How much to sell a house here? (short sale, renting)

[Sundance123]

We are considering selling our house in the east side of the city. We bought it less than a year ago for $150k and that's what it's worth according to the auditor's site now. (Details of why are not important, but basically we are rethinking our financial priorities and thinking of selling this big house we bought and renting short-term until we decide our next move.)

We are not ready to speak to the realtor about it yet but we are wondering what costs are involved. Is this info available online somewhere? I'm specifically wondering how much realtors fees will be, closing costs, etc. We have about $4k equity in the house and just wondering how much out-of-pocket we need. Repairs or updates will be slim to not necessary.

[Zen_master]

Originally Posted by Sundance123

We are considering selling our house in the east side of the city. We bought it less than a year ago for $150k and that's what it's worth according to the auditor's site now. (Details of why are not important, but basically we are rethinking our financial priorities and thinking of selling this big house we bought and renting short-term until we decide our next move.)

We are not ready to speak to the realtor about it yet but we are wondering what costs are involved. Is this info available online somewhere? I'm specifically wondering how much realtors fees will be, closing costs, etc. We have about $4k equity in the house and just wondering how much out-of-pocket we need. Repairs or updates will be slim to not necessary.

Standard realtor fees are 3% for each the listing agent and the buyers' agent. Seller typically pays the commission so your net would be gross sales price less 6%. Closing costs, home inspection fee, etc. are usually the responsibility of the home owner. On the other hand, it isn't all too uncommon if the buyer's offer is on the higher side (say 98% of asking price) and the buyer to ask to seller to split closing costs (assumes it is a buyer's market). Closing costs can run anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000 depending on title agency, lender, and so forth.

[unusualfire]

Make sure you read on flipping laws in Ohio.

[SalamanderSmile]

6% to realtors, $400 for home warranty if you give one, $100ish in misc., county tax stamp is something like $450 to transfer $150k house, then they will take your owed property taxes out and pay them and your mortgage company should refund them to you from your escrow account when the loan is paid off, you will get them back in a month or so.

The auditors site is not an accurate measure of your home's worth. It only says it is worth $150k because they adjust the value everytime the house sells and make it the last sale price. A realtor could tell you how much it is actually worth. You need at least $12k in equity to sell a $150k house through a realtor, to guarantee that you won't have to bring money to closing to sell it. The belief that no repairs will be found by the buyers home inspector is delusional, they will always ask you to repair something.

My house is not worth what I bought it for, OR what the auditor's site says. The people I bought it from had to bring a $35k check to sell it to me and they bought it in 2006, so it is unlikely that your home will have appreciated enough to afford to sell it unless you bught it at auction or short sale or put a ton of money down.

[Sundance123]

Thank you - all of that is very helpful! We just needed a starting point to even know if we should move past the "should we sell the house?" stage. Of course, there is a big difference between the auditor's site and what a realtor will want to list and reasonably expect to sell for. We didn't even want to approach the realtor until we had an idea of what we'd be getting into, so these numbers definitely give us a better picture of what we're looking at, so thanks!