You’ve decided to sell your house on your own and take the DIY route. Will there be costs involved? Of course! So, wisely, you’re now asking: “What should I budget for if I sell my house on my own in Raleigh?”
The answer may surprise you.
It is true that home prices are rising in Wake and Durham County NC. It may also be the case that your home has appreciated considerably over the years. But before you count your profits, you’ll need to factor in these obvious and not-so-obvious costs of selling your house.
What Should I Budget for if I Sell My House on My Own in Raleigh?
Will You Cooperate With A Buyers Agent?
Once you advertise your house as a for-sale-by-owner you will be getting lots of calls asking you if you will work with a buyers agent. Decide upfront whether or not you would be willing to pay an agent to bring you a willing and able buyer. You can budget for 2.5% of the sales price of the home as compensation for the agent.
Many of you may have mixed feelings about paying a broker to bring you a buyer, and that’s ok. Just decide upfront whether or not you would be willing to do so.
Concessions
Concessions usually come in two forms. Repair concessions and payment of closing costs. Some buyers will ask for the seller to help them with their closing costs. This is perfectly reasonable as buying a home is very expensive and they will need to pay to move into their new home.
Seller-paid attorney fees in Raleigh, as of this writing, are anywhere from $700 – $1,000 as well as some document and recording fees.
Repair concessions occur when the home inspector gives the report to the buyer, and then the buyer submits a repair request. You can either have all these items repaired, leave some money in the form of a repair concession, or refuse to do either and risk the buyer walking away. Either way, you need to budget for these costs. This figure varies with the size and price of the house. But generally, about $2,000 is about what you can expect to pay in Raleigh, depending on the current market.
Landscaping
Curb appeal is of utmost importance: it’s what gets potential buyers to stop and then come in the door. And landscaping is the number-one improvement that most enhances curb appeal. The cost of hiring a landscaping company can be anywhere from $2,000 – $3,000, depending on the scope of work. You can do a light makeover for a few hundred dollars with some mulch, shrubbery, and fresh seed in your lawn.
Staging and Photography
We buy and sell dozens of houses per year and we always invest in professional home staging and a photographer. People buy houses that look crisp and show well. One of the advantages of online marketing is you can leverage the power of your professional photos to show the world how wonderful your home is.
You can budget for about $400 – $1000 for a professional home stager, and around the same for a photographer.
Utilities
If you plan to move out of your current house into a new home, you can’t just shut the utilities off in the home you vacate and intend to sell. Buyers absolutely do not want to walk through a cold (or sweltering) and dark house. (Also keep in mind that if you turn off the electricity and air conditioning during the summer, you run a high risk of developing a mold problem.) So, at the least, you will need to keep the electricity on and probably the gas as well in the wintertime. If the house is one you’ve been living in, then you already know what it will cost you to keep the utilities on.
So if you’re wondering, “What should I budget for if I sell my house on my own in Raleigh?” you now know the answer is . . . quite a lot, actually.