The Real Estate Scam
2022-07-23 09:59 - General
On Thursday I closed the sale of my Manhattan Co-Op apartment. Going in, I had been estimating losing ten percent to all the fees and taxes. I thought that was a high estimate, but I set that expectation to keep myself comfortable. What actually ended up happening?
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Seller's agent fee | 3% |
| Buyer's agent fee | 3% |
| Co-Op "flip tax" | 2% |
| State and city real estate taxes | 1.8% |
| Attorney's fees | 0.5% |
| (Building's) Managing agent fee | 0.1% |
| Total | 10.5% |
Ouch. I'm especially upset by the huge broker/agent fees. It's a total racket. There are "one percent" seller agents, which with hindsight I wish I had selected. I only made 37.5% over twelve years on the "investment" (but your home is not an investment!). Losing over 10% of the higher number (14.4% of the lower) stinks.
Yes, there's an extra 0.1% that rounded down out of the line items, the total was calculated independently.
