What It Actually Costs to Sell a House

Sellers plan around the sale price and are then surprised by the wire. The gap is usually 8 to 12 percent, and almost all of it is predictable.

The full list

Commission, after the 2024 settlement

Following the National Association of Realtors settlement that took effect in 2024, buyer-agent compensation can no longer be advertised on the MLS and the seller's obligation to pay it is explicitly negotiable. In practice many sellers still contribute, because a buyer who must pay their own agent has less to offer. What changed is that it is now a negotiation rather than a default, and sellers who treat it as one save real money.

The costs sellers forget

• Carrying costs during the listing. On a $300,000 house, mortgage, taxes, insurance and utilities can easily run $2,000 to $2,500 a month. A three-month sale is $6,000 to $7,500 that never appears in any estimate.
• The post-inspection renegotiation. Nearly every sale of an older home has one.
• Prorated property taxes up to the closing date.
• Mortgage payoff interest to the actual payoff date, plus any prepayment penalty.
• HOA transfer and document fees, which are surprisingly large in some associations.

Where the money goes that you never see

The wire at closing is the sale price minus the mortgage payoff, minus prorated taxes, minus commission, minus title and settlement fees, minus any credits you agreed. Sellers who plan around the sale price rather than the payoff are the ones who discover at signing that the number is thousands lower than expected. Ask the title company for a preliminary settlement statement as soon as one exists, not on the day.

Two lines surprise people most. The first is the mortgage payoff, which includes interest to the actual payoff date and is always higher than the balance on last month's statement. The second is prorated property tax, which in states that bill in arrears means you owe for months you have already lived there.

What is worth spending money on before selling

Very little, and the list is short: anything that would fail an appraisal or an insurance inspection, and a deep clean. Handrails, smoke alarms, a working heating system and peeling paint on a pre-1978 house cost hundreds and can decide whether a financed buyer can buy at all. A new kitchen costs tens of thousands and usually returns less than it cost.

A worked comparison

House worth $300,000 fully renovated, currently needing about $25,000 of work.

The gap here is about $19,500 and four and a half months of risk, repairs and showings. Whether that is a good trade depends entirely on whether you have $25,000 to spend, the time to manage the work, and the tolerance for the sale falling through in month three. Numbers above are illustrative; run yours with real local figures before deciding.