Each year, more than 5 million Americans make the decision to sell their homes.
If you’ve gone through the process of selling a house before, then you likely know to expect. You know you’re going to have to factor in the cost to sell a house prior to putting your home up on the market.
But if you’ve never sold a house before, you might not be prepared for the costs that can come along with trying to sell your home. These costs catch a lot of sellers off-guard.
So, how much does it cost to sell a house? There are a handful of factors that are going to play into it. You should familiarize yourself with the various home selling fees before listing your home for sale.
Here are some of the factors that you’ll have to consider when you’re asking yourself the question, “How much to sell a house?”
Home Inspection
When you first decide that you’re going to try and sell your home, you might want to consider having a home inspection done on it. During a home inspection, an inspector will walk through the inside of your home and take a look at the outside of it to see what kind of condition it’s in.
An inspector will point out any potential problems with your home so that you can think about fixing them before putting your home up for sale. It’s a good idea to do this since most buyers are going to schedule an inspection of their own later and use the problems that their inspector finds during the negotiation process.
You would be better off finding out any problems that exist with your home ahead of time. It’ll give you an opportunity to make the necessary repairs to your home so that you don’t run into any snags down the line.
Most home inspections will run you a few hundred dollars. But they’ll often be well worth the expense.
Home Repairs
Regardless of whether or not you have a home inspection done before putting your home up for sale, there are inevitably going to be some home repairs that you’ll want to get done. You can probably pinpoint a few things that you would want to repair on your own without the help of a home inspector.
In some cases, these home repairs aren’t going to cost you a whole lot of money. You’re not going to have to break the bank to patch up holes in walls or fix a leaky faucet.
But there are also other home repairs that might cost you a pretty penny. If, for example, you have to replace a bunch of windows in your home or repair your roof, you could be looking at spending a decent amount of money.
You should be ready, willing, and able to make repairs to your home so that any deficiencies with it don’t force you to lower your asking price.
Home Staging
Once you list your home for sale and start having potential buyers walk through it, you want your house to look its absolute best. To accomplish this goal, you may want to consider having your home staged.
There are home staging companies that will come in and set up the right furniture throughout your house so that it looks amazing. You shouldn’t have any trouble selling your home when you have it staged properly.
But this will, of course, come at an expense. You might end up having to shell out thousands of dollars to have your home staged.
You don’t have to stage your home if you don’t want to. But if you’re interested in selling your home quickly, it’s a good option to have.
Real Estate Commission
The biggest expense that you’re going to face when you’re wondering, “How much does it cost to sell a house?”, is the real estate commission that you’ll have to pay. Many real estate agents will charge you up to 10% of the sale price of your home to help you sell it.
To get around this particular cost, some people will try to sell their homes on their own. But even then, you’re going to have to prepare to pay a buyer’s real estate agent at the end of your transaction once you sell your home.
The one way that you can skip paying a real estate agent altogether is by choosing to sell your home for cash to a company that specializes in paying cash for homes. Check out this guide for more information on how you can go about doing this.
Closing Costs
More often than not, those who are buying homes will be responsible for covering the closing costs that come along with doing it. But there are some sellers who will agree to cover some of the closing costs in an effort to entice buyers.
You should decide whether or not you’re prepared to do this. You might not have to worry about doing it if you live in a real estate market that’s red-hot right now.
But if you’ve been having a tough time selling your home, agreeing to pay a portion of the closing costs could be the key to doing it. Even if it adds to the cost to sell a house, it’ll be worth considering taking some of the closing costs on.
So, How Much Does It Cost to Sell a House? It Could Be in the Thousands!
When you think about selling your home, you likely think about how much money it’s going to bring in for you. But you should keep in mind that there are going to be some costs that you’ll have to consider, too.
Now that you know the answer to the question, “How much does it cost to sell a house?”, you should figure out the best way to go about putting your home up for sale. You should be able to cut your costs by taking the right approach to doing it.
Browse through the other articles on our blog for more tips on buying and selling homes.
