Flat-fee MLS in Pennsylvania

What you save, and what you take on

On a $450,000 sale in Pennsylvania, a 2.5% listing commission is $11,250. A flat-fee Multiple Listing Service (MLS) package typically runs a few hundred dollars. That difference, $10,800, is the entire financial case for selling this way.

In exchange you inherit the listing agent’s job. Pricing it right, getting decent photographs, writing the thing, answering the phone, standing in the kitchen every Saturday, and then negotiating a contract with someone who may do this for a living.

Whether that is a good trade depends on what your time is worth and whether haggling over a six-figure number sounds tolerable or awful. Both answers are legitimate.

What Pennsylvania charges no matter who sells the house

Pennsylvania charges 1% at the state level, and most municipalities and school districts add 0.5% each, for 2% total. Buyer and seller customarily split it, so the seller's share is about 1%. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are much higher.

The buyer customarily pays for title insurance in Pennsylvania. Rates are regulated statewide.

Pennsylvania closings customarily involve an attorney. Budget around $1,000 for a residential closing. This is not a cost you avoid by skipping the agent, and it is money well spent when you are handling the contract yourself.

Where in Pennsylvania matters

Local transfer taxes can dwarf the state rate. These are the ones worth knowing about before you price the house:

• Philadelphia: about 2.09% for the seller. Philadelphia charges 3.278% on top of the state's 1%, for 4.278% total. Split evenly, the seller's share is roughly 2.14%.