Do you think there are expenses to list your house for sale? You bet there are! If you want to sell your house in Suffolk, you need to come to terms that there will be a number of different costs you’ll need to consider, so these numbers will be subtracted in the end from the sale of your home. And this will be the case regardless if you list it yourself (For Sale By Owner, or FSBO) or through an agent. In this article well take a look at these costs and show you an alternative way so you would save these costs completely.
The Upfront Costs
These are expenses you’ll incur even before you list the house up for sale. That means these could be called also “preparation costs”. These must be addressed if you want to list your house and the more you ignore them, the less money you will get in the end. Let us throw another idea right here – if you sell your house directly to a home buyer/investor, like Coastal Edge Homebuyers, you will have zero costs, period. But more on that later, now let’s review all the costs you will need to consider right before you list the house for sale the traditional way.
Storage
If you hose if full of things, as most houses are, you will first need to declutter the place. This is very important for three reasons – 1. new buyers don’t like clutter, 2. new buyers really wouldn’t like your stuff, 3. things in rooms make the spaces looks smaller and that reduces the value of your home. So, what do you do? Well, unless you have family close by that wouldn’t mind keeping stuff for 2-3 months, then you’ll need to pay for storage and transportation – to move your things from your current house to the storage unit(s).
Cleaning
Here comes more fun – now you’ll need to clean up the place. If you have an average-size house, you may be able to clean it up in a weekend. Also, you’ll have to clean up the yard too, if you have one. Landscaping is a whole another process by itself. If you want to do it all by yourself and you have a decent amount of tall grass, an old shed, too many bushes or trees, this may or may not be feasible for you to do it alone. You will also need a slew of professional toold and maybe a pick up truck. You may need to devote several weekends and have the tools and machinery to clean up and haul the debris. If you hire professionals, the costs to clean up the house inside and out and also the yard (if necessary), may run you from $300- $3000 (the higher number is going to come easy if you have large bushes or trees you’ll need to cut, and demolish and remove an old shed.
Repairs & Upgrades
I know you probably fond of your house in Suffolk. Maybe you’ve been doing some repairs and updates over the years too. Well, here is what you need to know. If you have been rehabbing things here and there and the house looks good to you, and you put it up on the market now, and you’ve seen other houses in the neighborhood sell for $250,000. Then you may be in for a rude surprise if you get offers for $170,000 for yours. Why? Because you need to be very cautious about the repair level and the timeliness of this. If you rehabbed your kitchen 7 yrs ago it may look great to you, but most houses in your neighborhood that sell for top dollar have everything rehabbed in the last 3 months. How can your house compete with that? Even if your roof was done 4 yrs ago, it will not compare with a roof done 2 months ago. So guess what, you will need to do repairs. You will need to fix everything obvious in the house. Kitchen, bathroom, floors, A/C, all have to be pretty new if you are hoping to sell for the top amounts you see online. Otherwise, you will need to settle for less, sometimes much less. Of course, you could just do some cosmetic repairs and let it go, like doing floors and paint.
Landscaping
If you do updates to the house do you think you can sell for top dollar if you have an ugly yard and fence? Of course not! So, you will need to take care of this too – no tall grass, no ugly bushes, no trees with large branches directly over or touching the house/roof. If you have a nice house but an ugly shed, that will reduce the selling price too.
Costs While The House Is Listed
Many people don’t consider the costs while your house is listed. These are also called “holding costs”. Well, guess what, you will have those too to consider and they could be significant too, unless you are somehow sure your house will sell in 1 week. Here is another reminder – there is only one way to sell your house in a week – to sell directly to an investor like us!
Marketing
In some cases, even if you list the house with an agent, the marketing costs may not be included in the agreement you will sign with them. You need to be very careful and read all the contracts carefully. You will need to consult with an attorney, if necessary. Marketing costs are the ones if you need to market the property yourself – buy some signs, post paid ads, staging costs for the house, etc.
Monthly Costs
So, no one really knows how quickly your home will sell. If you price is high, then the house will linger on the market for a while. So, who do you think will need to pay these monthly ongoing costs:
- utilities
- mortgage
- taxes
- insurance
- home warranty
- landscaping
You guessed it – you need to pay these costs all the way up to the closing day.
After An Offer Has Been Made
Even after an offer is made on your home, you will still need to pay all the utilities, taxes, insurance, mortgage, etc. up to the closing date. There is no way around it. Also, even after an offer is made, there may be delays from the need for inspection, additional repairs as a result of the inspection, etc. Imagine a 10,000 from a moisture/termite damage! You can’t sell the house until you have paid this! On top of that, the lender may add another several weeks of wait time to follow their process so there you go maybe a month later and still have not sold the house.
Guess what, you can avoid all this hassle for inspections and additional repairs if you sell your house directly to a home buyer like us.
At The Closing Table
Commissions
Now that you are sitting at the closing table, you will need to make sure your agent gets his/her check too, usually 3-6%. This could be $6,000 for a house that would sell for $250,000.
Closing Costs
In some cases, you will need to pay closing costs too. This can run you another 2% of the selling price. So, as you can see all these costs will ad up, even if that is for about several months or a little more. So, is there a way around all this hassle? Yes – you can sell your Suffolk house to a direct home buyer like us. With us, there is no waiting on financial institutions, because we pay all cash. No lenders, no complicate paperwork, no cleaning, no repairs, leave all the junk inside! We will buy the house as is. We can close in 7-10 days. No one can beat that.