What costs are expected when selling house?
My mom owns her house worth 0.000 and it is paid for. She owes ,000 in credit card debt and can’t really afford to live there but she don’t want to leave. My mom said she has Alzheimer’s Disease 18 months ago. My brother is mentally ill and takes care of mom all day. I feel he should be in a group home but she don’t want to do without him. I realize the cost of agent to sell house and get carpets vacuumed and clean well will be an expense but what else should I expect to pay for when selling house?
Tags: alzheimer, brother, carpets, credit card debt, group home, mom
July 7th, 2011 at 10:03 am
The costs that you will pay if you do not do any repair work to the house will vary by the location of your mother’s house.
For example some cities charge a transfer tax on the sale of property others do not.
Most Counties charge a Transfer tax.
Who pays those fees is usually governed by what is customary for the location where the property is located
In some areas it is customary for the seller to pay those fees, in other areas it is customary for the buyer to pay those fees, in other areas it is customary for the buyer and seller to split the responsibility for payment of those fees.
In some areas it is customary for the seller to pay title and escrow fees, in other areas, it is customary for the buyer to pay title and escrow fees, in other areas it is customary for those fees to be split between the buyer and the seller.
For example in San Jose, California where I am located, the County of Santa Clara charges a transfer tax that is $1.10 per thousand dollars. Customarily in San Jose the seller pays the County transfer tax.
The City of San Jose charges a transfer tax of $3.30 per thousand. That fee is customarily split 50/50 between the buyer and the seller.
The Title and escrow fees are customarily paid for by the seller in San Jose. However the opposite is true in Alameda County. In Alameda County it is customary for the buyer to pay the title and escrow fees.
Also you may want to consider whether it would be worthwhile to correct any deferred maintenance to the property.
Although you can sell a property with deferred maintenance, you will have to discount the property by an amount which is more than the cost of repair of the deferred maintenance.
That is particularly true in a buyer’s market like this one. To persuade a buyer to purchase a house with deferred maintenance in a buyer’s market often requires a discount in price that is far more than the cost to repair the deferred maintenance.
Also some fix up costs can often return far more than the cost of the fix up. A good example is a fresh coat of paint will often increase the sale price of the property far more than the cost of the paint.
If landscaping is overgrown the cost of trimming the landscaping is often less than the increase in the amount that you will get at sale than the cost of trimming the landscaping
Your best source of information with respect to the fees that you will pay where your property is located and the most cost effective way to maximize the amount of money that your receive on the sale of your property is an experienced Real Estate Broker who practices where the property is located.
Also an experienced Real Estate Broker can be most valuable to you with his or her recommendations to maximize the value of the house at the lowest cost in the location where the house is located. That is where an experienced Real Estate Broker really earns his or her fee.
An experienced Real estate Broker can often tell you how to increase the value of your house by an amount of 5 to 10% or more.
I recommend that you ask friends or family members who live where the property is located for their recommendations of the best Real Estate Brokers is the area where your mother’s home is located and ask several of those Real Estate Brokers what your costs of sale will be and ask them for their recommendations for the most cost effective ways to maximize the amount that you will net on the sale of the house.
.
.
July 7th, 2011 at 10:03 am
Where is she going to live if you sell the house ? Who is going to pay for the group home that the brother will go into? If you mother is having difficulty paying off the $30K in debt she will undoubtedly have problems paying rent plus the cost of your brothers group home. It sounds like you might need some professional financial advice as there might be better ways to allow her to stay in the home. She might be able to homestead the property and then file bankruptcy to eliminate the $30K debt. What ever you do make sure that she and your brother are not left homeless and broke. If she nets $80K out of the house sale it won’t last too long in providing income. Good luck
July 7th, 2011 at 10:03 am
6% to the agents and a few incidental expenses
All repairs dictated by the seller, should you choose
Upkeep and utilities on the house
Property taxes, insurance, and HOA dues
July 7th, 2011 at 10:03 am
The expenses on th sellers side of a Hud-1 closing statement are small in comparison to a buyer. The existing mortgage is always the biggest expense followed by the realtor fees then the transfer tax and any prorated state and county taxes plus a little more to closing agent (lawyer). Where I am from the expenses on the sale of house sold at $120,000 you would be looking at roughly $10,000 plus the balance of the mortgage, but about $2000 – $3000 of that would be returned to you when you get your escrow accounts refunded 6 weeks later.