Ask Harry · Selling Your Home
What are the costs of selling my home?
Short answer
Listing compensation, seller closing costs, any concessions, and repairs if you choose to make them. You will know your projected net before we ever list.
Full answer
Let us start with the listing compensation, the fee paid to the agents on the sale. Then there is the question of whether the buyer will ask you to pay the compensation for their agent, which is a negotiable term of the contract. If you have not sold a house in a while, that piece of the puzzle has changed.
There are also seller closing costs: title, settlement, and recording fees, and any concessions, like contributing to the buyer's closing costs or a repair credit after inspection.
And there may be repairs, either the ones you choose to make before listing or the ones that come out of the negotiation after inspection. Every sale is different, which is why the numbers are worked out for your specific situation.
The good news: you will know your numbers before we ever put a sign in the yard. I prepare a clear estimate of costs and your projected net proceeds up front, so you decide from knowledge, not surprises at the table.
The main costs
Where the money goes
Listing compensation
The fee for the listing side of the sale, agreed up front in the listing agreement.
Buyer-side compensation
Whether you pay the buyer's agent's compensation is a negotiated term of the contract, and it has changed in recent years.
Seller closing costs
Title, settlement, and recording fees, plus any transfer costs in your jurisdiction.
Concessions and repairs
Contributions to the buyer's closing costs, repair credits after inspection, and any work you choose to do.
The net-sheet idea
What you actually walk away with
The number that matters is not the sale price, it is the net: the sale price minus every cost, concession, and payoff between here and settlement. That is what funds your next move. Building the net sheet early, before you commit to a path, is the difference between deciding from knowledge and being surprised at the table.
Knowing before you list
How we remove the guesswork
Before we list, we build a clear estimate of the costs and your projected net proceeds for your specific home. You see the whole picture up front, including how different offers and different terms would change it. That way the decision to sell, and the decision of how to sell, both start from real numbers.
In plain terms
The way I like to explain it
The sale price is the headline, but the net is the story. It is like your paycheck: the gross number looks great on paper, but the number that pays the bills is what lands in the account. We make sure you know the take-home number before you commit to anything.
Putting it to work
What this means when you're selling
Ask for the full cost picture before you choose a path, not after. The net proceeds are what fund your next home, your next chapter, or your retirement, so the estimate comes first. A free home-value estimate gives you the starting number, and a proper net sheet turns it into the number that actually matters.
Ask Harry
Have a question about selling?
The fastest way to a straight answer is a quick call. Book a 15-minute consultation and I will go over your situation with you. No pressure, just a straight answer.