Seller Closing Costs In NH
So you’re thinking about selling your house in New Hampshire, and you want to know what the closing
costs are. Well, let’s break down what the seller closing costs are here in New Hampshire.
1. NH State Transfer Tax
First one, the state of New Hampshire transfer tax. Now, the state of New Hampshire transfer tax is $15 per thousand, split equally between buyer and seller. Let’s look at this in terms of a $300,000 home. At $15 per thousand times 300, that comes out to $4,500. Split that equally between the buyer and the seller and your portion would be $2,250.
2. Title Fees
Your second cost are your title fees. There’s the deed prep, them preparing the deed to transfer from your name to the buyer’s name. That fee can range anywhere from $125 to $200, depending on the title company. Now, if you have a lawyer on retainer, then you can have them drop the new deed and have that submitted to the title company for approval.
Another fee with the title company is the discharge tracking fee. That is for them to go ahead and pay off your mortgage and track that to make sure it is recorded properly at the Registry of Deeds. Another title fee may be if you decide that you want your proceeds wired to you. Most of them will charge you like a $35 fee to wire the funds, instead of you just getting a check.
3. Real Estate Professional Fee – AKA Commission
Let’s look at the biggest cost of selling your home. The biggest closing costs for you are going to be the real estate professional fees, also known as The Commission. Let’s look at if you were using a traditional real estate brokers to sell your house. That fee varies from brokerage to brokerage, realtor to realtor. It averages anywhere from 4% to 6% of the sales price, and that is completely negotiable. For example, if you sell a $300,000 house and that professional fee is 4% to 6%, you can expect to pay $12,000 to $18,000. Again, that is completely negotiable between you and the brokerage.
Another thing you need to watch are some of the national chains that claim they will list and sell your house for 1%. Look at the fine print, that 1% is not 1%. You still need to pay a buyer agency fee, and in their fine print it states 2.5%. It also states they will only sell your house for 1% if you use them to buy the next home, and then they credit you that half percent back towards you. If you do not use them to buy a home, you pay a 1.5% Listing Fee and the 2.5% Buyer Agency Fee.
4. Prorations
Some other fees that are typical are you’ll see some prorations, for example, taxes. Depending on the time of the year, if the title company has to pay the taxes out of there, you may get a credit for your portion of the taxes or you may have to pay some for your portion taxes, depending on where that falls in the year. You may also have condo or homeowner’s association fees. If you went ahead and paid the condo or homeowner association fees on the first of the month, you’ll get a credit back for 50% of that, or wherever that falls in the closing date.
You will also have, as a closing cost, your water and sewer final proration. If you are on public water or public sewer, the title company will get in touch with the water and sewer company to get a final meter reading and then that’ll be on the settlement statement. Some other fees that you may have also on there are seller paid credits to the buyer. For example, if you accept an offer of $300,000 on your home and you’re going to credit back $10,000 to the buyer, that’ll be a cost on your settlement statement.
Bottom Line
Again, the breakdown is fairly easy. You get the state of New Hampshire transfer tax, you have the real estate professional fees, you have the title fees, and then you have some other small things for prorations. My name is Kevin Cooper of Bean Group. I hope you found this information useful and helpful. If you need any information, feel free to contact me, all my information is down below. Take care, and I’ll see you on the next episode of Coop Knows.
Your real estate agent is the best source of information about the local community and real estate topics. Give Kevin Cooper a call today at 603-657-6787 to learn more about local areas, discuss selling a house or tour available homes for sale.