How much are seller closing costs?

How much are seller closing costs when they sell a home? Quite a bit and they have been going up exponentially over the years.

In some places, the brunt of closing costs are paid by the seller while in other parts of the country most of the closing costs are paid by the buyer. You can expect to pay a minimum of around $2,000 to sell your home and it only goes up from there.

Here is a basic list of closing costs from high to low:

  1. While paying off your loan is not a closing cost, seller’s sometimes forget that they must pay off what they owe their lender on their primary mortgage and any second loan on their homes.
  2. Broker’s commission: usually between 5% and 6%.
  3. Another item most seller’s forget is to remember that they may owe the buyer for unpaid real estate taxes. Say you close on June 30th and have paid none of your real estate taxes for that year, you’d owe your buyer for those real estate taxes that accrued from January 1 through the closing date.
  4. Title insurance (where the seller pays for the owner’s title insurance policy) up to $4000 but it usually goes up the higher the sales price.
  5. In states where you have attorneys handle real estate closings you may pay a fee between $500 and $3000.
  6. In states that levy transfer taxes on a buyer on the purchase of a home, you may pay a hefty fee to buy the home. In some cases up to 1% of the purchase price.
  7. Cost of a plat of survey (where the seller pays the fee) up to $750.
  8. If you are required to provide the buyer with a home warranty, those home warranties go for about $600.
  9. Cost of processing documents with a condominium association up to $500.
  10. Broker’s house processing fee up to $500.
  11. Once you are past these fees, the fees add up but tend to be smaller: You have a closing fee paid to the settlement agent, pest inspection fees, municipal inspection fees, overnight delivery fees, title update fees, and many others.

For a more detailed list of seller closing costs, take a look at our other articles on ThinkGlink.com