What does it cost to sell a home now?

The cost to sell a home varies tremendously depending on location, home condition and selling goals, occupancy status, budget, and more. There are some expenses that cannot be changed, such as the county transfer tax, but who pays that is negotiable – though in Santa Clara County it is customarily a seller cost.

For a rough, site unseen placeholder value, 5-7% will apply for many home sellers. To pin it down more precisely, it’s best to speak with a real estate professional who can help you determine the likely amount for your home and situation. Below, we’ll touch on the most commonly encountered seller’s closing costs.

Typical closing costs

In the San Jose area, home sellers usually face these line items out of their net proceeds:

1. Owner’s policy of title insurance (provided to the buyer, the buyer usually has financing and will pay for a lender’s policy) – amount is based on the sale price
2. Escrow fee, paid to the title company – amount is based on the sale price
3. County transfer tax (this cost to sell a home is $1.10 per $1,000)
4. If there is a city transfer tax, $3.30 per thousand dollars, which is split 50/50 with the buyer of that (San Jose, Palo Alto, and Mountain View only)
   • More expensive properties in San Jose are subject to an additional transfer tax – more on that below
5. Natural Hazard Disclosure (to disclose flood zones, earthquake faults etc.) and Environmental Hazards Disclosure (proximity to Superfund sites, high transmission gas lines, etc.), appx $90-$125
6. Pre-sale inspections (often home, pest, roof – possibly pool, solar, or others)
   • Home or property inspection prices often are based on the age and size of the dwelling, often running between $600 and $1000 unless the house is very large
   • Some inspectors charge extra if there’s a pool or spa as they are required by law to include a pool safety check and may add a cost for that (not all add for it)
7. Costs to comply with state’s reqirement on smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and water heater strapping and bracing
8. Listing agent fee (this cost to sell a home is negotiated when you sign the listing contract)
9. Buyer agent fee (buyers may negotiate this with their purchase offer, like any other term)
10. Professional staging (if the home is vacant)
11. If in an HOA, HOA Disclosures for buyers
12.  Pre-sale cleanup (varies, but for many houses it may run $1,000 to $1,500 or more):
    • Gardener for landscape cleanup
    • Window cleaning
    • House deep cleaning
    • Carpet cleaning
    • Misc pre-sale repairs of non-working elements of the home or big surprises in the pre-sale inspections that would seriously hinder the home selling (in a deep buyer’s market, the seller may end up paying 1% of the home’s value or more on those fixes, but in a seller’s market most homes are sold As Is)
13. Other items negotiated in the purchase agreement, such as a home warranty for the buyers, or any repairs or credits
14. For some sellers, there will also be capital gains tax (see a tax professional for advice on that)

Also it’s worth mentioning that some of these expenses are paid upfront, such as inspections and usually staging, and others are only paid if the home sells and closes, such as agent fees, title company fees, and transfer taxes.

Most of the time, the listing agent pays the upfront marketing costs of the home, for example: photography, 3D tours, virtual tour and custom URL, print marketing (flyers, possibly postcards), online or print adverstising, sign installation, and more. Different agents may cover more or less, and it’s important for sellers to understand who is covering what before signing a contract with any listing agent.

Cost to sell a home, rough ballpark?

When home sellers ask for a rough ballpark on the cost to sell a home, sight unseen, we may suggest 5-7% of the purchase price as a placeholder only. Many of these listed expenses are negotiable. Some are optional (but doing them may result in stronger offers and a higher net to the seller). Some costs are fixed and others will vary based on the sale price of the home.

The largest expenses are usually the fees for the listing agent and the buyer’s agent. The buyer agent fee is negotiated separately between the buyer and their agent since August of 2024 here. However most buyers are still asking the seller to cover this as a term of their offer, and who pays is negotiable. Real estate fees or commissions are not fixed by law, but each individual brokerage can set their own rate.

Separately from those fees, regular closing costs (fees for title, escrow, county transfer tax, city transfer tax, notary fees, home warranty – if purchased) seems to fall in the range of .5 to 1%. This does not include HOA documents, inspections, repairs, or staging.

Price points matter if the seller is in the city of San Jose, too because there’s an additional transfer tax on properties over a certain amount due to the passage of Measure E by voters. In 2026, properties under $2.3 milion are exempt. Somewhat similarly, Mountain View’s transfer tax is progressive, but it’s still just 1 transfer tax, not 2.

Many homes, maybe most, are now sold vacant and staged. Staging costs vary from about $3,500 on the low end (small condo) to $6,500 for a 3-4 bedroom house with about 1800 – 2000 square feet as of right now, in 2026. A much larger estate type of home could be $10,000 or more per month. As with nearly every industry, we can find more and less expensive stagers. Staged homes do tend to sell for much more than the cost of staging when they do sell, as buyers understand better how space may be used, and having furnishings also invite them to linger, which is what we want. Buyers who come and go fast are not buying it!

Homes that have sold in recent years often have less work to do than those which have been in the same hands for decades; the cost to sell a home that’s been updated continuously will be far lower than for a home where very little has been done over the years. That’s because improvements tend to happen when a new owner comes along and fixes things outlined in the inspections, or remodels to current tastes. Sellers living in a home for many years don’t usually get it inspected too often, so issues may pile up. For that reason, homes with a long period of ownership may require more pre-sale cleanup or repairs than homes with more recent sales.

Every home and situation is unique. For most sellers, estimating 1/2 – 1% plus the real estate agent fees will be a good starting point when penciling in a budget. If staging is needed, pencil in a few thousand for that.