How Much Does It Cost To Sell Your Home?
A question that you may have a tough time getting answered is, "How much will I get back after I close on my house?" There are two processes you can use to help determine what your costs will be.
1. In Indiana, an easy way to estimate what your closing costs will be is to deduct anywhere between 8-9% of the sales price. Expect to pay anywhere between 6%-7% of the sales price for commission. That commission is split between both brokerages.
Then, you will want to estimate 1% for property taxes. Most people will estimate 1%, but if you are an owner who doesn't have the homestead exemption filed, then you may be at the 2% tax rate.
Lastly, estimate another 1% for general closing costs/title fees. These costs could be for title fees, closing fees, a land survey etc. To quickly estimate about what your net proceeds would be, you would simply take the sales price minus closing costs and minus your mortgage balance.
See example below:
2. The above example is just one way to quickly estimate what you would get back. If you would like a more accurate number, your agent should be able to prepare a Net Sheet for you. This will give you a better breakdown of the closing costs and property tax amount.
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What the heck is a net sheet? A Net Sheet is basically a breakdown of all the charges that take place during the transaction. Again, you typically take the sales price minus your loan balance and all other title fees, closing fees, etc. Each title company has different charges and each offer you receive will request different things.
Once your agent puts the numbers together, this will give you your estimated net value of the sale. You should really have this prepared for you before listing your home for sale.
Here is an example of what a Net Sheet looks like:
In this example, the Seller is getting back $57,848.64. So when we ran a quick estimate we had about 57k coming back to the seller, this shows the seller getting back just a little bit more in this scenario. (The figures above are just an example, not real data.)
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Why do I need this? The first reason you'll want to have this prepared for you beforehand, is so you can see if now would be a good time for you to sell. Once your agent runs a CMA for you, this will give you an idea of what your home could sell for.
From there, your agent can put in an estimated sales price into the Net Sheet. If your net proceeds are negative, maybe now isn't the best time for you to sell. This will help you plan and prepare for what could happen when you list your home on the market.
The second reason you'll want this prepared for you is to help guide you when you receive offers. You may have a bottom dollar amount in your head that you don't want to go under. If someone submits an offer, your agent should be able to take those figures from the purchase agreement and put them into the Net Sheet. If your proceeds are below your bottom dollar amount, then you should know about what dollar amount you would need to raise your counter offer to based off your net sheet.
This way, you aren't just blindly countering offers without knowing where that would leave you if the buyer accepts.
It’s just crazy to me just how many sellers list their properties without having a net sheet prepared for them. Wouldn't you want to have an idea of what you're going to walk away with after the sale?
Without knowing the typical closing costs involved with selling your home, how will you be able determine what an acceptable offer or sales price is for your home?
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So what do you think? We would be happy to discuss any questions you may have or go over your pain points with you.
As always, if you have any questions about selling your home or Real Estate in general, We would be more than happy to answer those for you. We are a full service Real Estate Brokerage and love providing value upfront to our clients first!