12 Hidden Costs that Come with Selling a Home

If you’re like many homeowners, your house is your single largest investment, and when it’s time to sell, you naturally want to get as much money as possible for it. You may already know that hiring a real estate agent will cost you typically five percent to six percent of the selling price—for example, as much as $30,000 on the sale of a $500,000 house. But that’s hardly the only expense you’ll encounter; in fact, from preparation to make your house market-ready to unexpected complications that can arise, selling your house can be a pricey proposition. To avoid unsettling surprises and help ensure that you get top dollar, click through to discover 12 costs that go hand-in-hand with selling a home.

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Home staging involves de-cluttering a room, painting (if necessary), supplying attractive furniture and draperies, and designing the space to look beautiful but also somewhat generic, so prospective buyers can imagine their taste (not yours) on display. Many professional home stagers are also interior decorators who offer staging as one of their services. You can often obtain a list of the best ones from your real estate agent. While costs run between $250 and $600 per room, per month, a staged house sells 88 percent faster than a non-staged house, for an average of 20 percent more, according to Realtor.com.

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Selling your home can be a bumpy road if issues such as an active termite infestation are discovered after you’ve signed a contract. According to the real estate website Zillow, 15 percent of house deals fail due to the discovery of problems during an inspection. So you may choose to have a pre-inspection before you put your house on the market and make any necessary repairs ahead of time. A professional home inspector will charge $250 to $450 to inspect your house. The American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) can help you find a certified home inspector in your area.

A lot of negotiating goes on in real estate deals, and buyers often make conditional requests to be included in the purchase price. A potential buyer may ask that you pay a share of their portion of the closing costs, leave certain household appliances, or throw in your great aunt Martha’s baby grand piano as part of the deal. It’s up to you to decide whether you’ll agree to seller concessions.

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A number of fees are incurred during the sales process, and they’re often split evenly between the buyer and the seller at closing (the last step in the sales process when the final documents are signed and you receive a check). These closing costs can run as much as three percent to seven percent of the sales price, and they include the cost of mortgage insurance, pro-rated property taxes, title insurance fees, loan processing costs, insurance charges, and the cost to record the deed. These costs will be subtracted from the amount you receive at closing.

If you’ve hired a real estate agent to handle the sale of your home, you probably won’t need legal representation because real estate transactions are highly regulated at the state and federal level. If you go the for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) route, however, it’s a good idea to consult with an attorney. A lawyer who specializes in real estate transactions can provide such services as looking over your contract, preparing title insurance documents, and even holding the closing in her office. A real estate attorney (check the white pages or ask a real estate agent for a referral) will charge you by the hour, typically $200 to $400 per hour for the time they spend on your transaction.

Liens (legal claims to monetary value in your property) are recorded against the deed of a property at the local Register of Deeds Office, and any lien against your property must be satisfied before you can sell your house. Liens may include money owed to a contractor who worked on your home but didn’t get paid, known as a “mechanical lien,” or court-ordered judgments against you resulting from a civil lawsuit or a creditor. You can either pay the lien and have it removed from the deed, or you can go to court and see if a judge will remove it. But you can’t sell your home until the lien is removed.

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