The full cost of selling a house in Redmond is larger than the commission figure most sellers carry in their heads. The research ledger for this submarket works the example on a 900,000 dollar older home sale in ZIP code 98052, and the lines stack up quickly. Commission in the Seattle and Eastside market typically runs 5 to 6 percent, which is 45,000 to 54,000 dollars on that price (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Seller closing costs, covering title, transfer and excise taxes, and prorations, commonly add another 1 to 2 percent. Commissions plus closing costs together commonly take 6 to 8 percent of the price, typically 54,000 to 72,000 dollars on a 900,000 dollar sale, and that is before concessions, carrying costs, and the price reductions a long listing can force (Frontier Capitals, 2026).

The endpoint of the full ledger is sobering. After a normal market cycle, the research puts the net on a 900,000 dollar list price in the high 700,000s to low 800,000s, before any price reduction, on a home the seller may have believed would net close to its price (Frontier Capitals, 2026). None of the individual lines is hidden or unusual. Each one is documented, ordinary, and quoted in the sources sellers themselves rely on. The surprise is only in the sum, which is why this report walks the whole ledger line by line.

Street level view of homes for sale in Redmond 98052, introducing the full ledger of what it costs to sell a house in this market
Redmond homes in 98052 at the point of sale, where commission, closing costs, concessions, and carrying costs combine into the true price of selling.

Key Findings

  • Commission on a listed Redmond sale typically runs 5 to 6 percent, equal to 45,000 to 54,000 dollars on a 900,000 dollar price (National Association of Realtors, 2025).
  • Seller closing costs commonly add 1 to 2 percent, and commissions plus closing costs together commonly consume 54,000 to 72,000 dollars on a 900,000 dollar sale (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
  • Washington charges the seller a real estate excise tax on the transfer, graduated from 1.1 percent on residential sales, and it sits inside the closing cost block (Washington Department of Revenue, 2025).
  • Concessions on 50 year old homes, meaning repair credits and post inspection price reductions, routinely run 10,000 to 25,000 dollars in the listing ledger (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
  • Carrying the home across three to six months of market time costs 18,000 to 36,000 dollars in hold expense at typical Eastside levels (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
  • The documented result is a net in the high 700,000s to low 800,000s on a 900,000 dollar list price after a normal cycle, before any price reduction (Frontier Capitals, 2026).

What are the big fixed lines in the Redmond selling ledger?

Commission is the largest single line, and it has proven sticky. Research on agent commissions under the newer industry rules found that commission levels had not changed much in practice (Redfin, 2025), and the profile data for this market continues to document the 5 to 6 percent total range (National Association of Realtors, 2025). On a Redmond priced property the dollars are substantial at any point in the range: at 900,000 dollars the seller pays 45,000 to 54,000 dollars, and the line scales directly with price, so a 1,200,000 dollar sale carries 60,000 to 72,000 dollars of commission by the same arithmetic. Sellers sometimes negotiate one side of the commission, but the documented market range is the honest planning figure.

Closing costs form the second fixed block. National closing cost research for sellers itemizes the same categories the Redmond ledger uses (Freddie Mac via Bankrate, 2026), and state level averages confirm that seller costs vary by jurisdiction because transfer and excise taxes differ (Bankrate, 2025). Washington places its real estate excise tax on the seller, graduated from 1.1 percent at the lower tiers of a residential sale (Washington Department of Revenue, 2025). Title charges, escrow fees, recording, and prorations for taxes and utilities fill out the rest of the 1 to 2 percent block. These lines are not negotiable in the way commission sometimes is; they are the toll the transaction itself charges.

Recording and transfer mechanics close the loop. Every completed sale ends as a recorded transfer in the county files (King County Recorder, 2026), and the fees and taxes attached to that recording are part of the closing block rather than an afterthought. Sellers who want the closing cost block unpacked item by item can continue to what closing costs Redmond home sellers typically pay, which stays inside that single block for its whole length.

Which costs only appear once the listing is underway?

The concession line is the one sellers underestimate most. On a 50 year old home, buyers ask for repair credits and negotiate price reductions after inspection, and the research ledger puts those concessions routinely at 10,000 to 25,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The inspection itself is a regulated step in Washington, performed under state licensing standards for home inspectors (Washington State Department of Licensing, 2026), and its findings become the buyer list of demands. A seller can refuse, but refusal risks the contract, and a failed contract restarts the marketing clock with the home now carrying a history.

