Most sellers ask what it costs to sell. The better question is what lands in your pocket after commissions, concessions, and the costs nobody warns you about.
You’re thinking about selling, and you’ve already run the math in your head. Here’s the price, here are the fees and commissions, and here’s what I’ll walk away with. My advice is to change the question. Instead of asking what it costs to sell, understand what the market is doing, what might affect you specifically, and what your actual net is going to be.
Start with what the market is doing. The numbers right now tell you a lot about what to expect at the closing table. Sellers gave concessions in 46.2% of home sales this past May, the highest share on record for that month. Roughly one in seven homes that sold had both a concession and a price drop. That doesn’t mean the market is bad. It means there are more sellers than buyers right now, and people are more willing to negotiate as a result.
Look at all your options, not one price. I met with some folks recently who had a price in mind, and I’ll be honest, that price was a stretch. It was more than what the market was bearing. So we built out three numbers instead of one. The lowest scenario was based on actual market sales, the suggested price, and the stretch price; each one carried through commissions, costs, and everything else to show a net at the bottom. Seeing all three side by side makes the decision clear, because a stretch price that nets you less than the realistic one isn’t the better option.
“The right question isn’t what it costs to sell; it’s what you’ll actually net.”
Your commission is known upfront. When you’re talking to me or anybody else, you agree on that number and put it in writing in the listing agreement. You’re going to know exactly what it is, and it goes right into the net sheet. There’s no mystery there.
Concessions are closer to the rule now. A concession is a cost or a fee the seller absorbs to grease the wheels and get the deal to closing. Typically that’s helping buy down the buyer’s interest rate or putting money toward their closing costs, something that helps them get to the closing table. It used to be more negotiable. Now it’s something you should plan on, which is why terms can matter as much as price when you’re weighing an offer.
Don’t forget the stackable costs. It isn’t just the sale price and the commission. You need to look at the taxes, any insurance, and the payoff, and remember your payoff is typically made in arrears, so you need to add a payment to it. Then there’s title insurance and recording fees. None of these are huge on their own, but they stack, and they all come off the top. Add them into the sheet so the net you’re looking at is a real number.
So when you’re evaluating a sale, the question isn’t what will I sell for and what are your fees. It’s what’s the likely price, what fees I should be considering, what I’ll net, and whether that number makes sense for me. I build that out from the beginning when we meet, and I make sure we revisit it at the end, because we knew what the fees and costs were the day we put the home on the market. If the number changes along the way, whether that’s an adjustment to price or a concession in the final negotiation, you see exactly how it moves the bottom line.
If you’re looking to sell, the goal is to understand the market, the costs, the fees, and the nuances of the offers coming through, so you know what to expect. If you want to see what your home would realistically bring and what you’d net across a few different scenarios, call or text me on my cell at 801-573-1601, email me at Justin@JustinUdy.com, or visit justinudy.com and log in, and I’ll respond to you there. I’m looking forward to helping you.
