The true cost of selling your home In Los Angeles, by Adrian Bates.

The True Cost of Selling Your Home In Los Angeles

By Adrian Bates

It is that time of the year again when the real estate industry usually experiences an increase in the rate of sales. It’s spring, a season in which many home sellers put their homes out on the market, leveraging Nature’s beauty as she puts off the veil of winter. That, therefore, leads us to the question: “What exactly does it cost to sell your home in Los Angeles?”

In this article, we shall be exploring all the nittygritty and angles of home sales in Los Angeles to give you an idea of what it just might cost to make that sale.

MEANS OF SELLING HOMES

There are three well-known ways that homeowners use to make sales of their homes.

l FOR SALE BY OWNER:

Abbreviated as FSBO, this is a means by which you can sell your home directly to a buyer. In this way, you do not have to make use of a listing agent. The benefit of this means is that you would not have to pay commission fees to a realtor.

l CASH BUYER:

A cash buyer wanting to purchase your home would have all the buying costs in cash. The buyer would not need to obtain a loan or mortgage to make the purchase. One of the benefits of selling to a cash buyer is that it reduces the closing cost expenses.

l TRADITIONAL REALTOR AGENTS:

A common way of selling homes is to use listing agents and realtor companies. While you would have to pay fees in commission, employing an agent would make it less challenging to find a buyer.

These are the three primary ways that you can deploy in selling your home. However, each of the methods comes with its advantages and disadvantages, each having effects on the pricing of the home. Whatever channel you chose to use depends solely on your preferences and how quickly you want to get your home sold.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE COST OF HOMES

NATURE, CONDITION, AND AGE OF

THE HOUSE: The above factors are very key variables that determine the increase or decrease in the selling price of a home. Older homes may require renovation and additional prepping, which will increase the selling costs for you. That should be in the form of minor renovations and repairs, cleaning, staging, and landscaping. It is estimated to cost about 2-3% of the selling price of the house.

REALTOR COMMISSION FEES: If you are to sell your home through a traditional realtor, you would be required to pay commission fees. These fees are estimated to cost around 5-6% of the selling price. That means that if you are selling your house for $364,000, realtor commission fees will cost between $18,000-22,000.

BUYER’S INCENTIVES: For non-cash buyers who might want to purchase your home, you may want to give incentives. These incentives may be with seller concessions such as paying inspection fees, repair credits, and a part of the closing costs. You may even decide to pay home warranty as further incentives to the buyer. The total cost for incentives should be around 1-3% of the price of the house.

CLOSING COSTS: This covers the costs incurred when the final home documents are signed and when you finally transfer the ownership of the property to the buyer. The expense required to close the deal is dependent on several factors, including the type of buyer, and whether you are selling your home through a realtor or the FSBO. However, the closing costs may include title search, title insurance, appraisal, home inspection, survey, transfer taxes, among others like mortgage payoff, outstanding property fees, and loan payoff fees. Usually, the total cost of closing is between 1-3%.

MOVING EXPENSES: Relocating may be expensive, depending on where you are relocating and the number of materials being moved. All in all, relocation expenses may take up to 1-2% of the selling amount.

In the end, the selling costs may take up to 10-17% of the total selling price. Going by the Zillow average figure of $364,000, this could be between $36,000 to as much as $62,000.

Conclusively, the cost of selling your home in Los Angeles varies depending on the factors aforementioned. While the Zillow average figure for the price of homes in Los Angeles continues to increase year by year, you could take the price of your home just above that figure.

One way to get more profit from home sales is to leverage on the right time to make the sale. As mentioned earlier, spring is always a good time for real estate, so if you want to make any sales, now could be just the time.

Meanwhile, to get an amazing deal from your home, negotiation is central. If you are not experienced enough to achieve correct and financially-prudent negotiations, you may have to employ the services of a realtor agent. In doing this, however, you may want to be on the lookout for realtor agents who offer their services at a reduced cost.