Are you thinking about selling land in Chicago? If so then you might be wondering this common question: who pays when selling land in Chicago. In this article, we’ll reveal the surprising answer.
When people think of selling land, they think of handing over the deed and accepting a check for the property. Makes sense. At first you might think that the buyer pays the seller. But that’s not really how it works and you might be surprised at who pays when selling land in Chicago…
If you’re the seller, you’ll have to pay first! You’ll probably have to pay for a survey or a site analysis, or for a geologist to look at your property and tell you what potential it has.
Then you’ll work with a real estate agent to try and sell the property. There will probably be additional expenses that you’ll have to cover while the agent tries to find a buyer. For example, you’ll have to pay any mortgage, bills, taxes, and insurance on the property in the months that the agent is looking for a buyer.
When an agent finds a buyer, then you may need to work with a lawyer, a title company, and potentially others as well to complete the paperwork. Yes, YOU are paying for all of this the entire time.
Once the paperwork is complete, you will get the money for the property – after your mortgage is paid off and any liens are taken care of). That money might either come from the buyer themselves (if they’re paying cash) or it might come from the buyer’s bank (if the buyer had to get a mortgage to buy the properties).
But your paying is not over yet! Once it’s all said and done, you’ll also have to pay the agent’s commission… and that typically comes out of your pocket.
So, to answer the question, “who pays when selling land in Chicago,” the answer is that you’ll pay over and over and the buyer or their bank will pay you once.
A common mistake land seller’s make is that they assume whatever the selling price of the property is then that is the amount of money they will walk away from the closing table with. As you have learned through this post there are a considerable amount of transaction costs involved in selling your land especially if you decide to hire a real estate broker to sell the property for you.
This is why after doing their homework many sellers decide to sell their property directly to an investor and avoid paying any transaction costs and walk away from the closing table with the exact selling price agreed upon. If you have land you would like to sell and avoid all of the hefty transaction costs