Carrying costs run quietly underneath. Three to six months of market time at typical Eastside levels costs 18,000 to 36,000 dollars in hold expense: mortgage interest where a loan exists, taxes, insurance, utilities, and maintenance on a home the seller is trying to leave (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Federal survey reporting on the rising cost of homeownership underlines why the monthly carry on an Eastside property is heavy (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025). Every month a listing lingers, the carry accrues, and it accrues whether or not the eventual buyer ever learns it happened.

Price reductions are the third contingent cost, and the largest when they occur. The research ledger states its net range before any price reduction, which means a seller who lists optimistically and cuts once has already fallen below the documented high 700,000s to low 800,000s outcome on a 900,000 dollar start. Seller behavior research shows how common the pattern is across the market (Zillow, 2024): pricing for the market that exists, rather than the market the seller hopes for, is the cheapest decision in the entire process. The companion inventory of these quieter deductions appears in what hidden expenses can reduce profits when selling a Redmond home.

Kitchen of an older Redmond home in 98052 prepared for listing, representing the preparation and carrying costs a listed sale accumulates
An older Redmond home readied for market, a reminder that preparation, months of carrying cost, and concessions all ride on top of commission.

How does the total change with the route the seller chooses?

Route changes which lines apply. A listed sale to a household buyer carries every line in the ledger: commission, closing costs, concessions after inspection, months of carrying cost, and reduction risk. A direct off market sale strips several lines out. A direct cash sale in this market typically closes in 7 to 21 days, which compresses the carrying cost to a few weeks, removes the showing and inspection cycle that produces concessions, and, where no listing agent is involved, removes the commission line entirely (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The seller still pays the excise tax and ordinary closing charges, because those attach to the transfer itself (Washington Department of Revenue, 2025).

The arithmetic of route choice is easiest to see in the documented example. The listed path on 900,000 dollars gives up 54,000 to 72,000 dollars in commission and closing costs, then risks 10,000 to 25,000 dollars of concessions and 18,000 to 36,000 dollars of carry, landing in the high 700,000s to low 800,000s (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The direct path keeps the price whole except for the reduced closing block and the short carry. A direct offer can therefore be lower than a list price and still net the seller more, which is the single most misunderstood point in Redmond selling math. Sellers can model their own outcome using how Redmond homeowners can calculate their net proceeds from a sale, or start a direct conversation through the contact page.

Preparation spending deserves its own honest paragraph, because it sits in a gray zone of the ledger. Cleaning, minor repairs, landscaping, and presentation work before a listing are real outlays, and sellers of older Redmond homes routinely spend them without ever seeing them itemized as selling costs. The research ledger concentrates on the documented transaction lines rather than on preparation, but a seller building a personal budget should add a preparation allowance and then judge it against the renovation evidence in this same body of research: money spent making a home appealing to household buyers is a different investment from money spent on the transaction itself, and the two should never be merged into one vague figure. Preparation only pays when the buyer pool rewards it, which is a condition the seller can test by asking which pool, household or builder, is more likely to write the winning offer on that particular street.

There is also a cost category that never appears in dollars at all: failed time. A contract that collapses in week six returns the home to market with a history, and the second marketing period rarely performs like the first. The ledger cannot price that risk precisely, which is why it is stated as a limitation rather than a line, but experienced sellers treat the probability of a fall through as part of the listed route cost, especially where the buyer needs financing at the rates documented in the mortgage survey sources used elsewhere in this series. Certainty, in other words, has a shadow price, and it belongs in the seller head even when it cannot belong in the spreadsheet.

Established Redmond street in 98052 in late afternoon light, the neighborhood setting where sellers weigh the ledger of a listed sale against a direct one
A settled street in Redmond, where each home eventually faces the same ledger of selling costs whatever route its owner chooses.

What do sellers keep when a Redmond sale stays off market?

Start with privacy. An off market sale has zero showings and zero open houses, so the seller never stages the home for strangers or explains the move to the street before it happens. In Redmond neighborhoods like Education Hill, where the same families have lived side by side for years, that discretion is a genuine part of the value of the route.

Next comes the calendar. A direct sale closes in 7 to 21 days when the seller wants it done, or it can be scheduled months ahead with a leaseback when the seller wants time. The listed alternative spends 60 to 120 plus days from list to close in a normal cycle, and every one of those days carries cost, uncertainty, and the possibility of a contract falling through at the end of them.

