What is the Cost of Selling my House?

What is the Cost of Selling my House?

If you are thinking about selling your house to raise money to offset your debts, it is important to keep in mind the cost of selling. In addition, you also need to explore several smart ways to save money on the major financial expenses. Otherwise, you will be surprised at how much you selling your home will be an expensive business.

With the many agencies and factors involved in the process of selling a house, it is more than just naming price and finding a buyer who is ready to buy. Even then, when you take time to research and prepare adequately, you will know the costs that are involved and how to cut down the amount. Here are the main expenses related to selling your house and ways of reducing them:

  • Estate agency fees – This is a major cost when selling your house. Estate agency fees varies depending on the kind of agent that you are working with. A high street agent for example will charge you a commission of up to 3 percent of the selling price.

If for instance, your house is selling for 219,000 and your estate agent is charging you a 2 per cent fees, you might end up giving then about 4,380. Consequently, if your house is worth much more the agency fee will definitely rise.

However, you can save on this fee by opting for a fixed agency fees that you agree upon upfront before instructing them. This way, you are guaranteed of a good return from the sale. Alternatively, you could opt to use an online estate agent that will potentially save you money. It is also the simplest way of reducing the cost of moving.

  • Removal costs – Although you may be keen on negotiating the estate agency fees, you also need to keep in mind the removal costs when calculating your budgets. In addition, depending on your furniture and the distance to your new home, the price could rise from a few hundreds to several thousands of pounds.
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You need to take into account whether you want the packing services or not because this is likely to bump up the price. Thus, you will do well to reduce these costs by shopping around. You can also use comparison sites to see how much it will cost you – some sites like Happly have this built into their sites, so make sure that you use it to its full potential. If you are not moving a lot of stuff and you are willing to do some legwork, then you will certainly pay less.

  • Solicitor’s fees – While the buyer will foot the charges for the stamp duty, survey as well as searches, you need the services of a licensed conveyancer or a solicitor that will act on your behalf and handle all the legal issues associated with selling your property.

Although you cannot get around this, you should expect to pay between 500 and 1,500. However, this depends on how complicated the sale process will be. You could also reduce the solicitor’s fee by using a solicitor from outside the capital, compare quotes or using price comparison sites to ensure that you get the best deal possible.

Other unexpected costs

The cost of selling your house does not stop at the estate agency fees, removal costs and solicitors fees. Therefore, the law requires you to provide an energy performance certificate (EPG) and provide information about the energy efficiency of the property.


You will do well to use assessors who are accredited to do the required survey. While your estate agency can arrange for one, you are better off organizing it on your own. Alongside the survey, you might also want to consider contacting a pest removal company, like https://www.pestcontrolexperts.com/local/texas/killeen/ to see if there are any infestations around the property. That would make it a lot easier for the next owner to move into the house worry-free.

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If you have large appliances that you are willing to get rid of and you cannot take to the recycling centre on your own, you need to pay a small charge to your local council so that they collect and dispose them on your behalf.

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