April 28, 2020
By better of team
Updated November 10, 2020
If you’re new to selling real estate, it helps to understand closing costs. In Portland, Oregon, people sell thousands of homes every single year. It stands to reason that they often come across some unknown expenses they might have to cover at closing.
At Better Off House Buyers, we’re most interested in ensuring you save money when ready to sell. Let’s look at the closing costs you can expect when you sell your home in Portland.
What are the Average Closing Costs in Portland, Oregon?
Closing costs hover around 3%-5% of the home’s purchase price, and the buyer must cover much. But depending on the deal made, sellers too may have to cover some of those costs. When sellers are expected to contribute, they often pay around 2% of the home’s purchase price at closing.
The average home price in Portland is around $400,000. If we apply a 4% cost, the actual closing costs will be about $16,000.
Closing cost variables.
No traditional real estate transaction is a well-defined process. There are usually a few additional variables to consider when determining your closing costs. For example, buyers may choose to pay discount points, which results in being offered a lower mortgage rate. Not all buyers will choose to do this, but when they do, it changes the amount they need to have at closing.
In every real estate transaction, buyers and sellers are responsible for certain costs during the closing process; closing costs are the various fees (e.g., taxes and commissions) paid in finalizing a home closing.
As a seller, you incur a considerable cost to sell your home, approximately 10% of the home sale price. If you’re selling a home, you’re typically buying one, so it’s essential to consider the expenses on both sides of the transaction.
Understanding Closing Costs From the Seller’s Perspective
You won’t need to pay as much out of pocket if you are the seller, but you may be required to cover some closing costs. For example:
- You may need to pay the new owner’s title insurance policy.
- You may need to cover your real estate agent’s commission, at least partially.
- You may need to pay at least some of the escrow fees.
- You may need to pay HOA transfer fees, if applicable.
- You may need to pay prorated property taxes or HOA fees.
- You may need to pay for a home warranty if needed.
- You may need to pay for prorated utilities.
- You may need to cover your portion of the property transfer taxes.
Undoubtedly, closing costs on the house can be expensive, even if you’re the seller.
Should Sellers Plan To Pay the Buyer’s Closing Costs?
In most cases, closing costs are split between the buyer and the seller. Sometimes this is a 50/50 split, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
Quite often, sellers will agree to pay closing costs in full to ensure the transaction goes as smoothly as possible. But this can be problematic as well. It could mean that the buyer is unable to afford them. If that’s the case, they may be unable to afford the house, and the sale might eventually fall through.
Sellers who offer to pay closing costs won’t hurt the transaction. But they carry a little more risk than if they had let the buyer carry more financial burden.
Sometimes in a traditional purchase-buy home transaction, the buyer asks the seller to pay the closing costs. For many, the seller’s acceptance indicates that the seller has an urgency to sell the property. However, If the seller has received multiple offers, it would be hard to see any reason to accept an offer where the buyer wants the seller to pay their closing costs. Selling the property to Better Off Home Buyers would eliminate this step in the buying-purchasing process because we pay for all the costs of a home sale transaction.
Who Pays the Closing Costs When Selling to an Investor?
Planning to sell to an investor is much different regarding closing costs. While some buyers and sellers will insist on splitting them more traditionally, that is not the case. Many investors like Better Off Home Buyers will fully cover all closing costs. That way, the seller doesn’t have to worry about them.
That includes many typical closing costs expected during a regular real estate sale but will not be included on the closing sheet. For example, the home inspection cost is usually there, but since many investors pay cash instead of applying for a loan, they don’t need an inspection. There are also no real estate commissions to worry about, as no agent was involved.
Many homeowners sell their homes to Better Off Home Buyers to save money. This might be something you’ll want to consider as well. Our Home purchasing program is fast, clear, and transparent. We are always looking to provide a win-win service. Contact us for more information.
What’s Different About Better Off House Buyers?
We Better Off House Buyers buy all kinds of houses, even those considered hard to sell on the real estate market. We relieve sellers of homes that have been condemned, abandoned, or in disrepair.
In a typical real estate transaction, you, as the seller, can be expected to fix everything wrong with your home before the sale. This can be troublesome. It can make the sale longer than it should and is often quite expensive. But when you choose to sell your house to us, we will buy it as-is and take care of all the repairs ourselves.
The process of selling a home to us is straightforward. First, you’ll let us know you want to sell us your house. We’ll ask you all kinds of questions related to the property. If your home qualifies for what we’re looking for, we’ll schedule a time to see it in person. During the COVID-19 crisis, we are conducting facetime, Sky, and Zoom visits to protect our client’s health and ours.
Once we have viewed your home, we will decide and send you a written offer. You do not have to accept our offer, and there are no hidden fees to surprise you in the future. If you agree, we will set a closing date to suit your schedule.
Before long, you’ll have cash in hand for your home! We’ll cover all the closing costs too.
