Do you feel stuck with a property you no longer want in Baton Rouge? Learn how to sell your house without any costs in our latest post!
When you end up with an unwanted house, whether inherited, an old rental, or by other means, the last thing you want to do is dump more cash into it while you try to sell it. This article covers some of the costs that generally come with listing your house traditionally, and how you can avoid some of them.
Costs Of An Average Listing
When I sold my first house, I didn’t know all of the costs that go into listings. It generally isn’t as easy as calling an agent, taking a few pictures on your cell phone, and waiting for a dozen full price offers to roll in. Successfully listing your home in Baton Rouge requires time, and usually a bit of money too.
Repair Costs
New home buyers expect the house that they are buying to be in perfect condition. So, no matter how well you maintain your home, there surely will be a few repairs necessary to get top dollar on the MLS (multiple listing service, which Realtors use to get your listing in front of all other agents). Sometimes you have to patch holes, while other times you have to repaint entire rooms (especially if your daughter picked out the paint color). Leaky bath faucets, doors that don’t close properly, and rotten trim on the exterior all are common problems. Fixing all these things add up fast, and if your house needs more than just a couple quick fixes, you may see your profit disappear.
Marketing Costs
Marketing is expensive. While a real estate agent in Baton Rouge will get your house on the MLS, they may not advertise on other sites or invest in premium listings for your property. Sometimes, agents even pass these costs on to the seller. Many times you will have to pay costs for staging, professional photography, and cleaning to make sure the house looks great for the listing. Staging is ridiculously expensive. I expected it to be a few hundred dollars my first time, but it is often thousands. If you list with an agent, make sure you understand what is included in their services.
Holding Costs
As you know, owning a house is expensive. You have utility payments, taxes, insurance, repairs, and on top of all that, you have to keep your yard looking great! Every day, week and month that your home doesn’t sell costs you hundreds of dollars… and that’s not including the mortgage if you have one. Selling your house quickly will save you thousands compared to selling your house months down the road.
Agent Costs
If you choose to hire an agent in Baton Rouge, you’ll need to know about any costs you can expect for their services. Although, legally there is no “standard commission”, usually they are somewhere between 4.5-6%. There are also people who will just put your listing on the MLS and only charge you a flat fee or 1%. Depending on how much help you need, a full service agent can usually get you the highest price, however, if you are good at marketing and your house is in amazing condition, maybe one of the other lower cost options could work. However, if you don’t want to deal with all that, there is another option.
Once you total up all of these expenses, you may find that a fast, fair, and direct sale of your house to BuyhousesBR, is the best way for you to sell. Get an offer and run the numbers for yourself, there is never any obligation!
Ways To Avoid Selling Costs
Sell Your House Directly
The easiest way to sell your house without any cost in Baton Rouge, is by selling it directly to BuyHousesBR LLC. We will offer you a fair price, free of the costs, hassles, and wasted time of a traditional listing. You won’t have to spend a dime on any of the things listed above. You don’t have to make any repairs, and you don’t even need to clean it!
List Your House “As-Is”
Instead of spending the money to fix up your property for the MLS, you can choose to list it as-is. Keep in mind that it may take longer to find a buyer this way as most buyers on the MLS are looking for turnkey houses that they can move into right away. If your house needs some work, you may have better luck selling it directly.
Offer A Credit
If you would still like to list your house with a Baton Rouge real estate agent, but don’t want to spend any money upfront fixing it up, you can always offer your buyers a credit to do repair work on their own. Keep in mind, this might make finding a buyer a bit more time-consuming.