Costs of Selling Your House: The Real Estate Excise Tax
This is the first installment of a series dealing with the costs of selling a home. As I indicated in my post regarding the changing nature of the whole real estate industry, there are five large costs involved in selling your home: taxes, escrow, title, marketing and professional representation. Today, let’s take a look at the most straightforward of the costs: The Real Estate Excise Tax.
In King County, when real property is sold, the state collects a sales excise tax from the seller of the property. Generally that tax is 1.78% of the sale price of the home. Tax rates vary based on county. Here’s a schedule of the tax rates.
The math on this cost is as simple as it gets: $350,000 sale price X 1.78% = $6,230
“OUCH,” you say! I said this is a straightforward cost; I didn’t say it was cheap. For those of you interested in how the money is allocated, here is the non-partisan “Citizen’s Guide to Property Taxes” compiled by the Washington Research Council.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve consulted with homeowners who had no idea they were responsible for paying the excise taxes when selling their homes. As this series continues, you’re going to see why so many consumers and professionals are questioning the classic brokerage model.
Comments
Sorry, comments are closed for this article.
