What It Actually Costs to Sell a Home
And What You Walk Away With.

Real estate commission is negotiable, and always has been — there is no standard or legally set rate in Arizona or anywhere else. What changed with the 2024 National Association of Realtors settlement is how buyer-agent compensation is handled: offers of compensation are no longer published in the MLS, and buyers now sign written agreements with their own agents before touring homes.

Practically, that means the question "do I have to pay the buyer's agent?" now has a real answer rather than an assumed one, and it is worth its own conversation. Whatever you agree to, get the full structure in writing — the listing side, anything you offer the buyer side, when it is earned, and what happens if you cancel or decide not to sell.

Repairs, credits, and concessions are where most of the variance lives, and where preparation pays. After the inspection, a buyer will ask for something — the question is whether you are negotiating from a position of information or surprise. A pre-listing inspection on an older home frequently costs less than the credit you would otherwise concede.

Buyer closing-cost concessions and, at some price points, rate buydowns are also negotiable terms that trade against price. A higher sale price with a large concession can net you less than a lower price with none, which is exactly why the net sheet matters more than the headline.

Pre-listing costs — cleaning, landscaping, paint, staging, photography — are optional in theory and decisive in practice at the luxury tier. The discipline is spending where it returns: presentation and curb appeal reliably do, while full renovations on a property likely to be rebuilt reliably do not.

Then there is carrying cost. Every month on market is another month of mortgage interest, taxes, insurance, utilities, and HOA dues. This is the cost sellers most often ignore when they overprice, and it is the strongest financial argument for pricing correctly at launch rather than testing a number.