Why would you regret selling your home? Just take a look at what it could cost you

Most people realize they’ll have to pay a hefty commission to sell their homes. But that’s only the half of it, according to new research. Actually, it’s less than the half of it.

The average cost of selling a house rose to $54,616 this year, according to a Clever Real Estate survey of 1,014 people who sold their homes over the previous two years. But sales commissions paid to the sellers’ and buyers’ agents added up to $21,603 — less than half of the seller’s total cost. The rest of the roughly $33,000 was eaten up by closing costs, repairs/improvements, concessions to the buyer, marketing, moving fees and staging costs.

The amount of the total payout, which came from the proceeds of the sale, surprised two-thirds of the respondents. And nearly 9 out of 10 said they had regrets. Had they realized the actual cost of selling their properties was going to be so high, they would have made different decisions, they told researchers.

Some of the respondents did not hire an agent to sell their houses, nailing a huge savings when it came to commissions. But those who signed on with an agent sold for roughly $34,000 more, canceling out any actual savings.

Here’s a breakdown of what sellers are paying these days:

▪ The largest chunk, of course, is the commission that agents charge their clients. The rate, which is always negotiable, is typically in the 5% to 6% range, with the fee split between the listing agent and the buyer’s agent. According to the Clever study, the listing agent’s share of the median-priced house is $11,136, while the buy-side agent grosses $10,467. (The discrepancy is due to the fact that splits are not always even.)

▪ Sellers spent $10,000 on improvements before and after listing their homes because today’s buyers want houses that are move-in ready. Houses are expensive enough already, so buyers don’t want to be saddled with costly renovations. To attract buyers and hasten the sale of their properties, 3 out of 4 sellers invested in repairs and updates, knowing that a major portion of their outlay (or perhaps even all of it) would be recovered when their revamped place sold at a higher price. Sellers were most likely to repair or improve their homes’ plumbing, kitchens, electrical systems, paint and roofs.

▪ Closing costs are another big number. While buyers are typically burdened with the lion’s share of the closing costs, sellers also pay a fair share — $8,000, according to the survey. Sellers sometimes pay for title insurance, plus credit checks, document preparation and other miscellaneous items.

▪ In some places, the market has turned so that sellers have to make concessions or offer incentives to land a buyer. Nearly 90% of respondents said they gave away something. Generally, that meant reducing their asking price, offering a home warranty or setting a flexible closing date. In other cases, sellers helped buyers with moving expenses, paid a part of their closing costs and allowed them to move in early. Some concessions only require a sacrifice of ease and time. However, others are of a monetary sort: According to the survey, sellers paid a median of $7,200 in concessions to their buyers. For what it’s worth, a fourth of the respondents believe they gave away too much, and a fourth said they wouldn’t be so generous if they had to do it all over again.

▪ Sellers paid more than $4,500 in marketing costs, and over $3,000 in moving costs. To gain a quick sale at a top price, most sellers splurge for professional photography to make their places shine. Ditto for hiring professional stagers to make their place stand out. Sellers forked over $2,300 to market their houses and $2,263 more to stage them — a total of $4,563.

And when the sale closed, sellers’ moving costs rang in at $3,250. Despite all this, nearly two-thirds of the sellers queried said they made a profit when all was said and done. The median profit among respondents was $100,000 — even though over half of them sold their homes for less than their original asking prices.

Indeed, as an indication of how much the market has turned, nearly twice as many sellers sold below their original asking prices in 2024 than in 2022, when buyers had far less power to negotiate.

Meanwhile, 1 in 4 sellers said they were sorry they did not hold out for more money, and 3 out of 10 complained they sold too quickly. Those disappointments led to other regrets, including wishing they had made more repairs and fewer concessions — things that could have led to higher profits in the end.

Lew Sichelman has been covering real estate for more than 50 years. He is a regular contributor to numerous shelter magazines and housing and housing-finance industry publications. Readers can contact him at lsichelman@aol.com.