The Home Seller's
Reality Check
Use this before you hire an agent. No spin. No agenda. Real data for the biggest financial decision of your life.
- Every route ranked by what you actually pocket, not what earns the highest commission
- Every hidden cost, every platform fee, every party taking a cut, before you sign anything
- Always free. No brokerage funded this.
Methodology — how every number is calculated
+Two waits: finding a buyer (DOM) then closing (~40 more days). You pay mortgage interest, taxes, and insurance the whole time — roughly $70–120/day. DOM sourced from Redfin city and state pages, Feb 2026.
DOM: elapsed time from MLS listing activation to executed purchase contract (Redfin metric definition). Total time until you close = DOM + 40 days (ICE Mortgage Technology: 41-day avg conventional closing, Oct 2025). Tier 1: Live ZIP via ZipMarketData/RapidAPI (Redfin MLS, daily, 28K+ ZIPs). Tier 2: City estimates, confirmed: Seattle 21d, LA 80d, San Antonio 109d (+28d YoY), Las Vegas 87d (+21d), Charlotte 85d (+19d) (Redfin city pages + Feb 2026 metro report, Mar 19 2026). Austin ~93d, Miami ~84d estimated from stale-listing share data. Tier 3: CA 50d/$818,600; FL 75d; TX 58d (Redfin state pages, Feb 2026). Tier 4: 49d/$396,173 (Redfin national, April 2026).
In hot markets, buyers compete and prices get bid up automatically — agent negotiation skill matters less. In slow buyer's markets, buyers have leverage and push hard on price and terms. Professional representation adds more value. We adjust the flat-fee and FSBO — No MLS, You Do It All price penalties automatically based on your local DOM.
Market adjustment applied to flat-fee and FSBO — No MLS, You Do It All only, for first-sale and sold-before experience levels: Very Hot (≤30d): +1% to penalty (reduces it); Active (31–55d): no change; Balanced (56–90d): −0.5%; Slow (91–120d): −1.0%; Buyer’s Market (120d+): −1.5%. No adjustment for “have a buyer” experience level. Penalty capped at 0% (cannot produce positive price impact from self-management).
Full MLS exposure means market price. Self-managed routes carry a penalty that depends on your experience and local market. Off-MLS sales restrict the buyer pool regardless of experience. iBuyer / Instant Cash Offers pay below market by design.
Base penalty matrix [first sale, sold before, have buyer]: Traditional/Pre-market/Discount: [0%, 0%, 0%]. Off-MLS private: [−1.5%, −1.5%, −1.5%] (Zillow Research Feb 2025, 2.72M transactions). Flat-fee: [−2%, −0.5%, 0%]. FSBO — No MLS, You Do It All: [−4%, −2%, 0%] (NAR 2025 + Levitt & Dubner 2005). iBuyer / Instant Cash Offer: [−5.5%, −5.5%, −5.5%] (Opendoor 5% fee + 3–8% below-market range).
Some brokerages show your home privately to their agent network for 2–6 weeks before the full MLS. You pay full commission. The pre-MLS phases add carrying costs with no fee discount. No independent study has found a price advantage.
Pre-MLS period: 28 days modeled (range 14–42d; HousingWire Mar 2025). No published average from any brokerage. MLS DOM ×0.87 applied (8-day improvement per brokerage’s own earnings disclosure, Q4 2024). Price premium not modeled: brokerage’s own client disclosure states approach “may limit buyers, reduce offers, and could impact the final sale price.” BrightMLS/Drexel University 2024 (840K+ transactions): no price advantage for office exclusives.
Mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, and (if vacant) utilities. Added up and divided by 30 for a daily rate.
C = I + T + S + U + H. I = balance × (rate/12). T = price × 1.05% ÷ 12 (ATTOM/NAR 2025 national avg). S = $2,003/12 = $167/mo (NerdWallet/Insurance Information Institute 2025). U = $175/mo vacant. H = user HOA. Daily = C/30.
Commissions are national averages and negotiable. The tool uses medians — your actual outcome depends on your home, market, agent, and skills. Not financial or legal advice.
Benchmarks (Bankrate/Clever, Feb 2026): 5.70% national avg: 2.88% listing + 2.82% buyer. Discount full-service: 1.5% (published pricing). Flat-fee: $1,250 + 2.5% buyer. FSBO — No MLS, You Do It All: $500 + 2%. iBuyer / Instant Cash Offer: 5.0% (Opendoor). Other closing: 1.81% (CoreLogic ClosingCorp 2025). Limitations: Property tax 1.05% is national avg (actual 0.3%–2.5%+). Insurance $2,003/yr is median. Pre-market pre-MLS period estimated. Not financial or real estate advice. Data vintage: Redfin national April 2026, city/state Feb 2026; Bankrate/Clever Feb 2026; NerdWallet/ICE/ATTOM 2025.