What your house would actually net — three ways.
Most sellers compare offers. The number that matters is what reaches your bank account after everything comes out. Put in what you think your house is worth and this works it out.
A rough figure is fine. Nothing is sent anywhere — this runs in your browser.
List with an agent
- Sale price
- $300,000
- Commission (6%)
- -$18,000
- Repairs & prep
- -$15,000
- Closing costs (1.5%)
- -$4,500
- Transaction fee
- none
- Carrying costs while it sells
- -$8,500
Sell as-is on the market
- Sale price
- $270,000
- Commission (6%)
- -$16,200
- Repairs & prep
- none
- Closing costs (1.5%)
- -$4,050
- Transaction fee
- none
- Carrying costs while it sells
- -$11,050
Cash sale
- Sale price
- $225,000
- Commission (6%)
- none
- Repairs & prep
- none
- Closing costs (1.5%)
- I pay these
- Transaction fee
- -$9,500
- Carrying costs while it sells
- -$1,700
On these assumptions a prepared retail sale nets about $40,200 more than a cash sale, and takes about 68 days longer.
A clean retail sale usually nets more. If your house is in good shape, you can live with showings, and you can carry it for a couple of months, the open market will most likely pay you the most. That is worth saying plainly.
The cash column wins on the lines retail cannot avoid — no commission, no repairs, and weeks of carrying cost instead of months. When a house needs work, or the clock matters, that gap closes fast and often reverses.
Carrying cost is the line people forget. Every month the house is yours you are paying interest, taxes, insurance and utilities on it. Over 85 days that is real money, and it does not appear on any offer.
The middle column is the trap. Selling as-is on the open market means paying commission on a price that already discounts the condition — the worst of both.
Where these numbers come from
Commission 6%, closing costs 1.5%, repairs 5% of value, carrying cost 1% of value per month, 85 days to sell retail versus 17 days for cash, and a cash offer at 75% of market value, less a $9,500 transaction fee at closing, with your closing costs paid by me as the buyer. These are typical for the Houston market, not a quote on your house — a real number needs the address and the condition.
Then list it — and I’d rather help you do that than talk you out of it.
For plenty of houses a prepared sale on the open market nets more, and the calculator above says so in dollars. If that’s your house, selling to me would cost you money — so let’s not do that. I’m also a licensed Texas broker, and listing is the other half of what I actually do.
No obligation and no catch: if you list, I don’t buy the house. That trade is fine by me — a seller who nets more is a better outcome than a seller who felt cornered.
Both open on alanhernandezhouston.com — my brokerage side.
The dates matter more than the price.
Whether or not you ever sell, options close off in a fixed order and the last useful window is about three weeks.
Want the real figure for your house?
Getting the offer costs nothing and there is nothing to sign to see it. If you go ahead, the $9,500 transaction fee above is charged at closing out of the proceeds — never up front — and I cover your closing costs as the buyer. And if the answer is that you would do better listing it, that is what I will tell you.
I’m a licensed Texas real estate broker, and I’d be buying for my own account rather than representing you as an agent.
Alan Hernandez, Licensed Texas Real Estate Broker. This page is an estimate for comparison only, not an appraisal, a valuation, or an offer. Your own figures will differ.