Let Us Answer Your Questions About Closing Costs In Portland.
At Better Off House Buyers, we want to get cash in your hand as soon as possible. We are professional home buyers experienced in purchasing homes in Portland, Oregon. We’re here to answer your questions about closing costs or anything else you need to know. Are you ready to talk with an investor about your property? Please contact us today.
We enumerate some of the most common questions people used to ask us.
Who may pay for the new owner’s title insurance policy?
Title insurance protects homebuyers from the prospect of someone contesting their legitimacy as the new homeowner. There are 2 title insurance policies, one for the buyer and the lender. The latter also needs protection as they provide the mortgage to purchase the home.
A thorough title search is done on the property to ensure no issues could affect the sale later.
In Oregon, The seller pays for the title insurance closing cost. Title insurance covers the passing of ownership to the buyer and, by Oregon state law, is paid for by the seller. Title insurance rates change, but a rough estimate for today is about $1350 for a $500,000 home.
A title insurance policy may cover the following;
- Back Taxes
- Conflicting wills
- Filing Errors
- Fraud
- Liens from HELOCs, unpaid contractor bills, or other companies
- Spousal claims
- Title forgeries
- Undocumented easements
- Unknown heirs who claim ownership of the estate
When you sell your house to Better Off Home Buyers, we pay for the title insurance policy.
Real Estate Agent Commission Cost.
The real estate commission is about 6% of the home sale price. Typically, the sale commission is split between the seller’s and the buyer’s real estate agents. In a traditional house sale, the seller pays for the commission. However, you don’t pay this cost when you sell your house to Better Off Home Buyers.
Because no real estate agent is involved when we buy homes, sellers do not expend unnecessary charges.
Escrow fees.
Broadly, It is the use of a trusted intermediate who handles money or other assets being transferred between two parties, ensuring that both sides meet the terms of the deal. It’s always used in business to make sure neither side gets cheated.
Below, we’ll explain more, but escrow comes up twice in the context of homeownership (which might be one reason for the confusion). Those two instances are:
- While closing on your home, hold “earnest money.”
- Then as a long-term account, you pay property taxes and insurance each month as part of your mortgage payment.
Remember that although federal law governs certain aspects of escrow, states and banks are allowed to do some things their way. So if you’re ever uncertain about an escrow issue, contacting a local homeownership advisor is a good idea.
If you sell your house to us, an escrow account is unnecessary. We pay for your house with a slum payment.
Taxes.
Many people ask us about the tax cost. The property tax is an obligation for all real estate owners. When a house is sold, the tax obligation must be met no matter what. The seller should prorate the tax value he must pay when he occupies the house during the fiscal year.
The tax obligation for the seller ends when the buy-sale property transaction is closed.
“Oregon’s Multnomah County, which encompasses most of the city of Portland, has property taxes close to the state average. The county median effective tax rate is 1.07%. If you applied that rate to the county median home value of $ 330,900, you would get an annual property tax bill of approximately $ 3,550.” smartasset.com
Better Off Home Buyers will pay property taxes whenever they buy a property.
There are other taxes associated with a property. The seller is responsible for the taxes related to capital gains because they are a source of income.
Homeowners Association (HOA)
The homeowners association fee (HOA) is a selling home cost only when the property for sale is located in a place or neighborhood that requires this fee.
As occurs with property taxes, the HOA should be prorated to the time the seller was living in the house. Falling to make HOA payments will be exposed to a link on the property.
Sometimes a house for sale has an HOA link on record. This makes the sale process a little bit slower when it is through a real estate agent. If we purchase the same house, the processing time will remain. We will take care of any HOA costs.
Conclusion.
Selling a property involves hiring a real estate agent. Condition the house for sale, which means paying for major or minor repairs, cleaning the interior and exterior, paying for ads, and organizing your time to receive potential buyers in your house. Be willing to wait 90 to 180 days for your home to be sold.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more difficult to put a house for sale in the traditional market. Many people fear getting contagious by the virus, so they prefer not to shop, and some homeowners prefer not to sell.
The coronavirus epidemic has changed the way we live and work. All of us must prevent the spreading of the virus. In Better Off Home Buyers, we follow the CDC recommendations of wearing a face mask and keeping social distancing. We, in most cases, use technology to contact, have a conference, and meet our clients.
The house-selling process is not cheap. There are many costs related to it. The average price of selling a house in Portland, Oregon, is about $55,000. But if you need to sell your house, the cost may be higher if you hire a real estate agent.
Selling your house to Better Off Home Buyers will save you time and money. When we buy his property, the costs and time a homeowner spends on selling a property are significantly minimized. Our buying homes process is fast. It takes about seven days to close.
People contact us by filling out the form on this page or dialing our phone number directly.
We are the most influential home-buying company in Oregon. During this time o crisis and uncertainty, we are working close to the Portland community to help people in need of selling their houses fast.
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