If you’re getting ready to sell your Maryland house, someone has probably already mentioned closing costs to you, maybe a friend, an agent, or a title company. And if you’re like most homeowners in this situation, you nodded along without really knowing what that means for the money you’ll walk away with.
That’s a fair question to want answered clearly. So let’s answer it.
The Short Answer
In Maryland, both the buyer and the seller pay closing costs. Neither side pays all of it. But here’s the part that surprises a lot of sellers: you’ll typically pay more than the buyer does, at least as a percentage of the sale price.
Sellers in Maryland usually pay somewhere between 6% and 10% of the sale price in closing costs. Buyers usually pay less, somewhere between 2% and 6%. Add both sides together and the total closing costs on a typical Maryland home sale run about 8% to 15% of the purchase price.
Why the difference? Because the single biggest closing cost, real estate agent commissions, almost always falls on the seller. That one item, typically 4% to 6% of your sale price, is usually the majority of what you’ll pay at the table.
What You’re Actually Paying For As the Seller
Beyond commissions, here’s what typically shows up on a seller’s side of the settlement sheet in Maryland:
Owner’s title insurance. This protects the buyer from certain title problems, and in Maryland it’s customary for the seller to pay for it.
Settlement fees. In Maryland, a real estate attorney or title company handles the closing and settlement process, and that comes with a fee.
Prorated property taxes and HOA dues. If you’ve already paid your property taxes or HOA dues for a period past your closing date, you’ll get credited for that. If you’re behind, it comes out of your proceeds.
HOA transfer fees, if your property is part of one.
Any repair credits you negotiated with the buyer during the contract process.
The Transfer Tax Question
This is the part that trips up a lot of Maryland sellers, so let’s slow down here.
Maryland has a state transfer tax of 0.5% of the sale price. By state law, that’s supposed to be split 50/50 between buyer and seller. But in practice, when the buyer is purchasing the home as their primary residence, sellers often end up covering the full state transfer tax instead of splitting it. This isn’t a rule, it’s just common practice in a lot of Maryland transactions, and it’s something your contract should spell out clearly.
On top of the state transfer tax, most Maryland counties charge their own county transfer tax, and these range from 0.5% to 1.5% depending on where the property sits. Like the state tax, the county transfer tax is customarily split between buyer and seller, but that split is negotiable and should be written into your purchase and sale agreement, not assumed.
The bottom line here: nothing about transfer tax is automatic. It’s negotiable, it varies by county, and the only way to know for sure who’s paying what on your specific sale is to look at your actual contract terms. A local real estate attorney or title company can tell you exactly how it will shake out for your address.
What the Buyer Usually Pays
Just so you have the full picture, buyers in Maryland typically cover their own set of costs: lender fees, appraisal fees, lender’s title insurance, loan origination fees, credit report fees, recording fees, and prepaid items like homeowners insurance, property taxes, and escrow deposits. None of that comes out of your proceeds as the seller, it’s separate money the buyer brings to the table.
How This Actually Plays Out at Settlement
Here’s the mechanic worth understanding: your closing costs as the seller aren’t something you write a check for separately. They’re deducted directly from your sale proceeds at settlement. So if your home sells for a certain price, the title company or attorney handling closing will subtract your share of the commission, the transfer taxes, prorated items, and any other seller-side costs, and what’s left is what actually gets wired to you.
This is why two homes that sell for the same price can leave their sellers with very different amounts in hand. It all depends on what was negotiated into the contract and what condition the property was in going into the deal. If you want to dig deeper into what typically gets deducted before you see a dime, our breakdown of what it actually costs to sell a house walks through it in more detail.
Every one of these allocations, who pays what, is negotiable. Maryland law doesn’t force a rigid split on most of these items. What matters is what’s written into your purchase and sale agreement, so it’s worth reading that document closely, or having someone read it with you, before you sign.
Where a Cash Sale Fits Into This
If you’ve read this far, you might be doing this math because you’re weighing your options, maybe listing with an agent, maybe selling on your own, maybe selling for cash to a company like us.
We’ll tell you plainly: a traditional listing is often the better option if your house is in good shape, you’re not in a hurry, and you can carry the costs of getting it market-ready. Agents earn their commission by marketing your home to the widest pool of buyers, and for a lot of sellers, that produces a higher sale price even after the commission comes out.
Where a cash sale tends to make more sense is when the house needs work you can’t or don’t want to take on, when you’re dealing with a tight timeline, an inherited property, a tenant situation, or simply when you want the process to be simple and predictable.
When we buy a house here at Deep Roots REI, there’s no real estate commission involved, because there’s no agent representing either side of the transaction. In most cases, we also cover the closing costs, so what we offer you is closer to what you actually walk away with, rather than a number you have to do more math on. We buy houses as-is, so there’s no need to make repairs or clean anything up before we take a look. And if it’s a fit, these sales typically close within 30 days, sometimes faster, depending on your timeline and situation.
That said, a cash sale isn’t automatically your best option. If your house would do well on the open market and you have the time and patience for that process, we’d tell you that honestly, even if it means we’re not the right fit for your situation.
If You’re Trying to Figure Out What You’d Actually Walk Away With
The clearest way to know your real numbers, whether you list with an agent, sell it yourself, or sell to us, is to talk it through with someone who can look at your specific house and situation. If you want to know what a cash offer would look like for your property, with no pressure and no obligation, reach out to us here and we’ll walk you through it honestly, including telling you if it’s not your best option.