What does selling a home cost?

The question sounds simple, but the answer depends on more things than most think. Selling with an agent or yourself? Big city or countryside? With a home that sells itself, or one needing work to stand out? Every choice moves the bill. The total, meaning what the whole sale costs, has a page of its own.

Here we go through each item separately, with kronor in hand rather than percentages in the air, so you can add up your own calculation before deciding how to sell. Not yet at costs, start best with sale preparations.

The agent’s fee: the big item

The agent’s fee is by far the biggest cost selling with an agent, and also the cost varying most. Count roughly 1 to 4 percent of the purchase price, depending on location, home type and which agent you pick. Selling a tenant-owner apartment for 3 million kronor, the fee can thus land somewhere between 30,000 and 120,000 kronor, quite a range.

In pricier city deals, above all inner Stockholm, many agents switch to a fixed price or lower percentage instead, since a fixed percentage on a high price otherwise turns unreasonably big in kronor. An 8-million house need not cost four times more to sell than a 2-million one, even if the work effort is about the same.

Always ask what the fee includes. Some agents include photos, styling, listing and a digital bidding service in the price, others add them as options. Two quotes with different percentages can thus land on the same total cost if one includes more.

Listing on Hemnet and Booli

Listing is the cost easily forgotten selling privately, because with an agent it usually sits in the fee. Selling privately you pay for a private Hemnet listing, usually somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 kronor depending on package and extras like top placement or extended showing time. Booli normally charges private individuals less the same way, but coverage is smaller than Hemnet, still the channel most buyers search first.

A relatively small sum next to the agent’s fee, but still worth counting, especially if you must renew the listing for running longer than expected.

Survey and energy certificate

A transfer survey before sale usually costs 5,000 to 15,000 kronor depending on home size and whether it is a house or apartment. As a seller you are technically not obliged to pay it, but it is rarely optional in practice. It gives the buyer a clear picture of condition and cuts dispute risk over hidden defects afterwards, nearly always paying for itself in calmer deals and fewer later claims.

The energy certificate is by contrast legally required selling small houses and must be available by the viewing at the latest, unless already valid from before. A new certificate usually costs 1,500 to 4,000 kronor depending on house size and which firm you hire. Tenant-owner apartments are normally exempt from the same seller requirement, since the association answers for the building’s certificate.

Styling and photos

Professional photography usually costs 2,000 to 5,000 kronor, and it is one of the best investments whatever way you sell. Bad photos cost you viewing visitors, and fewer visitors means fewer bids. With an agent photos often sit in the fee, but selling privately it is a cost you add yourself.

Home staging, refurnishing or hiring furniture so the home shows its best side, costs anything from a few thousand for simple advice to 15,000–30,000 kronor or more for full furnishing of an empty house. Most homes manage with far less: thorough cleaning, removed personal items and good light already make a big difference at no cost at all.

Legal help selling privately

Selling without an agent, you must ensure the purchase contract, settlement statement and other papers turn legally correct yourself. Many bring a lawyer or a firm specialising in home deals just for the contract part. That normally costs 3,000 to 8,000 kronor, a fraction of an agent’s fee landing, but still an item to count in your private calculation.

Money well spent. A contract with mistakes or unclear phrases can cost far more to sort afterwards than legal help ever costs.

Moving clean

Move-out cleaning before moving day usually costs 2,000 to 6,000 kronor depending on home size and condition, whether you sell with an agent or privately. A cost easy to forget in the calculation since it arrives late in the process, but rarely negotiable. The buyer expects a properly cleaned home at moving day, and it usually stands regulated in the contract.

How the items relate to each other

Before adding totals, seeing the items side by side is worth it. The agent’s fee is not just biggest. It sits in a size class of its own, often ten times bigger than any other single cost. The chart shows the midpoint of each range from the sections above, calculated on the example 3-million-kronor tenant-owner apartment.

Agent or private: total side by side

Adding the items for an imagined 3-million-kronor tenant-owner apartment, a sale with an agent lands around 30,000 to 130,000 kronor total, the fee dominating wholly with survey, styling and move-clean often already in the package. Selling the same home privately, total cost can instead land somewhere between 15,000 and 35,000 kronor: listing, possible survey, legal help, photos and move-clean, but without the fee.

The kronor gap can thus grow significant, often tens of thousands. Harder to price is time and peace of mind. An agent runs viewings, bidding, buyer contacts and much of the legal for you, worth a lot with a pressed schedule, a house needing more selling work, or simply wanting to skip handling an emotionally loaded process yourself. Private selling pays best when the home is attractive, you hold time for viewings and contract writing, and you feel safe negotiating.

Costs differ between city and countryside

In big cities like Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö the agent’s fee in percent tends toward the upper part of the range, partly because competition for instructions is hard and marketing effort bigger. Meanwhile actual purchase prices run higher, which is why many agents there adjust the percentage down or switch to fixed price, as mentioned above. Net effect is the fee in kronor often still runs higher in big cities than countryside, even if the percentage is sometimes lower.

In smaller towns and rural areas the percentage can run higher relative to price, since the agent’s work effort, viewings and travel, is not necessarily smaller just because the home is cheaper. That is why comparing actual kronor amounts between agents always matters more than comparing percentages, wherever in the country you sell.

Do not forget capital gains tax

Beyond selling costs, capital gains tax is the biggest item affecting what you actually keep. Selling a private home at a profit you pay 22 percent tax on the profit. Both the agent’s fee and other selling costs are deductible and lower the profit you are taxed on, just like renovation and improvement costs with saved receipts.

Capital gains tax is thus no selling cost strictly speaking, paid first in the tax return the year after the sale, but it belongs in your whole calculation of what the deal nets you. Deeper on deductions, deferral and how the tax actually counts is in our guide on capital gains tax.

How you keep total cost down

Always take in at least two or three agent quotes and compare not just the percentage but what is actually included. An agent with a lower fee but extra photo and styling charges can in practice cost more than one with a higher fee where everything is included.

The fee is rarely carved in stone. Many agents will negotiate, especially if the home is attractive and easy to sell, or if you already hold a good relationship with the agency from before. Asking costs nothing.

Even hiring an agent, you can do parts of the job yourself to press the price. Clean and clear before photography yourself instead of paying a stylist, gather your own renovation receipts in advance so the agent spends no time on it, and stay available and flexible with viewing times so the process runs faster. The less work the agent must put in, the easier negotiating the fee down usually is.

Whether you sell with an agent or privately, calculating the whole picture in advance pays, not just the fee. A cheap sale dragging out or ending in a hidden-defects dispute can cost more over time than a slightly pricier deal running smoothly from the start.

How SökHem cuts your total cost

On SökHem buyers register a buying brief with exactly what they seek: area, size and price. As a seller you can see which buyers already match your home, sometimes before you even decided how to sell or listed publicly.

A buyer already waiting for exactly what you sell often shortens the whole process: fewer viewings, faster close, less work to pay for, whether you finally go through an agent or sell the home privately.