House Selling Costs: 5 Hidden Fees, and How to Avoid Them

House Selling Costs: 5 Hidden Fees, and How to Avoid Them

As you prepare to sell your house, are you expecting to receive the total amount the buyer offers? If so, you might be surprised when you learn that you won’t receive all this money. 

The average home seller spends $21,000 to sell their home. Does this seem crazy or what? After all, you sell your house to make money, not spend it.

The truth is that selling a home isn’t free. Instead, it involves fees, costs, and expenses, and some of these house selling costs aren’t obvious from the start. 

You can avoid all these costs by selling your home to a cash buyer. However, before you decide how to sell your property, you might want to learn about the following five hidden fees that you might encounter when selling your home.

1. Home Staging Costs

When you think of selling your home, you probably think about the money you’ll make from the sale. However, selling a house requires spending money, too. So, how much does it cost to sell a house?

The first hidden cost to consider is the amount you spend on staging it. Staging is a process that involves a few steps or many, depending on your home’s condition.

If you’re unsure about what steps to take to stage your home, ask a real estate agent. Agents offer tips and suggestions based on what current home buyers look for in properties. 

Completing just a few steps, such as cleaning and rearranging your furniture, might be free, but other staging efforts cost money.

For example, if your entire home needs new paint, you could spend $1,000 or more on this task. Of course, you can save money by painting it yourself, but that’s a big job for one person.

2. Home Repairs the Buyer Requests 

Another cost of selling a house is the expenses you encounter by completing buyer requests for home repairs. A buyer can ask you to fix, update, or change things in your home. However, each task you complete costs money. 

You won’t know what repairs the buyer asks for until you receive the purchase offer. You can read through it to see their requests and then add up the costs. 

When a home’s in excellent condition, a buyer might not ask for much. However, when you try to sell an outdated home, you can expect the buyer to ask for things. 

As a result, many people turn to cash home buyers when they’re ready to sell. One of the most compelling reasons to sell for cash is to avoid making repairs that buyers request.

Cash home buyers won’t ask you to invest any money into the home. Instead, they’ll take it as it currently is. 

3. Prorated Expenses

Another cost of selling a house is prorated expenses. If you don’t know what this means, you’re not the only one. Many home sellers feel surprised when they see these expenses on the closing documents.

Prorated expenses consist of several things. One common one is property taxes. 

When you transfer your home’s title from your name to the buyer’s name, you must pay the property taxes up to closing day.

The problem is that you can’t pay them to the county at this time. So, instead, you pay the money to the buyer, and the buyer uses it to pay the bill when it comes. 

You might also have to pay prorated homeowners’ association fees and utility bills. These expenses add up quickly, but you can’t avoid them when selling your home to a traditional buyer. 

However, there is a way to avoid these costs. If you sell to a cash buyer, the cash buyer won’t ask you to pay for the prorated expenses. Instead, they’ll cover them. 

Additionally, you might have to pay some legal fees for the sale. Selling a house closing costs are common with home sales. So, what legal fees will you pay? 

It depends on the situation, but one is title fees. Sellers often hold the responsibility of paying for the title work and title insurance required  with the home sale. 

You might also have to pay fees to transfer the deed from your name to the buyer’s name.

Additionally, you might encounter other closing costs that fall into the legal fee category. For example, you might have to pay for the inspections needed for the sale or the appraisal. 

Many home sellers don’t realize that these costs exist, but they do, and they can add up to thousands of dollars. 

5. Real Estate Commission 

The final cost you’ll pay when selling a house is the commission. While this fee isn’t necessarily hidden, it’s often a surprising amount to sellers. 

In terms of commissions, the average cost to sell a house is 4% to 6% of the selling price. So, if you sell your house for $100,000, you’ll pay $4,000 to $6,000 for the commission.  

Most homes sell for higher amounts than this, though, which means you’ll likely pay a lot more than $6,000 for the commission. The commission you pay cuts into your profit significantly, but how can you avoid it?

The best way to avoid it is by selling your home to a cash buyer. Cash homebuyers don’t charge commissions or other fees. Instead, you receive the amount they offer minus your home loan balance. 

Avoid These House Selling Costs by Selling to a Cash Buyer

When you add up the house selling costs you might incur when listing your home, you might decide that it’s too expensive to sell it this way. The good news is that there are other options, including selling to a cash buyer.

Are you ready to learn how much your house is worth to a cash buyer? If you live in the Memphis area, contact us today for a cash offer for your home. 

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