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 are the different fees paid to agents versus paid to investors…
It’s true… selling your house can sometimes mean that you have to pay. (This isn’t always the case but it often is.) We want to you to know about the different fees you have to pay because this information may help you decide whether to work with an agent or to sell your house directly to an investor. Some homeowners tend to think that they will get the most money if they sell with an agent, but that is definitely not always the case if you factor in other fees and costs that most sellers don’t think about. Please take a minute to read on so that you can make a more informed decision as to what is best for you!
What Are The Different Fees Paid To Agents Versus Paid To Investors? — Agent Fees
An agent is a salesperson and they will try to find a buyer to buy your house. In order to do this, they will list your house in a listing service and use various marketing efforts to try and find a buyer.
So you’ll end up having to pay some fees to the agent. Those fees usually include a commission if they can sell the house (this is the highest amount of money you’ll have to pay and it’s often about 6% of the sale price of the house, or about $6,000 for a $100,000). There may be 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 list your house, or there might be a fee to the agent’s 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… 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
What’s most surprising to a lot of homeowners and what is the cause of a lot of suspicion is that fact that no fees are paid to an investor by you the seller. The investor is the buyer, they make money after the house is bought. They will rent the house out or fix it up and sell it to a deserving family so there is no need for them to charge you any fees. If you talk to an investor who mentions fees you will need to pay them…beware! Its typicall the opposite. Most investors will let you keep what ever junk you want to leave behind in the house behind and they will pay for the dumpsters and clean out after the closing. Investors try to make the selling process as easy as possible for home sellers!
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 your house and then you’ll have to pay bills and taxes for as long as it takes the 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. This is known as holding costs. It’s a cost that most people don’t consider when waiting to sell their homes… yet when you sell the house to an investor, they buy quickly so you end up saving this cost as well which for most homeowners is thousands of dollars!
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. Also, take a look at our Testimonials page and see what homeowners have said about working with us.