5 Costs You May Not Be Aware of When Selling Your House in Kansas City

Thinking about selling your house in Kansas City? Traditional home sales carry several expenses, some of which you may not have taken into consideration. No matter if you select to work with a professional real estate agent or sell on your own, you’re likely to run into all of these expenses. We will explore five costs you may not be aware of when selling your house in Kansas City.

Commissions and Fees

Along with the traditional commissions that real estate agents charge, there may also be fees charged for the brokerage services and other costs associated with using an agent. Even if you sell on your own, a buyer is likely to be working with an agent, who will take the commission from your profits. These commissions and fees can run into the thousands and are something you may not be aware of when selling your house in Kansas City. 

While there is no set “standard” commission rate you will find that a few of the cut-rate brokerages might list for a flat fee of around $500 and have you offer a 3 percent commission to any agent that would be bringing a buyer. Other discounts brokerages might agree to as little as a 4% commission total up to about 8% to be split between your listing agent and the buyer’s agent. And to add insult to injury, many companies will further charge you a transaction fee of anywhere from $300 to $500 to pay their office staff (on top of the commission already charged).

Now we are talking about percentage points of your overall sales price. So if your agent is charging 6 % and your home sells for $100,000, they get paid $6,000 and you get the remaining $94,000. And out of that $94,000 you would pay that transaction fee if there is one. And as with any sale, your closing costs at the title company, filing fees with the county, and any any underlying liens, would also come out of that $94,000.

Marketing

Marketing is what listing is all about and while yard signs may bring in buyers, the internet is the new highway that brings buyers to your door. Besides the inconveniences of showings, successful marketing comes with costs you may not be aware of when selling your house in Kansas City. In order to compete, online listings require high quality photographs, submitted by a professional photographer. This may also include the services of a professional drone pilot for virtual tours given today’s high demand for this feature on listings.

To give you an example, we attempted to marked our own house that we lived in. We took great photos and no one seemed interested. We spend a few thousand dollars on nicer furniture and spent a bit of money on the photos and updated them on our listing. Suddenly, with no other changes, just a better staged home and better photos and we instantly increased our showings.

What are the costs associated here? Buying new furniture could be in the thousands or you could hire a staging company. According to Realtor.com the average cost of staging is $300 to $600 for an initial design consultation and $500 to $600 per month per staged room.

The other cost will be in obtaining either professional photos or in today’s age of COVID, a Matterport Virtual Tour. A quick search on Thumbtack.com shows that costs of just under $200 for photography and between $300 and $800 for a Matterport Tour & Photos. And then some houses really need an overhead drone photo too.

Repairs

Prepping your home to be in selling condition may be one of the largest and most stressful of the costs you may not be aware of when selling your house in Kansas City. When the last thing you want to do as a seller is to invest even money into the house,this is just what you may end up having to do. Inspections can deliver some very expensive news, especially in older homes. Structural issues, foundation or even plumbing problems can literally run into thousands of dollars. Any known issues with the home must be disclosed. If you aren’t able to afford the repairs, be ready to deduct the costs from your asking price. 

Keep in mind that if you have repairs that go much beyond just outdated colors and fixtures, that you eliminate a lot of buyers. There are many buyers using loans that require everything in the house to be in good working order. So if any issues that go to safety or the structural integrity of the home, would eliminate those buyers. Add to that that many buyers want a move-in-ready home.

Now, you can list a house “as-is” with no repairs. We do it all the time, but we adjust our price down accordingly and market the house to the real estate investor type that wants to fix up a house. But we also are our own real estate agents and can eliminate the commission costs, and because we have a pool of several1000 investor buyers looking for a fixer upper, we can sell much more quickly than the average agent, reducing our next expense, which is holding costs.

Holding Costs

Holding onto a property that is lingering on the market carries costs you may not be aware of when selling your house in Kansas City. One delay could be caused by your buyer being denied financing. If you’ve moved forward with plans and relocated, holding the property is a burden and adds greatly to the listing costs to expect when selling your house in Kansas City. Now, to avoid them there is another option to sell your home quickly, with a definite closing date and firm offer from kcmoHomeBuyer! 

This is going to depend on your situation. All houses are going to have taxes that add up each month. There is also insurance which can get very expensive if the property is unoccupied. Then you have costs of utilities, which if the house is vacant could be eliminated if you shut them off, just be sure to fully winterize a home in the cold months to ensure you don’t increase repair costs.

Closing Costs

Closing costs for the seller are also costs you may not be aware of when selling your house in Kansas City. While some of these costs may be negotiated in the contract, you’ll be responsible for items such as the transfer tax and title insurance, there are also escrow and closing fees along with any HOA fees, attorney fees, and prorated property taxes. Some sellers also sweeten the deal to attract buyers by paying a credit towards the buyers closings costs.

These costs are going to vary by house, you could learn what closing costs might be on the seller’s side of the transaction by reaching out to a local title company. With an address and an estimated sales price, they can tell you pretty much what it might costs. We personally anticipate between about $1,000 to $3,000 depending on the price of the house, plus prorations for taxes.

You could be facing a small fortune in costs that you may not be aware of when selling your house in Kansas City. Why not avoid the listing costs you’d normally expect to pay by selling to kcmoHomeBuyer instead? With a direct sale to kcmoHomeBuyer closings are quick, usually within 15 days or less and you don’t need to worry about repairs. kcmoHomeBuyer takes on the risks, buying your home as-is.

Send us a message or give us a call today to find out more!

On top of the process!

Scott was on top of the process every step of the way, making sure I was informed and knew what was going on and when we had some paperwork issues at the title company, helped me work through that as well.