What Are The Closing Costs For A Seller In New York? (Full List)

When taking on the challenge of selling your house (with or without a Realtor), most of the time it is because you have big plans for the money from the sale.

Naturally, home sellers in the Empire State will want to know, how much will it cost to sell my house in New York.

So lets take a look at a practical example.

Mike and Amanda own a cozy single family home in Huntington Long Island, they need to sell in order buy a larger home for their growing family.

After preparing their home for selling, they hire a Realtor and list their house for sale on the Long Island MLS for $350,000. After a few weeks of being on the market they find a buyer and sell their home for $342,500.

What will Mike and Amanda expect to pay for closing costs?

Take a look at the below table as an example.

Closing Costs For Sellers In New York

As you can see, selling a house adds up to a lot of money out of your pocket.

Now, let’s take a look at Mike and Amanda’s situation if they owned a cooperative instead of a single-family house, and would have to pay additional costs in addition to the Standard New York Seller Closing Costs above.

Additional Closing Costs for Coop’s in New York

Finally, there is one other type of residential property that we need to talk about.

If Mike and Amanda owned a condominium, they would have other costs in addition to the Standard New York Seller Closing Costs.

Additional Closing Costs for Condo’s in New York

Wow – thats a lot of fees, taxes and other costs!

If you are wondering what each of these costs are and what they mean. Below are explanations on each of the costs described above.

Standard New York Seller Closing Costs Descriptions

• Real Estate Commissions – this is the obvious cost that everyone knows about but hates paying for it. Real Estate brokers in NY will typically want to charge a commission of about 6% of the selling price of your home. This cost is for them to list your house for sale in the MLS and other marketing as well as getting home sellers through the process successfully. If you need the assistance in selling a home then hire an agent, if you are savvy and can handle it as a FSBO then be sure to check out our NY Flat Fee MLS listing plans.
• New York State Transfer Tax – You didn’t think you could sell your house and the government wouldn’t want a taste, did you? This cost is what the great state of New York will charge you when you sell your home. There is no way around it, you just have to pay it.
• Attorney Counsel Fees – Closing on a home in NY requires an attorney’s services and they are going to want to get paid for their hard work. A good attorney will make sure you are 100% protected when selling your house and ensure the paperwork is processed correctly.

• County Recording Fees – The town or county your NY house is located in is going to charge a fee to update the land records after you sell your house. They are also going to record the release of any mortgages and these are the costs of the town doing that work associated with the sale of your home.
• Pickup Fee to Title Closer – in order for you closing to take place, someone needs to make trips to the town hall for verifying the mortgage or lien amounts. This is the fee that person charges to do that work.

Coop New York Seller Closing Costs Descriptions

• Flip Tax/Fee – Flip Taxes are a fee the Coops Board of Directors sets to collect money from the seller when they are leaving the association. The amount you pay could follow a few different models, either a flat fee, percentage of gross sales price, set dollar amount per share owned in the coop or a percentage of the net profit. It’s a fee that the coop uses to increase their reserves to put toward the operation of the coop.
• Cooperative Attorney Fee – When you sell your Coop, they need to have an attorney process some of the paperwork for the transfer to happen legally. Like most organizations, they shift this cost onto the customer and in this case, that is the seller.
• Transferring Agent Fee – This is a processing fee the Master Agent of the coop will charge in order for them to process the transfer on the coop’s end. Yes, this is in addition to the attorney fee, everyone wants to be compensated for their time.
• Moving Out Fees – Coops charge sellers a fee to move out of the building and the costs associated with that process on the coops resources. For example, the maintenance men and elevators are being used heavily for moving out and I guess someone has to pay for it.
• Pay off the Bank Fee/Pickup Fee – There is a document prepared by the banks attorney for the coop that basically allows the bank to be protected in the even you default. This fee covers the time and expenses associated with that process.
• UCC-3 Filing Fee – Because Coops are an organization, they need to file a UCC or Uniform Commercial Code. The UCC system gives the public notice of the debtor secured party relationship and the collateral involved. This fee covers recording that notice.

Condominium New York Seller Closing Costs Descriptions

• Condominium Attorney Fee – When you sell your condo, the association has an attorney that needs to prepare paperwork for the condo. This fee will cover the time and expenses involved for the condos counsel to do that work.
• Moving Out Fees – Condos can charge sellers a fee to cover any expenses that they have associated with you moving out of the building. This covers those expenses and probably more.
• Waiver Application Fees – Condos have a right of first refusal on the unit in the event of a sale. This fee covers the time and expenses of them making that decision and processing a waiver if they choose to not purchase the unit.
• Miscellaneous Condo Fees – This bucket covers any other fee that the condos association could charge sellers in the event of a sale. These fees should clear be documented in the associations condo documents or bylaws.

That sure is a good amount of information about all the costs a homeowner can expect when selling their NY home.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that closing costs are the only costs associated with selling your New York house.

So going back to our example, does that mean after the closing, Mike and Amanda will only of had to pay these fees described above? Not necessarily.

There are other costs associated with selling a house in NY.

Below are the high-level items that will eat away at the proceed from the sale of your home.

1. Cost of getting your house ready to sell – this can include everything from hiring a professional stager, having a pre-sale home inspection, maintenance and repair items, and preparing your house for being on the market.
2. Cost of being in escrow – After you sign a contract on your house with a buyer, there are some costs you are going to have to pay. Always refer back to the contract for exactly what you are on the hook for. One common cost that sellers in New York often overlook is making repairs to their house after a buyer has a home inspection. These repairs are done to save a sale that could fall apart otherwise.
3. Closing costs – (described above)

That about wraps up the costs of selling a house in New York. I hope you found it useful and helps you in whatever stage of the home selling process.

If you still have any questions about the costs of selling your home, or about my flat fee MLS listing plans, drop us a comment below.