Question:
“Hi Gary. We own a home in Pacific Beach that we’ll be calling you to sell in a couple of months. But for now we just want to find out the selling costs so we can do some planning. Can you help us with this?”
Answer:
To be fairly safe, you can typically figure the costs are the Realtor fee plus roughly 2% of the sales price. This 2% covers the escrow fee, title insurance, county transfer tax, and other costs, including a 1% cushion for repairs, etc.
This does NOT cover:
- Your last mortgage payment
- Prorated loan interest
- Any loan prepayment penalty
- Prorated property tax
- Excessive repairs, including for termites
- Any liens or assessments
- Return of tenant deposit or prorated rent (rentals)
- Tax on gain, including recaptured depreciation (too complex to go into here)
- Possible tax withholding on rentals, non-CA residents, or non-citizens
