How much does it cost to sell a house?

This is Jeb Smith, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Huntington Beach, and today I’m going to do more of a topic discussion, and the topic today is going to be seller closing costs. How much does it cost to sell a house? Every home sale is different but these are the typical things a seller pays for when selling a house.

So often when I meet with sellers, new sellers, people that haven’t sold a house in a very long time, one of the first questions they ask is, “What are the costs associated with selling a house?” and this is honestly something that doesn’t really get discussed very often, and the reason I want to bring it to you today. So, you know, normally the first thing that … the first item rather that a seller pays as part of selling a house is commission, right? A seller is going to pay a commission fee. There’s no set commission fee within our industry, but typically there’s a commission fee paid both to the listing agent and to the buyer’s agent on a transaction when selling a home, so the seller actually pays their listing agent and they also pay the buyer’s side of the commission to bring the buyer to the table, so the commission fee is probably or definitely the largest chunk of what the seller’s going to pay when selling a house.

Some of the other fees that are associated with selling a house, are you’re going to have title fees, so a seller’s going to pay a seller’s policy when selling the house. Every seller is going to pay this, and the reason they’re paying a title fee is so that they can provide a clear title to the buyer on the property. There’s an owner’s policy that’s associated with that, there’s endorsements and some other minor fees that also go along with title that you’re going to pay, so a title fee is a large … one of the other fees that comes up.

An escrow fee, so an escrow fee is a fee that’s paid to a third party company that more or less is an intermediary in between the seller and the buyer, so they’re there to facilitate the transaction, bring all the pieces together, and make sure that essentially everything goes according to schedule and closes on time. And so you’re going to pay an escrow fee, and so there are some additional fees that are associated with escrow fees as well: messenger fees, sometimes there are some notary fees, transfer fees, that sort of thing. So there are some small fees that are associated with the escrow.

So right now we have commission, we have title, we have escrow. If your property taxes aren’t current on your house, so say you paid the first installment. The second installment’s due, but you haven’t paid it yet. Property taxes are going to be something that you pay through the closing of your house. That’s going to be one of the fees associated with it. And if you have paid your property taxes already, then you’ll actually get a refund through the close of escrow back to you for whatever the pro-rated portion of that is.

So you’ve got commission, title and escrow: those are the major fees associated with selling a house. And then if you’re in a condo, you’re going to have HOA docs normally that the seller pays, so you’re going to provide documents to the buyer to verify the CCNRs, the financials, the rules and regulations of the community … normally that’s a fee that’s associated with the seller. And also depending on how the deal is structured, you might have fees like a home warranty that you’re paying for for the buyer when you’re buying a house. Normally a buyer, when they purchase a home, asks for a home warranty, and that covers the main systems of the home for the first year. Normally that’s a fee paid by the seller.

And then also termite. So if you’re in a condo, normally, or a town home normally, there’s not a lot of termite work needed as part of that, ’cause it’s normally covered by the association. But if you’re in a single family residence, the termite fees can be a larger number, because if it requires tenting or any woodwork needed … Those are things that are associated with the selling of a home too.

Those are the main things that are involved with selling a home. Obviously there may be some other fees that come up, but that’s the majority of them. And so normally what I tell the seller, the first thing that we do, is we find out how much you owe on your house. So if you’re thinking of selling your house, and want to see what the actual breakdown is, call me. Reach out. All I need to know is what you currently owe on your property, and then obviously commission is one of those negotiable fees, and we don’t know exactly what your house would sell for, so there are some things in there that we have to estimate, like the selling price of your property. But from there we can say, “Hey, this is how much your house is going to sell for. This is how much you owe. These are the fees associated with selling your house, so at the end of the day you’re going to have a pretty good idea of what you’re going to walk away with net-wise, in order … if your property sells for, say, “X”.

But anyhow, I hope that’s helpful. I’m going to keep doing videos like this, so if you have a topic that you would like discussed, please reach out to me. Check out my other videos on  YouTube, or if you want more information about me, go to my website, jebsmith.net. Or just reach out to me directly: 714-376-2711. I appreciate you taking the time to watch, and we’ll see you soon. Have a great day. Bye bye.