If you’re getting ready to sell, you’ve probably done the math in your head more than once. Sale price, minus what you still owe, equals what you walk away with. But then someone mentions closing costs, and the number in your head gets fuzzy. What exactly comes out before you get your check? We get this question all the time, and we think you deserve a straight answer, not a vague estimate that leaves you guessing.
We’re Deep Roots REI, and we buy houses across Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County, Harford County, Carroll County, Montgomery County, and Prince George’s County in Maryland, along with York County, Lancaster County, and Berks County in Pennsylvania. We talk to homeowners every week who are trying to figure out what selling actually costs, whether they sell to us, list with an agent, or sell the house themselves. This post is about the costs, plain and simple, so you can walk into any decision with clear eyes.
What “Closing Costs” Actually Means
Closing costs are the fees and taxes that get paid at settlement, the day ownership of the house transfers to the buyer. Some of these costs are the buyer’s responsibility, some are the seller’s, and a few get split. What you actually pay depends on your state, your county, and sometimes what’s written into your contract.
For most sellers, the biggest line items are transfer taxes and, if you’re using an agent, real estate commissions. Let’s take those one at a time.
Transfer Taxes in Maryland
If your house is in Maryland, there’s a state transfer tax of 0.5% of the sale price. Maryland law generally says that state and local transfer and recordation taxes are split equally between the buyer and the seller, unless your contract says otherwise or another law applies. So on top of the state tax, you’re also looking at county-level transfer and recordation taxes, and those vary depending on where the property sits. A house in Baltimore County isn’t going to have the exact same total tax bill as one in Montgomery County or Anne Arundel County, because the local piece is different in each place.
If you’re selling in Baltimore County specifically, the county’s land records office handles deed transfer and recordation, and they’re the ones to contact directly if you want exact figures for your situation. That’s true generally: because the local number changes by county, we’d rather point you to the right office or your title company for your exact figure than guess at one for you.
Transfer Taxes in Pennsylvania
If your house is in York, Lancaster, or Berks County, the rules work a little differently. Pennsylvania has a state realty transfer tax that gets collected by the county Recorder of Deeds when the deed is recorded. Under Pennsylvania law, this tax is a joint and several liability of both the buyer and the seller, meaning both parties are on the hook for it, and it often gets collected together with any additional local realty transfer tax on top of the state amount.
Because the local add-on varies by county, your total transfer tax bill in York County won’t necessarily match what someone in Lancaster or Berks County pays. This is exactly the kind of number where guessing does you no favors. Your title company or closing attorney will have the exact local rate for your county, and that’s who we’d point you to for a hard figure.
Who Actually Pays What
Here’s where it gets a little more personal, because transfer tax splits and who pays what aren’t always fixed by law alone. In Maryland, the default is generally an even split between buyer and seller for transfer and recordation taxes, but your specific purchase contract can shift that. In Pennsylvania, both parties share the legal liability for the realty transfer tax, but again, the contract you sign is what actually decides who writes the check for what.
This is one more reason we tell people: read your contract closely, and if something about the tax split or fee allocation doesn’t make sense to you, ask your title company, closing attorney, or real estate agent to walk you through it line by line before you sign anything. It’s your money. You’re allowed to ask questions until you understand where every dollar is going.
Commissions, If You List With an Agent
If you sell the traditional way, through a real estate agent, commissions come out of your proceeds at closing too. That’s a normal, expected cost of that path, and for a lot of sellers, listing with a good agent is genuinely the right call. We say that even though we buy houses ourselves, because being honest with you matters more to us than making every deal about us.
How a Cash Sale With Deep Roots Is Different
Here’s where we can talk about our own offer directly, because this part isn’t a general rule, it’s specifically how we work.
When you sell to us for cash, there are no real estate commissions. There’s no agent in the middle taking a percentage, because there’s no listing. We also cover closing costs in most cases, so what you’re quoted is much closer to what you actually walk away with. We buy houses as-is, in any condition, so there’s no repair list to negotiate and no inspection contingency holding things up. And typically, we close in 30 days or less, though the exact timeline depends on your situation and what works for you.
We want to be careful here and not overstate anything. “In most cases” means exactly that. There can be situations, liens, title issues, unusual circumstances, where closing costs work differently. We’ll always tell you upfront what applies to your specific house before you sign anything, not after.
Why We Tell You About the Other Path Too
We could stop this post after the section about our offer and call it a day. But if you’re sitting on a house that’s in good shape, in a strong market, without a lot of urgency behind your timeline, listing with an agent might put more money in your pocket even after commissions and the usual closing costs. We’d rather you know that than find out later and wonder why we didn’t mention it.
Where a cash sale tends to make more sense is when the house needs work you don’t have the time, money, or energy to do, when you’ve inherited a property, when you’re behind on payments and need certainty more than you need top dollar, or when you just need this chapter closed without months of showings and negotiations. If that’s where you are, we’re glad to talk. If it’s not, we’ll tell you that too.
If You Want a Clear Picture of Your Own Numbers
Every house and every situation is a little different, and the only way to know what makes sense for yours is to talk it through. If you’d like a no-pressure conversation about your specific house, whether that leads to a cash offer from us or a different path entirely, reach out to us at Deep Roots REI. We’ll give you the honest answer, even if it isn’t the one that benefits us most.