Selling a Home Costs $20,851, Most of It Taxes and Commissions

The average homeowner spends $20,851 to sell their home, Zillow and Thumbtack found in an analysis of how much it costs to sell a home. More than two thirds of those costs are transfer or sales taxes and agent commissions, which total $14,281 for the median-valued U.S. home.

With more than half of sellers doing so for the first time, those common but often overlooked expenses might come as a surprise.

In San Jose, Calif., the cost of selling the typical home is an astonishing $83,770, in part because of its sky-high median home value of $1.2 million, which brings closing costs (taxes plus commissions) to $76,015. Professional help with home preparation and local moving costs are substantial as well in Silicon Valley, summing to an average of $7,755-behind only Sacramento, where prep costs come to $7,840 but closing costs are a more moderate $24,990.

The lowest sellers' costs are in St. Louis, where they average $13,704. It ranks third lowest for closing costs, which total $10,014-behind just Cleveland ($9,046) and Indianapolis ($9,858).

Nationally, the average total for professional home preparation and local moving costs is $6,570, comprising:

• Exterior painting ($2,600)
• Home staging ($1,805)
• Interior painting ($1,245)
• Local moving ($475)
• Full-service lawn care ($145)
• Carpet cleaning ($140)
• House cleaning ($160)

Most sellers (79%) complete at least one home improvement project before putting their home on the market, and those who do are more likely to sell their houses for more than their asking price than those who don't – 22% versus 16%, according to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report.

Methodology

This analysis includes closing costs of real estate transfer taxes plus 6% in agent commissions. It does not include other closing costs such as title insurance fees, filing fees and the cost of points bought from mortgage providers. Zillow applied transfer taxes and 6% in agent commissions to the median home value for each area. In cases where metro areas cross one or more state lines, Zillow computed transfer taxes by using the tax rate for the primary state for that area. For home prep costs, Thumbtack looked at tens of thousands of quotes from small business professionals around the country and determined the average cost for each expense within the selected metros. For the purposes of this analysis, exterior and interior painting, home staging, local moving costs, full-service lawn care, carpet and house cleaning were identified as seven of the most popular seller prep projects completed by Thumbtack during the home sale process.

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