For many people, when they think about selling their houses, the first thing they will do is look around for a local agent. Agents can be a wonderful asset when selling your house, however, it is not the only strategy you should consider. By doing a little homework, you can successfully sell your house on your own, saving you time and money overall. In our latest blog post, we will discuss some of the most common costs of a traditional listing, so you can determine if hiring an agent is the best choice for you!
The Pre-Listing Costs
Getting your house ready for sale is going to take an investment of your time and money. Real estate agents expect you to have the house in perfect condition before going to the market. This means you’ll be scheduling contractors to make any outstanding repairs as well to make some basic improvements such as fresh painting and new flooring. After you have gotten through all of the improvements and repairs, you’ll need to get to work on organizing and staging the property so it shows perfectly during a prospective buyer showing. Hopefully your investment of time and money will help you quickly locate a buyer and get the property under contract. Unfortunately, just because you found a buyer doesn’t mean your work is complete at this point since your buyer will be conducting a home inspection and asking you to make repairs on any issues discovered.
Agent Costs
Agents don’t work for free. Many agents work incredibly hard and deserve every penny you pay them. That said, be wary of those who don’t. While every agreement is different, when you commit to listing with an agent, you also commit to paying their commission which typically runs about 6% of the final sale price. You will own the agent this amount, even if you sell the property on your own to someone you know. In addition, some agents will charge you for administrative costs, listing fees, marketing, listing sites, photography, and more. Make sure you know exactly what’s included in your listing agreement as no two agents are the same.
At The Closing Table
Once the closing date comes around, in addition to paying your agent, you will also have to come up with the closing costs. You can usually estimate this to be approximately 2% of the final sale price. The closing costs include things like appraisal fees, taxes, deed recording, title search, dee recording, credit checks and more. With a direct sale to Blue Ladder Development, all of these costs are covered for you.
Time Is Of The Essence
When you list your house, you are in a sense, gambling. You aren’t offered any guarantees such as how much you will get or when the house will close by. Dealing with an unknown closing date will make it very difficult to plan and schedule your move. In many cases you’ll need the proceeds from the sale of your property to be able to move into a new property and the odds of you finding your new house exactly when you sell your existing house are very low. Meaning you’ll have to be prepared to have back up plan for where to live while you are in transition.
In addition, you will have to continue paying the monthly costs for the home such as insurance, taxes and monthly utilities. An agent can list your house for any price they want, however, that doesn’t mean you will get it. With a direct sale to Blue Ladder Development, you will be able to know the exact amount you will receive as well as the closing date before signing anything. We aim to make the process as clear and as simple as possible.