That depends. It’s all on how you’re going to sell your home and what your priorities are. If you’re going to sell your home through a realtor and look for retail buyers getting a mortgage, your costs may be a bit higher. If you’re going to sell your home yourself, and you accept an all-cash offer, you’re closings costs as a seller will tend to be a bit lower.
Both have their pros and cons. Selling it through a realtor takes out a lot the work to find buyers, there’s a lot of tools out there to bring buyers to you. A strong Florida real estate market makes it easier than ever for sellers who want to sell their homes by themselves as those who want to buy a Florida home are more than those that want to sell.
What are generic selling costs?
The first selling cost is the realtor. That’s right, they need to be paid and that can be between 5% to 6% of the price of the home. Then there’s some fees that simply cannot be avoided. These are settlement fees ranging upwards of $600, Title search around $150 on average, and other fees such as title insurance and municipal lien searches to see if there’s anyone claiming money owed on the property. The title insurance varies based on the price of the home and the municipal search is a few hundred dollars again.
It doesn’t stop there, as you’ll have to pay your share of the property taxes for the year. They’ll be prorated for that portion, but still come out of what is owed. On top of that Florida loves its various stamp taxes, and its roughly around $0.70 per $100, meaning it varies by home.
This can add up to several thousand dollars that are a mix of fees that you can avoid (i.e. by not using a realtor) and fees that the State wants. Keep in mind you’ll have to pay any outstanding loans and mortgages with the proceeds as well. Yet the Florida housing market has been doing well, so that shouldn’t be a major issue.
Don’t forget to factor time in the market, because it does look like the heat that’s been on the Florida house prices is starting to become lukewarm. That means it’s time sell your house and sell your house fast.
You can then stay liquid and see if there’s a buying opportunity down the line or use those funds to start a new path and journey. There’s no telling how long the Florida real estate market will stay this healthy or ever be like this again, so sell your house for fast cash now and you won’t have to try to gauge the market.
Just consider what the closing costs might look like when shopping around with offers and you’ll be all set. Also consider what an all-cash offer looks like, and how much that saves you not only with closing cost reductions, but the fact you wont have to spend money on making your home presentable or doing any major repairs.