Minimum Closing Costs for $3000 Lot of Land?

[Peyton Zachrich]

In a recent acquisition of a portfolio of houses, I got a 0.2 acre lot of land in Cincinnati (Westwood neighborhood). I'm trying to sell it to one of the neighbors, not to build just to expand their yard, for its appraisal value ($3000), but I know nothing about the closing costs and fees involved in this. 

If I'm paying the first 6% for commission, will I walk away with most of what remains? or will closing costs including transfer and title fees, etc eat up a lot of it?

[Andrew S.]

This will depend a lot on where the property is located.  I just sold a piece of land for 10K in Wilkes County, NC and the closing costs ended up at around $750.  Most of that goes to the closing attorney (if you are in an “attorney” state) - about $500 flat fee (included title search) in my case.  Title insurance, various recording and delivery fees, etc. make up for the rest.

By 6%, you are referring to agent commission?  You would not want/need to use an agent in your case.  If you do, then they will likely charge a lot more than 6%.  For lower priced land sales, agents typically charge flat fees, or commissions in the 10-25% range.  I helped my mother in law sell a piece of land in Texas not too long ago where we did not know the market at all and the property was 100 miles away, so we decided to use a local agent.  In that case, the agent took 20% - very reasonable IMHO, as she had to do a lot of the legwork (including finding a buyer and showing the property a couple of times), and for that, she ended up with just a couple of thousand bucks.  Not a huge hourly wage, I’m sure.