The honest answer to how much do realtors charge to sell a home is that the question changed in 2024, and a lot of what is still written about it is out of date.
Commission is only one line on the list anyway. Here is every cost a Massachusetts seller actually carries, what a cash sale removes, and, importantly, what it does not.
How much do realtors charge to sell a home after the 2024 settlement
The National Association of Realtors settlement took effect on 17 August 2024, and it changed the structure rather than the rate.
Before it, a listing agreement typically included an offer of compensation to the buyer’s agent, published through the MLS. That automatic offer of buyer agent compensation through the MLS was eliminated. Compensation is now negotiated separately and explicitly.
Two consequences for a seller.
Commissions are negotiable and are not set by law, which was always technically true and is now unavoidable in practice. If you are quoted a rate as though it were standard, treat that as an opening position.
And you are no longer automatically offering the buyer’s side anything. You may still choose to, and in the Boston area buyer agent compensation has commonly been running around two to two and a half percent in 2026, but it is a decision rather than a default.
Total commission historically ran around five percent. Post-settlement it is genuinely a negotiation, and the seller who does not negotiate is the one paying the old number.
The costs nobody quotes you
Commission gets discussed. These generally do not, and together they are substantial.
Deeds excise. Massachusetts levies a transfer tax under Chapter 64D, running around $4.56 per $1,000 of the sale price and customarily paid by the seller. On a $600,000 sale that is roughly $2,700. On a $900,000 sale, about $4,100.
Attorney fees. Massachusetts requires an attorney to conduct the closing, so this is not optional.
The smoke and carbon monoxide certificate, required under Chapter 148, Section 26F. Small in itself, and yours to arrange.
Title 5 inspection, if the property is on septic. Not small, and a failed inspection turns into a much larger number.
Repairs the buyer’s lender requires. This is the line that varies most and it is invisible until it arrives. A lender will not finance structural or safety defects, so the work becomes a condition of the sale completing rather than a choice.
Carrying costs. Property tax, insurance, heating and upkeep for every month the property is on the market and under agreement. On a sale that takes four months, this is a real number, and it doubles in awkwardness if you have already moved.
The cost of a failed deal. Not a line item, but real. A financed buyer withdrawing in week six puts the property back on the market carrying days on market, which itself costs price.
What a cash sale actually removes
Precisely four things, and it is worth being exact rather than expansive.
No commission. No lender-required repairs, because there is no lender. Fewer carrying months, because the closing is one to three weeks rather than two to four months. And the risk of a financed collapse, which is removed rather than reduced.
What a cash sale does not remove
This is the part most articles on this subject leave out.
You still pay the deeds excise. You still need an attorney. You still need the smoke certificate, and a Title 5 inspection if you are on septic. The lead paint Property Transfer Notification under Chapter 111, Section 197A still applies to a pre-1978 home.
And you accept a lower gross price, which is much larger than everything above combined. Any article presenting a cash sale as pure saving is not counting the biggest number on the page.
So which actually nets more
| Cash sale | Open market | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross price | Below market | Market, if it appraises |
| Commission | None | Negotiable, historically around 5 percent total |
| Lender-required repairs | None | Whatever the lender demands |
| Deeds excise | Yes | Yes |
| Attorney, smoke certificate, Title 5 | Yes | Yes |
| Carrying months | 1 to 3 weeks | Commonly 2 to 4 months |
| Risk of collapse | Low | Real |
Run it with your own numbers rather than in the abstract.
Where the property is sound and would pass an appraisal, the open market usually nets more even after every cost above. The commission and the excise do not outweigh a materially higher gross price.
Where the property needs work a lender will demand, the arithmetic can invert, because the repair line and the carrying months grow while the gross price advantage shrinks. Our guide to how cash buyers calculate an offer shows how the number is built so you can test it.
Two things from our own transactions. The biggest shock at closing is structural rather than any single line item: sellers expect the offer price to arrive as a check, then discover what has to be cleared from the proceeds first, usually prorated property taxes and municipal charges, then attorney and title costs, then outstanding water and sewer balances. And the comparison genuinely can go against us. We once offered $285,000 on a house we valued at around $440,000 renovated; the seller listed it and closed at about $315,000. They did better on the open market, and they were right to go there.
Before you accept any number
Ask your agent to quote commission as a negotiable figure and to set out the buyer-side compensation decision separately, because since August 2024 those are two conversations rather than one.
Then build the full list for your property: excise, attorney, smoke certificate, Title 5 if relevant, a contractor’s view of what a lender would require, and carrying costs for a realistic number of months.
Only then compare it against a cash offer. You can request one to establish the floor. Sometimes the listing wins comfortably. Sometimes the gap is much narrower than the two headline prices suggest, and that is the only comparison that tells you which.
Homeowners We’ve Helped
Boston Investors
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After 94 days on the market, two buyers backed out over the roof and septic. We were tired of dealing with it. The cash offer came without asking us to make the repairs, and we closed in 21 days. Once we looked at the actual numbers, it made much more sense than continuing to list. The whole process was simple and we’re very happy with how it worked out.
