What it actually costs to sell a house in California
Commission after the 2024 rule changes, city transfer taxes that reach 2.5% in parts of the East Bay, escrow, holding costs and the capital gains exclusion. A line-by-line net sheet.
· Hinge Properties
Ask what it costs to sell a house and you will be told “about six per cent”. That figure is out of date, incomplete, and in parts of the East Bay not remotely close. Here is the full list, with the local items that catch people out.
Commission — and what changed in 2024
Historically a seller paid one commission of five to six per cent, split between the listing agent and the buyer’s agent, with the split advertised on the MLS.
Following the National Association of Realtors settlement that took effect in August 2024, offers of buyer-agent compensation can no longer be published on the MLS, and buyers must sign a written agreement with their own agent before touring homes. In principle sellers no longer automatically pay the buyer’s side.
In practice, in this market, most sellers still contribute something toward it, because a buyer who has to pay their own agent out of pocket will simply reduce their offer by the same amount or look elsewhere. What genuinely changed is that all of it is now negotiable and openly so. Listing side fees of two to three per cent are common, and what you offer the buyer’s side is a decision rather than a default.
On a $700,000 sale, five per cent all-in is $35,000. It remains the largest single line by a wide margin, and it is the one most worth negotiating.
Transfer taxes — the local landmine
Every California county charges documentary transfer tax at $1.10 per $1,000 of value. On $700,000 that is $770. Trivial.
Then some cities add their own, and they are not trivial:
- Oakland charges a tiered rate that reaches into the low percentages on higher-value sales.
- Berkeley charges 1.5%, rising to 2.5% above a threshold that has been around the $1.9 million mark.
- Richmond is tiered and reaches 3% at the top band.
- Alameda, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Piedmont, Albany, Hayward and San Leandro all charge per-thousand rates well above the county figure.
- San Jose applies an additional transfer tax above a threshold in the $2 million region.
A 1.5% city transfer tax on a $700,000 Berkeley sale is $10,500 — more than escrow, title and inspections combined. Rates and thresholds get amended by ballot measure, so check the current figure with your city or title officer rather than trusting any list, this one included.
Who pays is customary rather than legal, and custom varies by county. It is negotiable, and in practice the city transfer tax is often split.
Escrow, title and the rest of the closing costs
- Escrow fee — typically $2,000 to $3,500 on a normal sale, sometimes split with the buyer.
- Owner’s title insurance — usually the seller’s cost in Northern California, roughly $1,500 to $2,500 in this price range.
- County recording fees — a few hundred dollars.
- Natural hazard disclosure report — around $100.
- Home warranty for the buyer — frequently asked for, $500 to $700.
- Termite inspection and any Section 1 work — the inspection is minor; the work found can run into thousands.
- Local point-of-sale compliance — the East Bay sewer lateral certificate, Berkeley’s energy ordinance, and any city inspection your property is subject to.
Call it $5,000 to $8,000 for the group, before anything the inspection turns up.
Repairs and preparation
Whatever you spend to get it listable, plus staging if you use it. Staging in the Bay Area typically runs $2,000 to $6,000 for a couple of months. Photography, sometimes a pre-listing inspection.
This money goes out before you see a cent, which for anyone already short of cash is the practical obstacle rather than the total.
The buyer’s repair credit
Underrated, and it belongs on the net sheet. The buyer’s inspector will find things. Almost every California sale involves a request for credits or repairs after that report lands, and the seller — now emotionally committed, having turned other buyers away — usually gives up something. A few thousand dollars is normal. On a house with real issues it can be far more.
Holding costs
Everything you keep paying while it sells. In this market, expect roughly 30 to 45 days on market for a well-presented house, plus 30 days to close a financed sale. Two to three months, and longer if it needs work or the first buyer falls out.
Per month: mortgage interest, property tax at a bit over one per cent of assessed value annually, insurance, utilities, gardener, HOA if applicable. On a typical Bay Area property, $3,000 to $5,000 a month is not unusual. Three months of that is $9,000 to $15,000.
For an inherited property being reassessed under Proposition 19, the property tax component alone can be several times what the family was used to paying.
The risk line
Not a dollar figure, but it belongs here. A meaningful share of financed transactions fall apart — financing, appraisal coming in low, cold feet. When it happens at week six you go back on the market having lost two months of holding costs and with a property that now looks stale, which itself costs you.
Capital gains
If the house was your principal residence for at least two of the last five years, you can exclude $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 filing jointly. Most ordinary sales fall inside that and owe nothing.
Where it bites: rentals, second homes, and long-held properties in high-appreciation areas where the gain exceeds the exclusion. Inherited property gets a stepped-up basis to the date-of-death value, so a prompt sale after inheriting usually produces little or no taxable gain. Talk to a CPA.
Putting it together
A $700,000 sale in a city with a 1.5% transfer tax, no unusual repairs, three months start to finish:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Commission at 5% | $35,000 |
| County transfer tax | $770 |
| City transfer tax at 1.5% | $10,500 |
| Escrow, title, recording, reports | $6,500 |
| Preparation and staging | $6,000 |
| Buyer repair credit | $5,000 |
| Holding costs, 3 months | $12,000 |
| Total | $75,770 |
Around 10.8% of the sale price — on a house that needed nothing. Net to seller before the mortgage payoff: roughly $624,000.
Now put real work into it. A house needing $60,000 of repairs does not simply sell for $60,000 less. It sells for less than that after a smaller pool of buyers, more credits demanded, longer on market and more holding cost — or you fund the $60,000 yourself, up front, and wait.
What this is for
Not to argue that you should sell to a cash buyer. Often you should not — for a house in good condition, with an owner who is not in a hurry, listing wins clearly and you should list.
It is to give you the right comparison. The honest question is never “is the cash offer lower than the list price?” It always is. The question is whether it is lower than the list price minus every line above, and by how much, and whether the gap is worth two to three months of your life and the risk of starting over in week six.
Work out your own version of that table. If you want help with it, send us the address — we will put the numbers together for your property, including what we think it would list for and what we think it would net you, and we will tell you when listing is the better move. That happens more often than you would expect from someone whose business is buying houses.