You want to sell your house and you’re looking forward to putting some money in your pocket. But did you realize that selling your house may mean you have to PAY money? In this blog post, we break down what the different fees paid to agents versus paid to investors are…
It’s true that selling your house occasionally means that you have to pay. (This isn’t always the case but often is.) This information can help you make a decision between working with an agent or selling your house directly to an investor, so we want you to be aware of the various fees you have to pay.
What Are The Different Fees Paid To Agents Versus Paid To Investors? — Agent Fees
As a salesperson, an agent will attempt to find a buyer for your house. To do this, they will use a listing service to list your house and use several marketing efforts to try and find a buyer.
This means you’ll end up paying some fees to the agent. Those fees typically include a commission if they sell the house (this is the largest amount of money you’ll have to pay and it’s often around 6% of the sale price of the house, or about $6,000 for a $100,000). There might be other fees you have to pay as well, and those may include various advertising fees or other costs related to selling your house. There may be a fee for listing your house, a fee to the agent’s brokerage, a fee to get a sign in front of your house, or even a fee for the title company. The list goes on and on. You can ask the agent about these and they should tell you.
What Are The Different Fees Paid To Agents Versus Paid To Investors? — Investor Fees
This area takes most house-sellers by surprise: for most investors, there are rarely any fees to cover. Investors usually take care of all fees associated with selling. There’s also no commission to pay because investors aren’t agents, which means they’re not listing your house. You may be responsible for closing costs but this depends on the investor. Make sure you ask the investor who pays for those costs.
The One “Fee” You May Not Be Thinking Of
There’s one more cost (“fee”) that may not be on your mind: when working with an agent, they’ll get you to fix up your house and you’ll also have to pay bills and taxes for the duration it takes the agent to find a buyer. Although this isn’t a fee to the agent, it’s a cost you’ll have to pay because of the agent… yet when you sell to an investor, they buy quickly and you end up saving this cost as well.
So which option is right for you? It depends on how fast you need to sell and how much you’re willing to pay.
If you want to go over this in depth or confirm that we won’t charge you fees for selling your house to us, then please get in touch and we’ll be happy to walk you through it.