The Hidden Costs of Selling Your Home
Choosing to sell your home is a huge financial decision, and for most people, it represents the biggest incoming transfer of money in their lifetimes. However, many people are disappointed to find that the price you sell your home for isn't the amount that you'll deposit into your bank account (or apply towards a new home.) There are hidden costs to selling your home, and you need to be aware. Let's take a look!
Representation
You probably figured that you have to pay your agents commission... but you didn't know that sellers are typically on the hook for the buyer's agent's commission too. In all, you're generally looking at paying out 5-6% of your home's total listing value to the agents.
Our Money Saving Tips:
Negotiate with your listing agent on commission. For instance, RENOMAX VA is proud to offer 0% listing commissions when you use the RENOMAX Program. Other agents might be willing to lower their commission if you use them to buy your next home.
Take on some of the work yourself. Any listing work you're willing to take on yourself is work the listing agent shouldn't charge commission for!
Shop around. While listing commissions are fairly standard, be sure to talk to a few different agents to see if they are willing to offer a better percentage.
Saving money can be hard work!
Presale repairs
Your home will almost certainly need repairs before listing. Minor issues can turn off potentially interested buyers, and major issues will keep prospective buyers from even visiting.
As a homeowner, we don't need to tell you that these repairs can be expensive.
Our Money Saving Tips:
Go back in time and do the work! We know, we know - this advice isn't a ton of help if you're already in the hole on repairs. However, for those of you who aren't selling for a little while, here's a great tip: fix issues as they arise, and plan to spend at least 1% of your home's total price on repairs each year.
Bundle. Getting one contracting outfit to do all of your repairs can save you some money overall.
DIY. First and foremost: we do NOT recommend DIY solutions to plumbing, HVAC, and electrical problems. However, for many other fixes, a bit of time on YouTube and the willingness to get your hands dirty can save you a ton of money.
As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Keeping up with your home's maintenance can be expensive, but you will actually save money long term.
Home Improvements
The majority of homeowners undertake a medium to large scale renovation or improvement on their home prior to selling. Generally, the buyers are trying to fetch a higher listing price, sell their home faster, or simply remain competitive with other homes in the neighborhood. This is a great approach, but can be a costly one.
Our Money Saving Tips
Do your research. Not every home improvement has a great ROI - in fact, many of them actually lose money. Check out our blog on Home Improvement ROIs before planning anything major!
Skip the interior. By all means, stage your home (see below). However, buyers want a blank slate when buying a home. They want to create their dream home, not live in yours!
Curb appeal. Hardscaping and lawn services have a fantastic ROI!
DIY. like most things on this blog, taking care of home improvements by yourself (if qualified) can save a lot of money.
Home improvements are absolutely a great thing to do to your home before selling. However, they need to be the right ones.
Staging
Nothing is more polarizing in the home selling world than staging. Some people think a fully furnished, lived in display in each room of a home is mandatory to make the sale. Others swear that a tabula rasa, that allows buyers to use their imagination, is the fastest way to get an offer.
Our Money Saving Tips
A hybrid approach. Stage only the rooms that are most important to buyers: the living room and the kitchen. Leave the rest to their imagination.
Less is more. A good staging should emphasize the space and angles of the interior of your home. A minimalistic approach will save you money, as well.
Your style is not theirs. You may love the color pink - but adorning every surface and wall of your home with it will drive buyers away (unless they share your affinity!) Again - less is more, and we recommend neutral colors throughout the home.
When in doubt, give everything a deep clean and leave it empty!
Closing fees
When you think of closing fees, you generally think of what the buyer pays when closing on your home. However, sellers have closing fees as well - such as property taxes, attorney fees, and transfer taxes.
Our Money Saving Tips:
Negotiate with the buyer. It's a seller's market right now, and you absolutely have some leverage with prospective buyers on these fees. You could ask someone that came in lower to cover all of your closing costs instead of taking a higher offer.
Shop around. Your agent likely has folks they work with and recommend... but you're not required to use them. Feel free to shop around to see if there are any better prices!
Beware the Hidden Costs of Selling Your Home!
We hope you found this blog helpful. If this all sounds like more work than you're ready for, get in touch - we'll work with you on each and every one of these hidden costs to make sure you're getting the most out of your home sale.
If we can help, get in touch. Give us a ring at (540) 737-5617, fill out a form on our contact page, or just message us on Facebook. We look forward to hearing from you!
