The cost to sell a house in San Diego varies. There are typical fees such as Title and Escrow Fees. Then “the Property County Tax.” Yes, you have to pay for that portion of the year if you have not already paid this along with your mortgage payments. There is also a 
county transfer tax (1.10 per $1,000 of value (exclusive of liens existing at the time of transfer), and a fee from your bank for paying off the loan. The natural disclosure fee is paid to a 3rd resource company. This disclosure lets the buyer know if the property is in a hazard zone. A report is then completed and issued to the buyer once an offer is accepted. These fees are included in the cost of selling a house and add up to approximately 1% of the selling price.
What Are The Realtor Fees?
Now we come to the Realtor fees. This fee varies and is negotiable. Some people may think that hiring a discount broker may save 1,2,3,4 percent or more. I can see how some people may think of this. For example, if you have an item in a store and you price it at a certain dollar amount, the consumer comes in and says, I would like to purchase that item. Great, they go to the cashier and pay the price that was on the price tag, and they are good to go. This is not how it works with Real Estate; there are many different fees involved.
When selling a house, it is not so cut and dry. This is especially so when selling homes in neighborhoods such as North Park, South Park, and metro neighborhoods in San Diego. Many of the houses in these communities are built in the early 1900s. Although many of them have been remodeled throughout the years and look very pretty, they are still older and have their quirks. Once a potential buyer has completed their inspection and receives the written report, the road gets a little bumpy from here on in.
We have found when a Realtor is not experienced ( whether new in the business or in for 20 years) with selling older homes, they have a tough time navigating and negotiating through this contingency period, and fallouts occur. Ultimately, the buyer walks, and they fall out of a contract. Many days or months of valuable market time are lost, and now the home looks stale. Not only does it look stale, but now the seller has to provide all of the previous buyers’ inspections on your property to the new potential buyer. This does not matter whether the inspector was a good or bad one, this does not matter. The seller must provide a potential buyer with these inspections (aka material facts).
In our experience throughout the years, we have found that buyers get scared when they see lots of inspection reports. They are handed these scary reports without receiving the verbal context in person from the inspector. With all this being said, that 1,2,3,4, or more percent that the seller thought they were saving costs them thousands of dollars in lost revenue when it is all said and done.
Do I Have to Pay for Repairs Before Selling My House?
If there have been small things around the home that you have meant to take care of, this is the time to do it. Things such as dead grass, hedges, and trees can be cleaned up very inexpensively. If dirt or debris is lying around, now is the time to get rid of excess stuff lying around.
Unsavory odors in the house caused by pets should be taken care of. Cracks and chipped paint should be taken care of. Painting is one of the easiest and most inexpensive things you can do before listing your home that will increase your return on investment exponentially. The McT Real Estate Group has people in place to step in and help you with this process. With all this being said, if you want to sell your home as-is, we can do this as well. We have several programs and plans in place for all types of sellers.
Do I Need to Stage My Home?
Suppose you live in your home while it goes on the market for sale; yes, we do stage the home with your own furniture. There are 
secrets to staging that we share with our home sellers that make all the difference. Home Staging is like magic; we are creating an illusion with the placement of furniture. For example, the concept of pushing all furniture to the walls, so the rooms look larger is not true. Instead, we suggest removing just a few excess pieces of furniture and then moving pieces away from the wall so there is a little space. Create groups with your chairs and sofas. They will be more of a conversational area, and the rooms will appear larger by doing this small exercise.
If the home is vacant, we suggest staging it most of the time. In fact, we work with a stager that customizes pieces around the flow of the rooms. Staging can cost anywhere from $1,000-$$5,000, depending on the home’s size and rooms that need staging. We do not suggest staging when the home is in original condition and/or has deferred maintenance. The buyer looking at these types of homes is more of an investor buyer and is simply looking at the numbers of what it cost to buy, renovate, holding costs, and return of investment.
If you have any questions regarding selling your home or would like to find out the current value of what a buyer would pay for it in today’s market, contact the McT Real Estate Group at 619-736-7003. Until the next time.
Who Pays The Closing Costs