Selling a House – Fees Commissions & Costs

When you go to sell your house, you need every bit of information available, in order to make the best decision. Maybe the most important information is the costs associated. There are many fees, commissions and expenses that can all heavily subtract from your net proceeds. The most common are realtor commissions and closing costs. Read on to learn the full breakdown of what you can expect to subtract from your gross sale price on your house. You can also compare how a cash sale saves you on these!

Repairs

Before you consider selling your home, you must objectively decide if your house is ready to list and have prospective buyers and their families walk through your home and critique your design choices, cleaning habits and upkeep. If you think your house needs some work, you must then decide how much work is worth it to get the best price for your home. It is a bit of a gamble trying to figure out exactly how much money you should invest in upgrades and repairs in order to fetch top dollar in net profit. Some people just do everything on the list in order to save embarrassment if buyers are turned off by an discoveries during an open house. We buy as-is so we don’t care about repairs.

Commissions

​​Realtors do not work for free. In fact, they usually get paid as a commission on the sale of your property. The seller pays for the buyer’s and the seller’s Realtor commissions. The buyer’s agent and the seller’s agent typically adds up to 5-6% of the total sale price of your home. Even if you sell by owner, you usually still pay the buyer’s agent of 2-3%. If you sell to us or another investor, there is no commission so you save the 5-6%.

Closing Costs

Another one of the costs of a traditional home sale is closing costs. These are the fees charged by the lender at the close of escrow. They can include appraisal fees, loan origination fees, title insurance, and more. Home buyers typically pay between 2% and 5% of the purchase price in closing costs. For a $200,000 home, that would be $4,000 to $10,000. Sellers may also be responsible for some of the closing costs. When you sell your home for cash, however, there is no lending involved, and on closing costs to pay. If you sell to us, we pay all closing costs.

Listing and Marketing Fees

Many Realtors do market your home to a large audience. A realtor may distribute your listing across in the internet and share it with others in the office. However, in order to get maximum visibility on your listing, there are many optional services that can add up. The most common are direct mail and magazines and newspapers. Just like selling anything, the more prospective buyers that see what is for sale, the better chance of selling your house and the better chance of getting a higher offer. These fees can add up to $3-5k very quickly but can be totally worth it the more your home is worth and the better you think the offers should be. We do not require any marketing fees as we are the end buyer.

Staging and Cleaning

Many homes require a little imagination to sell. A prospective buyer must be able to see themselves living in a home they are considering buying. This can be difficult if the rooms are quirky, the floor plan is non-traditional, or for other reasons. This is why staging is important. Staging helps buyers visualize their own furniture in the same space and gives them comfort knowing that your home could also be their home and that your house has everything going for it that will work for a new family. We don’t require staging to buy your house. We prefer it empty or you can leave behind anything you don’t want!

Concessions

When you sell your house to a traditional buyer, there are many concerns that may arise from using a traditional lender or from your buyer wanting your home to be move in ready for their family. Traditional lenders do a very thorough inspection on your house and usually produce a lengthy report of everything. There could be items on their list that you are required to fix before they approve the loan. This can cost you thousands of dollars and delay your closing. The buyers may also ask for financial concessions such as credit to be cut back to them at closing in the form of cash (to cover repairs or upgrades). We buy houses as-is so we can close fast and we don’t do concessions.

Carrying Costs

Imagine that a buyer has agreed to buy your house and they were pre-approved for the loan. Once you accept their offer, their bank gets to work ordering inspections. This process usually takes 45+ days for the purchase to fund. There are many reasons that the deal can fall apart at this stage. Usually, it is the fault of the lender, but the buyer could also back out at any time if they get cold feet or they find a better home or their financial situation changes. This leaves you back at square one. If this happens, you still have to pay for your utilities, mortgage and property taxes. This can really add up over time and also cut into your net profit. When you sell to us, we can close fast and we can guarantee that we can close.

Conclusion

If you decide to sell your house the traditional way, you must decide if you want an easy and guaranteed sale or you want to roll the dice and hope that your net will be higher. There are many fees and commissions, repairs, staging etc that can cut into your net profit that selling to investor bypasses. What you can get for free is a cash offer from us so that you can compare and see if an investor is a good choice to sell your house.