You want to sell your house and you’re looking forward to putting some money in your pocket. But did you know that selling your house may mean you have to PAY more money? In this article, we go over what different fees that are paid to an agent versus what is being paid to an investor…
In most transactions this is true… selling your house can sometimes mean that you have to pay. (This doesn’t always happen but it often does.) We want to you to know about the different real estate fees you have to pay because this info may help you understand why may or may not want to work with an agent or to sell your house directly to a real estate investor.
What Are The All The Fees Paid To Real Estate Agents Versus Paid To Investors? — Real Estate Agent Fees
A real estate agent is someone or a salesperson that will try to find a purchaser to buy your house. For them to do this, they will need you to sign papers to list your house as a listing service and use different marketing strategies to try and locate a buyer.
In the end you will owe money to the listing agent. These fees will include a commission if they can sell the house (this will be the highest amount of money out of your equity that’ll have to payed and it’s usually about 6% of the sale price of the house, or about $18,000 for a $300,000). There are other fees you have to pay as well, and these might include different advertising fees or other costs associated with selling your house. There might be a fee to for pictures, there might be an upfront fee list your house, or there could be a fee to the agent’s real estate brokerage or there might be a fee to get a sign in front of your house or there might be a fee for the title company or there might be a fee to put a lockbox on the door… the list goes on and on. You should ask the sales agent about these and they should provide you with a list.
Is There Different Fees Paid To Real Estate Agents Versus Paid To Investors? — Investor Fees
This part surprises most people selling their house: for most real estate investors, there are hardly any real estate fees to go over. Investors will usually take care of all fees associated with selling. Plus there’s no commission to pay because they aren’t going through a brokerage so they’re not going to listing your house. Sometimes you might be responsible for closing costs but this depends on the investor so make sure you ask the real estate investor who pays for what.
The One “Fee” You May Not Be Thinking Of
There’s one more cost (“fee”) that you might not be thinking of: when you work with an agent, they’ll get you to fix up the house and then don’t forget you’ll have to pay utility bills and real estate taxes for as long as it takes the real estate agent to find a buyer. So 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 the house to an investor, they buy quickly so you end up saving this cost as well.
So what’s right for you? It depends on how much you’re willing to pay and how quickly you need to sell.
If you want to go over this in more detail or confirm that we won’t charge you any fees if you sell your house to us then please get in touch and we’ll be happy to walk you through it.