The costs of selling a home

Part of the consideration in selling a home is how much it will cost to sell it and how much money will be earn from the transaction. The Greenville, SC real estate market is no different.

As mentioned in previous articles, the profit you need to make from a home has no bearing on what a potential buyer will pay, but counting the cost beforehand allows you to know if it makes economic sense to sell now or wait.

We all can get emotionally vested in our homes: that is no criticism or surprise.  Selling a Greenville home by the numbers helps a homeowner have a proper expectation of what is reasonable in the market today.  It also keeps a home from languishing on the real estate market and further hurting the seller’s position.

Factoring the overall costs goes beyond deducting the mortgage from the sales price. We will be discussing some of the additional costs to selling real estate.

Mortgage
A home mortgage is the first cost we all associate with a home sale. Unless it is a short sale, the entirety of the mortgage balance is paid in full at the point of sale. Obviously, the lower the mortgage, the more flexibility one has in pricing.

Deed Stamp
This cost varies by region. In Greenville, SC (at the time of writing) the rate is $3.70 per $1000. In other words, if a home sold for $200,000 it would cost $740 ($3.70 X ($200,000/1000)).

Lawyers fees
A closing attorney is necessary to take care of the legal filings and paperwork associated with the sale. Prices vary from region to region, but Greenville, SC real estate lawyers seem affordable.

Property taxes
Property tax is paid in arrears, meaning we pay for the previous year's taxes, not the upcoming year. Because of that, when a home is sold, the seller must pay all the taxes accrued while living in the home year to date. If you have a mortgage, property taxes are typicallyl collected along with your payment and held in escrow.

Calculating what is owed on property taxes is fairly straightforward. Take the amount you paid the previous year and divide by 365. That gives you your daily tax rate. Then multiply that number by the amount of days you have lived in the home up to the sale. That is the amount of taxes owed.

Typically, the home buyer pays the property taxes from the day of the sale on but that could be a negotiation point in the sale.

Commissions
For most home sellers, the commissions of Greenville, SC real estate agents is the biggest expense. That is why Carolina Realty Associates sets our rate as reasonably as possible. The cost varies between real estate brokerages: there is no legislated amount.

We would be happy to discuss our rate and the services we provide.  As real estate marketing professionals, we give our clients unique opportunities that may not be available to others.