Did you know that the average price for a house in the United States is about $210.000? Selling your home can be a profitable transaction and many homeowners ask how much does it cost to sell a house. This depends on various factors such as the place where you live, taxes incurred by your state, home renovations before selling, and so on.
If you’re thinking of selling your property in the near future then keep reading this article. You’ll find out a lot of details on the cost of selling a house, what fees and commissions you have to pay, and how to ensure that the buyer doesn’t back out.
Making Home Preparations
You cannot simply put an ad for your house without preparing it for sale first. Prepping your property involves a wide variety of tasks and activities that you need to do before potential buyers ever step into your house. Here are just a few of them.
1. Cleaning and Removing Pests
A thorough cleaning process is required to make your house look as beautiful and attractive as possible. Depending on the size of your house, the cleaning costs can go up to $200. You might also want to use a pest control service to get rid of any bugs, spiders, bats, and ants that might be living in your house without you knowing about it. This service can attract more buyers as everyone likes to live in a disinfected house.
2. Landscaping
Landscaping is also an important aspect when it comes to selling your house. Having a lush, vibrant lawn in front of your house will definitely attract more buyers. Various landscaping tasks including lawn mowing and tree trimming can cost around $200 on average, but this depends on a lot of factors.
3. Home Staging
Home staging is the process of equipping your house with top-notch furniture items to improve its aesthetics. This is usually done with the help of a professional interior decorator and it will boost the image of your house, attracting more buyers. In some cases, home staging can increase the total selling price of your house by up to 20%.
4. Home Improvements
Before selling a property, it’s a good idea to focus on improving it here and there. You don’t have to go for a complete kitchen remodel service, just making minor improvements such as replacing the countertops or repainting the kitchen cabinets. Many homeowners also focus on renovating their bathrooms to make them more practical and eye-catching.
The main purpose of such improvements is to make the house look better and attract more buyers. For example, a roof with missing shingles doesn’t look attractive at all and it will make a bad first impression on buyers. The same thing is true for a damaged garage door. The total cost of home improvements shouldn’t exceed a couple of thousand dollars, but it will make a great positive impact on potential buyers.
5. Making Professional Photos of Your House
Obviously, you can take out your phone and snap a few pictures of your property to be displayed on a website, but this might send a bad signal to potential home buyers. The best way to go is to hire a professional photographer who can snap the pictures for you using a professional camera. The photographer also knows how to edit the photos to make them look as beautiful as possible. The total cost of this service can be several hundred dollars on average.
Going for a Home Inspection
A home inspection is another popular service among people who want to sell their houses. This service involves hiring a professional to carry out a thorough inspection of the property. This involves using sophisticated equipment such as thermal imaging devices to detect flaws and defects hidden from plain sight.
For example, a home inspector might detect foundation problems and cracks as well as leaks in the plumbing system. The thermal imaging equipment might also discover structural flaws or holes in the roof. Many buyers back out after a home inspection and if you do it on your own and repair any problems found, you have a higher chance of selling your property quickly.
The Costs of Vacating Your Home
Chances are that you might need to deposit some of your personal belongings in a storage facility before you can find a place for them. For example, large furniture pieces that have been removed from the property that is going to be sold need a destination. In this case, you need to use a large locker in a storage facility and pay the monthly storage bill for a while. The cost of this service can vary from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, depending on what you want to deposit.
The Closing Costs When You Finally Sell
There are several types of closing costs you need to take into account, on top of everything we discussed until now. For example, one of the most important is the realtor commission. This can be around 6% of the final sales price. For a $100,000 home, the real estate agent pockets around $6,000 on average.
You also have to take into account taxes and fees that are paid when homes are sold. These taxes depend on the state you live in and might include transfer tax, title insurance, and so on. You also have to pay the attorney who prepares the documents for selling your property.
An attorney might charge up to $2,000 for this service, but this depends on a lot of factors. Read the following article to find out more on how to sell your house correctly.
Now You Know How Much Does It Cost to Sell a House
Hopefully, this article provided a few great answers to your original question – how much does it cost to sell a house. The next step would be to sit down and plan your selling process. Write down a few steps you can take each day such as moving personal items, contacting real estate agents, etc, and get to the action.
Also, for more useful advice on how to sell your house quickly and for more money, make sure that you check out the other real estate articles on our website.
