Cost of Selling With a Realtor

June 27, 2007

Selling a home can be a complicated and stressful task. To help ease your stress you can hire a professional licensed real estate agent to sell your home. Having a real estate agent represent you and sell your home has many benefits, but it can also be detrimental to some home selling situations.

If you want full market value for your home and need to sell your home fast I would not recommend using a real estate agent. I would recommend selling your home through a licensed realtor if you are asking full market value for you home, you have plenty of time to sell your home, you don’t mind people walking through your house during the listing period, you keep your home clean of clutter and personal items, and once again you have plenty of time to sell your home.

Please note, I know many realtors who are great at what they do. They are helpful, and do sell many homes. If you are in a typical selling situation, want full market value for your home, and have plenty of time to sell your home I would recommend selling your home with a real estate agent. They can take much of the stress of selling your home away from you. If you are going to sell your home with a real estate agent I would also recommend getting a referral from a friend or co-worker. This will ensure you are connected with a great agent who knows your local market.   

The following contains information on the cost of selling your home with a realtor. Realtor fees are negotiable and every home selling situation is different so these costs are typical to most real estate transactions when using a realtor to sell your home but not all. Where percentages are show, multiply this value times your selling price to get your monetary value.

 Cost to sell your home with a realtor:

  • Real estate commission to your realtor =  3%
  • Real estate commissions to the buyers realtor = 3%
  • Buyer discount in purchase price = 3%
  • Appraisal = $350
  • Home inspection repairs, these can vary by transaction but we will assume a house in good condition = $750
  • Home warrantee = $350
  • Holding cost during selling period, assume 90-day marketing period and 30-day financing period for buyers.  Holding cost include, mortgage, taxes, insurance, and maintenance = 5%
  •  Closing cost = 2.5%  

Total cost to sell your home with a realtor is approximately 16.5% + $1,450.

For an example I am going to assume I am selling my home worth $100,000. The total selling fees to sell my home would be approximately $16,500 + $1,450 = $17,950. This is almost $20,000 to sell my house worth $100,000, that is a lot of hard yearned money! The truth is it cost money to sell a home.

Before selling your home you should look at all your options. You can sell your home FSBO, you can sell your home through a real estate agent, or you can sell your home to a real estate investor. Real estate investors do not charge anything to buy your home. Home buyers typically do not pay full market value, but hey, if they pay you what you are going to get when you list your home with a realtor 120 days from now. Whey would you not sell you home to a real estate investor and skip all the hassles of selling your home.

For a free, confidential, no-obligation offer for you home check out www.ExpertHomeOffers.com they are very helpful and you have nothing to loose.