What it costs to sell a house in Iowa.

Sellers usually know about commission and nothing else. Then the closing statement arrives with a transfer tax, an abstract bill, and a property tax credit that nobody warned them about. Here's the whole list, before you're sitting at the table.

Iowa does a few things differently from most states, and two of them cost real money. This is written for houses in Johnson and Linn counties, so Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, Tiffin, Solon and Cedar Rapids. Numbers are typical ranges, not quotes. Your closing statement will have its own.

The Iowa transfer tax.

Iowa charges a real estate transfer tax of $0.80 per $500 of the sale price, with the first $500 exempt. That's about 0.16%, and by custom in Iowa the seller pays it. The county recorder collects it at closing.

On a $300,000 sale that's roughly $479. On a $450,000 sale, about $719. It's one of the smaller lines on the statement, and it's one of the few that's completely predictable.

The abstract of title.

This is the Iowa one that catches people. Most states run on title insurance. Iowa runs on an abstract of title, a bound, continuing history of everything that has ever happened to the property: every deed, mortgage, lien, easement, judgment and release. When you sell, the abstract has to be brought current, and the seller customarily pays for that update. The buyer's attorney then reads it and issues a title opinion.

Budget $200 to $500 for a routine update on a house that's changed hands recently. Older properties, acreages, anything that's been split or re-platted, or an abstract that's been sitting in a drawer since the 1970s can run well past that, because the abstracter is picking up decades of activity rather than a few years.

Attorney fees and deed preparation.

Iowa closings involve attorneys. Sellers generally pay for deed preparation and their share of the closing work, commonly $300 to $800 on a straightforward residential sale, though some attorneys quote a flat fee for the whole closing in the $750 to $1,250 range depending on how the sides split it.

Property tax proration, the one people don't budget for.

Iowa property taxes are billed in arrears, on a fiscal year that doesn't line up with the calendar. So at closing you're settling up for time you already lived there but haven't been billed for yet. The seller credits the buyer for taxes that accrued during their ownership and haven't come due.

Depending on your tax bill and where your closing date falls in the cycle, this can be a few hundred dollars or several thousand. It is not a fee, and nobody is charging you anything. It's money you genuinely owe. But it comes straight out of your proceeds, and if you've mentally spent your equity already, it stings.

This is worth modeling before you list, especially if you're rolling proceeds into a down payment on the next house. It's the single most common reason a seller's actual net comes in under what they expected.

Commission, and how it's actually set.

Commission is not set by law. It's not set by any board, association or MLS, there is no standard or customary rate, and any agent who tells you otherwise is wrong. It's negotiated between you and the brokerage you hire, and it's written into the listing agreement before your house goes on the market.

What changed recently is how buyer agent compensation works. Offers of compensation to a buyer's agent are no longer published on the MLS, and buyers now sign their own written agreements with their agents. In practice a seller can still offer to contribute toward the buyer's agent, or not, and that's now a negotiated term of the deal rather than something baked into the listing. Ask any agent you interview to walk you through exactly what they charge, what it covers, and what happens to buyer-side compensation in your specific situation.

The smaller lines.

• Mortgage payoff and release recording. Your lender's payoff, plus a small recording fee to clear the lien.
• Home warranty, if you offer one. Usually $500 to $800, and optional.
• Repairs or credits negotiated after inspection. Unpredictable by nature, and the number most within your control if the house is prepared before it lists.
• Well and septic. On acreages and rural Johnson County properties, testing and any required work typically fall to the seller. Budget for it early if you're outside city services.
• Staging, photography, cleaning and pre-list repairs. Paid up front rather than at closing, which is why they're easy to forget when you're calculating net.

The seller disclosure you're required to give.

Iowa Code chapter 558A requires the seller of a residential property with one to four dwelling units to deliver a written Residential Property Seller Disclosure Statement to the buyer before an offer is accepted. It covers the foundation, roof, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, pest damage, lead-based paint, radon, flood plain status and more.

A handful of transfers are exempt, including court-ordered transfers, transfers between co-owners, transfers to family in the direct line of descent, transfers between spouses in a divorce, and quitclaim transfers.

Two things worth knowing. If the disclosure isn't delivered on time, the buyer can withdraw their offer without penalty within three days of personal delivery or five days of mailed delivery. And the standard for filling it out is honesty about what you actually know. Sellers get into trouble by guessing, minimizing, or leaving a known problem blank, not by disclosing too much. Disclosing a repaired issue almost never costs you a sale. Concealing one can cost you long after closing.

So what's the real number?

Outside of commission, most Iowa sellers land somewhere around 1% to 2% of the sale price in closing costs, with the property tax proration being the swing factor that decides where in that range you fall. Add whatever commission you negotiate, plus anything you spend preparing the house, and that's your gap between sale price and what actually hits your account.

The point of knowing this before you list isn't to be depressed about it. It's that almost every line above is either predictable or negotiable, and the two biggest ones, your price and what you concede after inspection, are decided by how well the house was priced and prepared in the first place.

Next: how the listing process works, what happens if you sell without a realtor in Iowa, and the questions sellers ask most.