How Much Does it Cost to Sell a Home in Ohio
Sellers in Ohio can expect to pay about 2.14% of their home’s final sale price in closing costs. For a $300,563 home — the median home sales price in Ohio — you’d pay around $6,432.
Closing costs are the various fees and expenses incurred by sellers during the closing of their real estate sale (the buyer will have closing costs of their own). In most cases, closing costs are simply deducted from the proceeds from the sale of the home. You’d only have to pay these out of pocket if you were upside down in your home and owing more than your home was worth, or if your total costs (mortgage payoff, Realtor commissions, and closing costs) exceed the market value of your home — which rarely happens.
Seller closing costs include:
- Ohio Transfer Tax – the Ohio real property conveyance fee current rate is $1 per $1,000 of the value of the property sold or transferred or what is also referred to as 1 mil. Keep in mind, counties in Ohio can also charge a permissive real property transfer tax of up to three additional mills. Currently, 87 of 88 counties in Ohio collect this additional tax.
- Attorney Fees – In Ohio an attorney is NOT required for the closing, however, title companies’ employee attorneys and, they will charge fees for drawing up the closing documents.
- Title Search – This fee is charged to look at the history of ownership and liens for the property. It will confirm the title is clear, and no outstanding liens or encumbrances exist allowing you to convey clear title to the buyer.
- Courier Fee – Only applicable if you have a mortgage, this fee will be charged to transfer the payoff funds to the existing lender.
- Estoppel Fee – If you own a condo or have a homeowners association which charges dues, this nominal fee will be collected to determine payoff.
- Property Taxes – Property taxes are paid in arrears (1 year behind – when you pay for current year first half and second half tax bills you are in fact paying for the prior year) and will be pro-rated to the day of closing and varies based on property assessment. If you escrow for taxes and insurance the title company will still withhold these funds, and your mortgage company will then issue a check to you for the balance of your escrow balance (this figure should be included on your mortgage statement.
- Pest Inspection – Only applicable if your buyer is getting a VA mortgage, you would be required to pay for the pest inspection.
- Title Insurance – Owner’s title insurance protects the buyer if there’s a problem with the property title. It will pay for any legal fees if mistakes are found — or potentially even reimburse the value of the home.
- Recording Fee – Your city or county will charge a fee to legally record your property’s deed and mortgage information. The exact amount will vary based on your location, but you can expect to pay around $6 in Ohio — although you might be able to negotiate for the buyer to cover this cost.
How to Reduce the Cost of Selling a Home
One of the most expensive parts of selling a home in Ohio is the real estate commissions, that is the real estate agent fees. The agent fee (i.e. commission) is a pre-arranged amount (usually a percentage of the sales price – 6-7%) that the seller has agreed to pay the listing agent for their service at closing and under the terms listed in the listing agreement.. The listing broker then offers part of the commission — typically 3% — to the agent who represents the buyer.
Real estate sales commissions are paid at closing, and out of the sales proceeds. Commissions are paid to brokers, not directly to the real estate agent. Brokers keep a portion of that fee. The agent’s share, called the commission split, could be as low as 30 percent of the commission for new agents or as much as 75% (or more) for veteran or highly successful agents.
A Better Way to Buy AND Sell a Home
When you agree to buy and sell with us, you pay less than half the normal fee (just 1.0% of your home’s sale price with a minimum fee of $3,000), yet you receive a more advanced marketing plan, and a much more complete range of services than you’d receive from the traditional agent. To be clear, we are not limited service / discount brokers (who simply list your home on the MLS and a handful of real estate websites and allow you to handle the details of actually selling your home) and rather we provide the complete range of real estate listing services.
While you still have to pay the 3% buyer broker fee (this is paid out to the agent that represents the buyer for your home), your total brokerage fee is 4.0%, NOT 6-7%. Plus, we never charge an up-front fee and there are no hidden fees.
As the buyer, you pay nothing for the services we provide as your buyer’s agent, and rather we are paid by the listing broker via the 3% buyer broker fee the seller agreed to when they signed the listing agreement with their listing agent. So when you agree to buy and sell with us you not only receive our Buyer Agency Services FREE OF CHARGE (this applies regardless of whether you purchase an existing home, or a newly built home from one of the area’s local builders), but you also save 2% on the sale of your current home!
Reducing Your Closing Costs
In addition to reducing the real estate commissions, we can also save you hundreds, if not thousands on your closing costs. We do a significantly higher volume of business than the average agent and leverage this to secure lower fees for our clients. We can provide an estimated net to seller sheet to show you what you can expect to receive from the sale of your home after expenses, and what you can expect to save by working with us!
Call us now at 614.245.5353 to take advantage of this offer…
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