How Much Does it Cost to Sell a Home?

When you sell a home, there are a number of costs associated with the sale, some of which are more obvious than others.

Generally, the biggest cost involved in selling a home are the agent fees. If you hire an agent to assist you with the sale of your home, you will typically pay a commission to the agent who represents you in the sale and a separate commission to the agent who represents the buyer. The average commission for each agent is 2-3%, which means that agent fees alone will cost you 5-6% of the sales price of your home.

The good news is that you don’t have to pay the agent who represents you a 2-3% commission to sell your home! You can hire an agent who works on a flat fee, like an O.C. Real Estate Advisor. When you use an O.C. Real Estate Advisor to help you sell your home, you are guaranteed to save thousands of dollars in agent fees because we don’t work on commission when we sell your home.

Click here to see how much our clients saved in agent fees by using an O.C. Real Estate Advisor to sell their home.

Aside from agent fees, there are a number of other fees that are standard in any home sale. Here are the major ones:

• Escrow Fees
  Unless altered by the purchase agreement, the seller and the buyer pay their own escrow fees. Like agent fees, escrow fees are typically based on the sales price of the home. To get an approximate calculation of the escrow fee, add $2 for every $1000 in the selling price, plus a base fee of $250. So if the selling price of your home is $500,000, you would calculate the escrow fee as follows: $500,000 / $1000 = $500, $500 x 2 = $1000, $1000 + $250 = $1250. So your escrow fee would be $1250.
• Title Insurance
  When you sell your home, you will need to purchase Owners’ Title Insurance. Title insurance provides the buyer with insurance against anyone who might later claim they are the rightful owner of the home. Title insurance fees vary depending on which company you choose to purchase your policy from. For a $500,000 home, an Owners’ Title Insurance Policy would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $1600.
• Transfer Tax
  When you sell a home in Orange County, you must pay a transfer tax to the county. The transfer tax is based on the sales price of your home and amounts to $1.10 for every $1000 in the sales price. So if the sales price of your home is $500,000, the transfer tax would be $550.
• Home Warranty
  It is customary for a seller to provide the buyer with a home warranty. A home warranty provides the buyer with coverage for unexpected problems that develop in the home after the sale has concluded. The average cost of a home warranty is $400.
• Miscellanous Fees
  There are additional fees that may be added to your closing costs. These fees include a Homeowner’s Association Transfer Fee, termite inspection fee, the cost of any termite repairs, courier fees, and wire transfer fees.

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