When you sell your home, it is essential to remember that there are costs involved throughout the process. The costs need to be taken into consideration in order for you to profit on the sale of your home. If you do not take the time to consider costs involved with a home sale, it is easy to lose money along the way.
When it comes time to sell your home in Massachusetts, you should consider the costs involved in the process. Unfortunately, many people forget to take into consideration that there are costs that accumulate from start to finish. Factoring all costs into your estimated numbers is essential to come out on top. In addition, knowing the costs of selling your home will help you determine your listing price.
Recently, Freddiemac posted a statistic that sellers are spending around $15,000 to sell their home from start to finish. This is definitely a big chunk of money and should be considered right away.
With this number in mind, you can see why it is so important to determine costs before you list your home for sale in Massachusetts. Be sure to do your research before making any concrete moves.
What are The Costs of Selling a Home?
Real Estate Commission
When you list your home with a real estate agent, you will pay your agent a commission based on the sales price of your home. On average, Realtor commissions run around 6%. The commission will be deducted from your sales price and taken out of your gross proceeds.
Fees to the Realtor
Although you are paying a commission to your Realtor, there can be additional fees associated with the sale of your home that you pay to the real estate agent’s brokerage company. For example, some real estate firms may charge an advertising fee. It is important to do your research when you look for your Realtor and remember it’s not always the best idea to go with the cheapest fees and commissions.
Closing Costs
After you receive an offer on your home, inspections pass, lender approval is all set, and many other factors are in place you will head to the closing table to finalize the sale. There are fees at the time of closing and those fees can vary. Typically fees associated with a home closing are title insurance, title search fees, transfer fees or transfer taxes, appraisal fees, courier fees and recording fees.
Taxes
While your home is on the market for sale, you are still in title so you are still responsible for keeping up on your property taxes. The longer you home stays on the market, the more you will pay in taxes. It is important to keep that in mind as this should be considered into your costs to sell, although the amount varies and might be difficult to pinpoint an exact number. The faster you sell, the less you will pay in property taxes, so be sure you do all you can to market the home in the best way possible.
Prepping the Home For Sale
Depending on the condition for your home, prepping it for sale can either be extremely costly or really cheap. If your home needs some work to get it market ready, it is very important to review what needs to be done and what your budget is for that project. In addition, when you have done all your repairs and upgrades, it’s a good idea to hire a professional photographer and maybe even a staging professional so be sure to shop around for those services.
Inspections
During and after an inspection, a seller can really get nervous about the outcome. Waiting for the results and any buyer requests for repairs can be a nightmare. In some cases a buyer will pay for the inspection and in others the seller will pay for the inspection. On average, the inspection itself will run around $200. However, if there are repairs requested, this could get costly.
Moving Costs or Storage
Clearly at the end you will be happy that your home is selling, but don’t forget to calculate in any storage fees or moving costs. You may need to clean your home out a bit and need to store some of your belongings to properly present your home for sale. In addition, when it comes time to move, you will at least need packing supplies and a truck.
Conclusion
After all is said and done, you can figure on average you will probably spend around $20,000 to sell your home in Massachusetts. When you list your home for sale, be sure to consider all of these expenses so you will know what your final outcome will be. The faster you can sell your home, the less expensive it will be during the process resulting in a higher proceeds check after the closing.
Sometimes, however, homeowners are not in a position to spend the necessary funds to sell their home. This can be very stressful. Fortunately, there are new ways to have a successful closing including selling your home to a direct cash buyer. You can forego hiring a real estate agent when you work with a direct buyer which already saves you money. In addition, professional cash buyers will not ask you to make any repairs to your home.
If you are ready to sell your home in a stress free way, feel free to reach out to us and we can go over your options. We often provide no obligation cash offers within 24 hours of viewing your home for sale.