pay for them if you accept the buyer’s offer.
An offer might have one request or many, and you can add up the costs before accepting the offer to see if you’re willing to pay for them.
You can include these costs in your home selling fees, as they are necessary expenses when selling a home. Before accepting an offer, get bids on all the contingencies to make sure you’re willing to pay for them.
The Closing Costs
As a home seller, you’ll also have some closing costs to pay when selling your house to a traditional buyer. Here are some of the closing costs you might be responsible for paying when selling your house:
Title Insurance
Most homebuyers need title insurance for the homes they purchase. The buyer might pay for some of these costs, but the seller often pays for some, too. You can ask your agent how much these will be in your situation.
Home Inspections
While the buyer might pay for some of the home inspections, you might also be responsible for some. You can read through the purchase offer to see which ones you’ll have to pay for in this deal.
Buyer Closing Costs
If the buyer asks you to pay for some of their closing costs, you can add this to the list of expenses you’ll have when selling your house.
You can read your contract to see how much you agreed to pay for, as the purchase offer will tell you this information.
The Costs for Paying the House Expenses
Finally, you’ll have some other expenses related to the house that you must pay for when selling your home.
The first one is your mortgage balance. Your mortgage balance gets paid first from the proceeds. You can contact your lender to see how much you owe if you’re unsure about the balance.
Secondly, you’ll have to pay the seller for prorated property taxes. Property taxes accrue during the year but are not due until the following year.
You’ll be responsible for paying the prorated taxes for the time you live in the house.
You’ll also have to pay the seller any other prorated fees, such as HOA fees or anything else that pertains to your house.
Your realtor can help you determine how much these expenses will cost before you agree to sell your house for a specific price.
The Average Cost to Sell a House Varies
The average cost to sell a house varies, but it’s often a significant amount of money. You can save money on these expenses by selling your house for cash to an investor.
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