You may think selling a house in Texas will only lead to a huge profit due to the home’s sale price. However, a real estate transaction has numerous home selling fees. These include the costs of home staging, realtor commission fees, home repairs, moving costs, landscaping payments, and other closing costs.
How much does it cost to sell a house in Texas? That will depend on the cost of your home improvements, how far you’re moving and how much help you need to move, and any seller concessions you’re willing to make.
For instance, you may cover the home inspection cost for the buyer. Seller concessions like these could get you more bids on the house and lead to a faster home sale.
Below, we will go over all the details regarding house selling costs. Are you ready to get started? Then, read on!
House Selling Costs
It’s nearly impossible for a house seller to obtain the entire home value price after completing the sale. Homeowners will have to cover numerous costs during the house-selling process. The general house-selling costs will include the following:
- Realtor fees of the listing agent
- The mortgage payoff amount, including a potential prepayment penalty
- The average cost of renovations and repairs
- Property taxes at a prorated rate and transfer taxes
- The capital gains tax rate
- Real estate attorney fees
- The stager fee and costs of movers
You will also need to cover the real estate agent commission fee of the buyer’s agent. You may also need to pay for a title search and cover any last-minute seller closing costs. Essentially, the costs of selling a house can get rather extensive.
Yet, home sellers can forego the realtor commission fees of 5 to 6 percent on the home sale price. They can do so by selling their property under the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) process and avoiding working with a listing agent. Even so, they’ll need to pay for the buyer’s realtor commission fee.
Other costs to consider are escrow fees, lingering homeowners association (HOA) fees, and utility costs until the home sale is complete. Below, we will delve into more detail about the types of house-selling costs you’ll need to handle.
Types of House Selling Costs
You’ll need to account for numerous home-selling costs. One of the biggest includes improving the curb appeal of your property and completing home improvement projects. You can save some money on home repairs through DIY projects.
After all, you will need to fix up a house before selling to get potential buyers to take a second look. Further, better landscaping and curb appeal will attract more home buyers and better offers on the house.
In addition, the seller pays the remaining mortgage balance to the mortgage lender once the seller completes the home sale and receives payment for the real estate property. Essentially, you need to use proceeds from the home sale to pay off the rest of your mortgage loan. You will also need to request a payoff letter from your lender.
If you’re in the midst of a buyer’s market, you may need to make more concessions to the buyer. You can provide incentives, such as:
- Paying points toward the buyer’s mortgage loan
- Leaving some large appliances behind
- Paying off a few of the buyer’s closing costs
One of the largest parts of home selling costs is the realtor commission fee. The seller will need to cover both the buyer’s and seller’s realtor fees. Generally, you will need to pay a 6 percent commission fee based on your home sale price that the two realtors will split down the middle.
For instance, if your home sold for $200,000, you will spend $12,000 on realtor commission fees. Additionally, you will likely need to hire a real estate attorney and cover the costs of the lawyer. The attorney will produce the home sales contract and represent your interest at closing.
You’re likely to cover other closing costs like transfer taxes, prorated property taxes, and certain HOA fees. If your profit from the sale is large enough, you may also have to pay federal income taxes, known as the capital gains tax. However, there are certain qualifications you can meet to exclude a large portion of your profit from the capital gains tax.
Fees and Commission for Realtors
Most realtors use the commission model to get paid for their work. For decades, the commission model had a flat 6 percent rate for realtors. However, in recent years, that’s begun fluctuating, and more sellers have negotiated lower rates with their realtors.
Nonetheless, you’re not likely to see a realtor fee much lower than 5 percent of the home sale price most of the time. The specific terms and commission fees will depend on the region and the firm that a realtor works for.
In certain states, the buyers are not responsible for the commission fees of the realtors. Usually, the sellers have to pay the commission fees for both the buyer’s realtor and the seller’s agent. After the home sale is complete, the seller’s agent gets 3 percent, and the buyer’s agent gets the other 3 percent.
Real estate brokerage companies also make money from your home sale. Usually, out of that 3 percent, the realtor gets to keep 95 percent of the amount while the brokerage company takes a 5 percent cut.
Currently, the real estate commission fee is slightly larger than 5 percent, so you can surely negotiate a price below 6 percent when hiring a realtor to help you sell your home.
Are There Hidden Costs When Selling a House?
To avoid finding out that there are hidden costs you were unaware of, you may want to create a payment checklist when selling a house. When selling a home, you’re likely to have several potential hidden costs that you’ve forgotten.
For instance, you may not know that closing costs can end up taking up 2 percent of your home’s final price. That may include escrow fees, notary payments, transfer taxes, and recording fees. You may have also forgotten about property taxes before the sale, but you will need to cover the property taxes for your portion of the year.
You should also consider the capital gains tax and the possible exemptions you may be qualified for. Further, you may have found hidden costs when it comes to getting your home ready for showings and online listings.
For instance, you may need to pay for a home stager to organize your furniture and make recommendations. Also, you’ll need to pay a professional photographer to take photos of your home for your real estate listings.
You may also have forgotten to factor in costs like hiring a cleaning service or painting the walls and the exterior of the house. Further, if you’ve already moved out of your home, you will still need to cover utility fees until the sale is complete. These are several of the hidden costs you’ll want to add to a payment checklist or a home-selling budget.
How Much Does It Cost to Sell a House?
Your entire expense of selling your home is likely to reach about 10 percent of your final sale price. You’ll likely spend at least 5 percent on realtor commission fees and the rest on home repairs, renovations, closing costs, and moving costs.
In more detail, your staging costs are likely to reach about 1 percent of your home sale price. The landscaping costs take up another 1 percent. Closing costs can reach anywhere from 1 to 3 percent, while seller concessions may hit 1 or 2 percent.
The mortgage payoff amount can end up being a large portion of the costs or a small one, depending on how far along you are in paying off your mortgage loan. On top of that, you’ll need to cover the costs of home improvement projects, especially after the buyer completes a home inspection.
For a $250,000 home sale, you may end up spending around $25,000 on house selling costs.
Conclusion
Now, you can answer the question, “How much does it cost to sell a house?” You now know that you are likely to spend about 10 percent of your final home sale price on selling and moving costs. Therefore, if you sold your home for $300,000, you are likely to spend as much as $30,000 on your house selling costs.
If you want to save on your home selling costs, the best option is to sell your home under the FSBO process and forego working with a realtor. That way, you won’t have to pay as much in commission fees. However, you may have more trouble finding buyers without a realtor’s help. As such, you’ll want to contact cash home buyers in Texas.
Whether you want to sell a house fast in Fort Worth or sell your Houston place in its as-is condition, cash home-buying companies are your best bet. Best of all, we buy houses Arlington locals enjoy, so call us today!