Then there is the commission itself. Keeping the 5 to 6 percent that a listed sale pays out means keeping 45,000 to 54,000 dollars on a 900,000 dollar sale. For many Redmond sellers that single kept line exceeds every other saving in this section combined, and it is the main reason the direct route nets competitively even at a modestly lower price.

The closing cost block is the fourth saving. Seller side closing costs of 1 to 2 percent largely shrink in a direct structure, and since commissions plus closing costs together commonly reach 54,000 to 72,000 dollars on a 900,000 dollar sale, keeping most of that combined block transforms the final settlement figure the seller actually wires out with.

Fifth, the repair cycle disappears. There are no 10,000 to 30,000 dollar repair credits and no post inspection price reductions in an as is direct sale, and no concession negotiation in which a buyer inspector list becomes a second price cut. The agreed price is the closing price, which on a 50 year old Redmond home is a meaningful form of certainty.

The disclosure that accompanies this accounting: Frontier Capitals sources off-market deals to builders and is a wholesaler in the technical sense, not the builder, and it does not claim to buy with its own construction operation. Verification of any direct buyer should include proof of funds dated within 30 days, recorded deeds in the buyer entity name, earnest money of typically 1 percent or more, and a contract with no assignment clause.

Methodology and limitations

The ledger in this report is the documented one from the research for this submarket, worked on a 900,000 dollar example, and its percentages and ranges are the planning figures a seller should test against quotes for a specific transaction. Individual sales vary: commission is negotiable at the margins, closing items differ by property, and carrying cost depends on the seller loan and the actual days on market. The sample behind the builder side of this research covers 36 older homes in 98052, 13 of them builder acquisitions, and no inspection or title search was performed for this report (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Figures are stated as documented ranges rather than guarantees.

Conclusion

Selling a house in Redmond costs 6 to 8 percent of the price in commission and closing costs alone on the documented ledger, and concessions, carrying costs, and reduction risk push the true total well beyond that before the seller sees a net. On a 900,000 dollar example the documented net lands in the high 700,000s to low 800,000s after a normal listed cycle, which is why route choice matters as much as price. For a net estimate on a specific 98052 home, call 401-219-4207 or email [email protected]. Before you choose a list price, have you added up everything that will be subtracted from it?

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the commission really the biggest cost of selling?

Usually, yes. At the documented 5 to 6 percent for this market, commission on a 900,000 dollar sale is 45,000 to 54,000 dollars, larger than the whole closing cost block of 1 to 2 percent (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Commission levels have also proven durable under the newer rules, with industry reporting finding little practical change (Redfin, 2025). A seller who can transact without a listing commission removes the largest single deduction in the ledger.

What does the Washington excise tax add to my costs?

The state real estate excise tax is paid by the seller and graduated, beginning at 1.1 percent on residential sales and rising through tiers as price increases (Washington Department of Revenue, 2025). It sits inside the seller closing cost block alongside title, escrow, and prorations. State by state closing cost comparisons show how much these jurisdiction specific charges move the total from one state to another (Bankrate, 2025).

How much do sellers lose to concessions and inspection demands?

The Redmond research ledger puts concessions on 50 year old homes routinely at 10,000 to 25,000 dollars, covering repair credits and price reductions negotiated after inspection (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Washington home inspections run under state licensing standards, and the inspector report is the document those negotiations start from (Washington State Department of Licensing, 2026). Sellers of older homes should budget the concession line in advance rather than treating it as bad luck.

Are carrying costs really part of the cost of selling?

Yes, because they are spent only because the sale has not closed. The documented figure for three to six months of market time at typical Eastside levels is 18,000 to 36,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Taxes, insurance, utilities, interest, and upkeep continue at the level federal data describes as the rising cost of homeownership (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025). A route that closes in weeks instead of months removes most of this line.

Can selling directly actually cost less than listing?

On the documented ledger, it can. A direct sale that removes commission, shrinks closing costs, avoids concessions, and closes in 7 to 21 days keeps lines that total well over 72,000 dollars on the 900,000 dollar example from ever leaving the seller side (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The trade off is price discovery: a listing tests the whole household market, while a direct sale tests the builder and cash pool. Sellers should compare nets, not gross prices, when judging the two.

Sources