Listing a home privately sounds easy enough.
Publish your listing.Wait for offers. Close on the sale.
Sounds great in theory…but there are three main hidden costs that come out of your seller proceeds when selling the traditional way. Most homeowners are unaware of them until it’s already too late.
Here’s how the math really breaks down…
Inside you’ll find:
- Total Cost of Selling Remodeling
- Commission Costs Take the Biggest Bite
- Repair Costs Break Homeowner Budgets
- Carrying Costs Devour Your Profits
- How Cash Offers From As-Is Home Buyers Simplify the Sale Process
Total Cost of Selling Remodeling
Traditional home sales cost a lot more than most sellers originally plan for. Once all three expenses combine — real estate commissions, repair costs before selling, and carrying costs while waiting to close — sellers can lose upwards of 10% or more of their sale price before they see any profit.
That’s right: before they see any profit.
Case and point why an as-is home buyer has become so appealing to homeowners who don’t want to play guessing games. Home buyers in Arkansas (such as home buyers in Conway) offer an expedient, stress-free alternative without any third parties to deal with — meaning no more unexpected commissions or repair budgets.
Let’s dive into each cost category…
Commission Costs Take the Biggest Bite
And it all starts here.
Clever Real Estate’s 2026 survey revealed the national average total real estate commission stood at 5.70%. For example, $17,100 cut from the top of a $300,000 sale.
It doesn’t stop there…
While the NAR settlement in 2024 changed the game for how buyer’s agent commissions work, most sellers are still heavily incentivizing buyer agents with concessions in order to attract offers. Translation: even with the new rules set in place, most sellers are still forfeiting that portion of the commission. Why? To get more buyers. It’s that simple. Which means most people aren’t saving anywhere near what they think they will from the new settlement.
You can expect commissions to be distributed as follows:
- Listing agent: ~2.88% of sale price
- Buyer’s agent: ~2.82% of sale price
- Total: Around 5.70% taken off the top
Not too shabby right off the bat. And that’s before any repairs or carrying costs eat away at your profits.
Repair Costs Break Homeowner Budgets
Speaking of repairs…
Home sellers are seriously underestimating the pressure buyers have to provide a move-in-ready home these days. It’s expected. And when it’s not met, sellers are forced to dip into their own pockets to make critical repairs before ever receiving an offer.
Remodeling magazine’s 2025 Q1 Index found home repair costs grew 3.97% year-over-year. That doesn’t sound like much, but over the last ten years we’ve seen repair costs increase over 61%. Crazy! And of that 3.97% spike we saw this past year, labor costs accounted for 59.8% of the overall tab.
The typical homeowner spends somewhere between $5,500 – $15,000 getting their house up-to-code and market-ready. Yikes. But that’s just before the buyer’s inspection comes back with even more issues to negotiate…
Typical repairs and upgrades include:
- Fresh paint (both interior and exterior)
- Flooring replacement/refinishing
- HVAC service/replacement
- Roof repairs/freeing leaks
- Bathroom and kitchen upgrades
If that doesn’t set you back a few grand, the home inspection will.
Buyers often use inspection reports to reopen negotiations on price. Or, request credits come closing. If you’re not familiar with how home inspections work, they can seriously eat away at your equity even after you spend money up-front on repairs.
Ouch.
Carrying Costs Devour Your Profits
And now for the sneaky beast that catches most sellers by surprise.
Traditional home sales take around 60-90 days to sell from the time you list to the time you close. And during each of those 60-90 days, your mortgage, home insurance, utilities, and property taxes don’t care that your house is up for sale. They still come due…every single month.
Let that sink in for a second.
You could be spending $1,500 – $2,500 PER MONTH just to keep that home off the market (assuming a $250,000 home and average mortgage). That’s $3,000 – $7,500 in costs with zero progress after two to three months of marketing your home!
But it doesn’t stop there…
If your home:
- Needs price drops to entice buyers
- Gets stuck during a seasonal lull
- Runs into a dead deal (more on that later)
You could be looking at significantly more carrying costs before your home actually sells.
And deals do die. More than most sellers think.
Whether it be the buyer can’t get financing, they don’t pass the home inspection, or they suddenly lose interest — if a deal falls through you’re back at square one. List your home again. Market back to square one. And start pouring money into those carrying costs yet another day.
So carrying costs are bad.
They really can kill your profits if you’re not anticipating ahead of time.
How Cash Offers From As-Is Home Buyers Simplify the Sale Process
Enter cash offers from as-is home buyers.
As-is home buyers don’t pay commissions. They don’t expect repairs to be made before selling. And because they typically buy your house fast with cash, you aren’t left struggling to pay bills while your home sits on the market.
Win. Win. Win.
Selling to an as-is home buyer is ideal for inherited properties, unexpected life events that require relocation, or just about any homeowner that values their time and sanity over making endless concessions.
| Traditional Sale | As-Is Sale |
|---|---|
| ~5.70% commission costs | $0 |
| $5,500–$15,000 in repairs | $0 |
| Carrying costs for 60-90 days | None |
Life’s just better when you can skip these three costs.
Savvy homeowners even use offers from as-is home buyers to their advantage. When selling traditionally, get a local As-Is Offer and use that number as a safety net when negotiating with real estate agents.
You’ll always know how much you can truly afford to spend — because you have a guaranteed offer on the table while you wait for buyers to tour your home.
Conclusion
Selling your home the traditional way isn’t just about how much you can list it for.
Once you subtract commissions, repairs before selling, and carrying costs while waiting for a buyer, you could be sitting way below your original asking price. And with all three of these expenses typically coming into play during any given sale, it’s easy for homeowners to lose thousands without even realizing.
Quick recap:
- Commission sits around 5.70% on average (nationwide as of 2026)
- Repairs before selling come in between $5,500-$15,000+
- Carrying costs for an average 60-90 day home sale run you thousands
- As-is home buyers wipe all three of these costs away.
If you’re going to sell your home, at least make sure you know ALL the costs involved up front. Not doing your homework is how homeowners get low-balled by cash home buyers who “know nothing about real estate”.
Learn the costs. Know your numbers. And you’ll sell your home the smart way.
