Cost Breakdown to Sell a House

If you’re thinking of selling, you may have asked, “How much does it cost to sell a house?” If you want top market price for your home you’ll want to set up the sale for success. There are three main steps to this.

House Sale Preparation

Negotiation Items

Plan to spend 2% of asking price on repairs and upgrades to prepare your house for sale. This percent is based on a home that is 10 years old. If your home is newer then you may get away with spending less. If your home is older then it will most likely be more. In addition, the more items you can repair yourself the lower your spend will be.

You will want to prep your house for an optimal sales experience. As with any job, the more preparation you invest the smoother the sale will go. Complete all of your “honey-do” fix it items. You can skip the ones that are purely aesthetic (for now).

Be sure to fix all of the items you are aware of that have anything to do with safety. This includes any electrical issues, plumbing, leaks and drainage.

After you think you’ve fixed all necessary items order your own home inspection. These are typically $200 – $500 and is well worth it. It’s best to know what might come up in a buyers inspection report before you receive it during negotiations rather then in the middle as a surprise.

When you receive your inspection report you can decide what items you think might be deal breakers and which ones are less important. Once again, focus on fixing any items that are safety related. This will help remove buyers leverage when trying to work the price down with repair requests.

Sales Appeal Items

Plan to spend 2% of sale price for home sales appeal items.

This next set of items are focused on making your home appealing. The better you are at this the higher the sale price and faster it will sell. Items to focus on include the following;

Curbside

Update the street facing side of your home. You want to create as much first impression satisfaction as you can for the buyer when they first see your home. Include updating items such as shutters, garage doors, front door and the front walk way. Improve your landscaping and make sure the front yard is clean and tidy. Don’t forget updating walkway night lights as there might be times when a buyer will arrive at dusk or at night to view your home.

Smell

This might seem weird but 68% of a first impression is impacted by smell. If a potential buyer walks into your home and smells dust, mildew, smoke or old carpets it will put them off immediately. Replacing carpet and paint will go a long way in removing bad smell. Paint will bring the added bonus of making your walls and trim look fresh and new.

Kitchen

A kitchen remodel is expensive. You may not want to invest money for a full kitchen remodel. If you are planning on moving then you’ll want to focus on minor upgrades that bring a lot of visual ROI to the kitchen. You will want to paint – including the cabinets. Replacing hardware and fixtures makes a big difference with a low replacement cost. If your counters are old and worn you may want to replace those too.

Remember, the kitchen has the highest traffic count out of any room in the house. It has a very high importance, especially to family buyers. It’s well worth it to invest a little updating budget to increase the sale success factor.

Square Footage

Square footage is by far the biggest factor when calculated home market value. If you have any unfinished space in your home that can be finished inexpensively it will bring you a higher sale price due to the added square footage. You don’t have to be elaborate when finishing a room. All that is required is making sure any electric and plumbing are complete and the walls are framed, dry-walled and finished. You’ll want to make sure any structural or plumbing changes are built to code. Your appraiser will verify if the newly completed square footage can be included in your home’s calculation or not. If so, you immediately will get an improved sale price with numbers alone.

Closing Costs

Plan for 8% of sale price to cover closing costs. Closing costs include tax, title services, agent services and warranty.