“We pay all closing costs” is on every cash buyer’s website, including ours. It is true, but it is also vague enough to hide things, so here is exactly what closing costs exist when you sell a house in New York, who pays each one by law and by custom, and what a legitimate cash buyer actually covers. Bring this list to any offer you are comparing.
The costs that exist in every NY sale
New York State transfer tax. The state charges $2 for every $500 of the sale price, which works out to 0.4 percent. On a $500,000 sale that is $2,000. By law and custom this is the seller’s obligation, but in a cash sale the buyer can agree to absorb it, and we do. The official rules are on the New York State tax department site.
New York City transfer tax, if the property is in the five boroughs. The city adds 1 percent on sales up to $500,000 and 1.425 percent above that. Selling a house in Queens or Brooklyn means both the state and city taxes apply, which is why closing cost conversations in Queens start several thousand dollars higher than on Long Island.
Your attorney. New York closings use attorneys, and you should always have your own. Expect roughly $1,000 to $2,000 for a straightforward sale. This is the one cost we recommend you pay yourself even when a buyer offers to cover it, because your attorney should answer to you alone.
Recording fees and payoffs. County recording charges are a few hundred dollars. If you have a mortgage, the balance is paid from the sale proceeds at closing, along with any liens, unpaid taxes, or water bills. Those are not closing costs, they are debts the sale settles, but they come out of the same pot, so put them in your math.
What is NOT in a normal sale to us
No broker commission, because there is no broker. No seller concessions, because there is no financed buyer asking for them. No repair credits after an inspection, because we price the house as it stands the day we walk it. On a traditional listing those three lines typically total 8 to 10 percent of the sale price. Their absence is most of the reason a lower cash number can net you nearly the same as a higher listed number, math we walked through line by line in our cash buyer versus realtor breakdown.
The red flags
Watch for “processing fees,” “transaction fees,” or “administrative costs” deducted from your proceeds at closing. Legitimate cash buyers do not charge sellers fees, full stop. Watch also for an offer that quietly reassigns the transfer tax to you in the contract after the buyer promised to pay all costs. The fix for both is one sentence to your attorney: confirm the number I receive at closing is the number on the offer.
A worked example
Say we offer $450,000 for a house in Hempstead with a $150,000 mortgage remaining. State transfer tax of $1,800: we pay it. Recording charges: we pay them. Your attorney: about $1,500, you pay. Mortgage payoff: $150,000 from proceeds. You walk away with roughly $298,500, and the offer letter says so before you sign anything. That is the entire point: in a cash sale, the number you see should be the number you get, minus only your own attorney and your own debts.
Get a written offer with the math shown
Call (516) 964-7222 or use the form on this page. Every offer we make shows the closing cost allocation in writing, and our process is built so your attorney can verify every line. If you are comparing offers, we will happily be the second one you get.
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We buy across Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn, Westchester and New Jersey, so you can sell your house fast in Port Washington NY, sell a house fast in Bayside NY, or read about how we buy houses in Great Neck NY.