Figure five and a half to six and a half percent of the sale price, all in. On a $900,000 house in Orange County that's somewhere between $50,000 and $58,000 out of your proceeds. Commission is most of it. The rest is escrow, title, the county transfer tax, and whatever the house needs before it goes on the market.
Here's where every dollar of it goes, line by line, and what happens to the total when the listing fee is a published number.
Commission is the biggest line by far
A 5% total commission is still what most Orange County listings get built around. Nobody sets that figure. It's a default, and defaults are sticky.
That 5% splits in half. One half to the agent who lists the house, one half to the agent who brings the buyer. When the NAR settlement rules took effect in August 2024, the buyer-side half moved out of the MLS and into the purchase contract, where it gets negotiated in writing. What didn't change is that on most Orange County sales the seller still ends up covering it. Different paperwork, same money.
So on a $900,000 house: $45,000. That's the single largest line item in the entire transaction, and it's the one sellers spend the least time on. People will drive across town to save $400 on a termite report and sign a 5% listing agreement in ninety seconds.
The lines that don't come up at the listing appointment
These get lumped together as closing costs. They're smaller than the commission and they're still real money. Typical South Orange County ranges for 2026, not quotes:
- Escrow fee. Roughly $2,000 to $2,800 on a $900,000 sale. Commonly split with the buyer, and the split is negotiable.
- Owner's title policy. Around $1,500 to $3,000 in this price band. In Southern California the seller customarily pays for it.
- County documentary transfer tax. $1.10 per $1,000 of sale price — $990 on a $900,000 house. A few California cities add a transfer tax of their own on top. Most Orange County cities don't, but check yours.
- Natural hazard disclosure report. About $100 to $150.
- HOA document package. $200 to $500 where there's an association, and in South County there usually is.
- Repairs, termite work, retrofit. Anywhere from nothing to five figures. This is the line that surprises people, every time.
Call it $4,000 to $7,000 before any repair credits. Then there's getting the house ready: paint, a deep clean, carpet, a landscaper for a day, hauling away the stuff in the garage. Partial staging on a South County house runs $2,000 to $6,000 for a two-month term. A vacant house costs more to stage than a lived-in one.
Photography, floor plans, the sign, the lockbox, the MLS entry, the open houses. That's the listing side, and it should already be inside what you're paying your agent. Ask. Some brokerages bill it separately.
One thing to ask for before you list anything: a seller's net sheet. Any escrow officer will run one, most agents will hand you one without being asked, and it collapses this entire page into a single figure. What actually lands in your account on closing day, after the loan payoff, the commission, the fees, and the credits you end up giving in the repair negotiation. Ask for it before you sign. Any agent should hand you one.
Our listing fee, on paper
Our listing fee is $12,500 under a million dollars and $19,500 for every whole million from there, and it's the same figure whether the house sells in six days or sixty.
Below is the same three sales run both ways. The Wise Choices column is the flat fee plus a 2% co-op to the buyer's agent. That's what most of our sellers choose to offer.
| Sale price | Traditional at 5% | Wise Choices | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| $700,000 | $35,000 | $26,500 $12,500 fee + 2% | $8,500 |
| $900,000 | $45,000 | $30,500 $12,500 fee + 2% | $14,500 |
| $1,300,000 | $65,000 | $45,500 $19,500 fee + 2% | $19,500 |
Based on a total commission model of 5%. Savings vary by property and price. Commissions are always negotiable and are not set by law.
The fee doesn't track the price. That's the entire mechanism. A percentage gets larger every time your house is worth more, while the work between a $700,000 sale and a $900,000 one stays where it was. The photographer, the MLS entry, the disclosures and the nine o'clock phone call from the other side's agent don't change with the price.
What's inside the fee: the pricing work before it goes live, professional photography, the MLS entry and everything that syndicates off it, the sign, the lockbox, open houses, every showing, the negotiation when offers land, inspection and repair-request wrangling, and the escrow follow-up that eats most of the last three weeks. It comes out of escrow at closing, the same way a commission would. Nothing up front.
When a flat fee isn't the right fit
Three cases where we'd tell you to do something else.
Down at the bottom of the market. A flat fee is a much bigger share of a small sale, and our buyer rebate math runs out entirely around $500,000. Below that band a percentage agent may genuinely cost you less. There aren't many Orange County houses down there anymore, but there are condos.
You already have an agent you trust. If someone sold your last house and did right by you, a few thousand dollars is not worth burning that. Call them.
You want a particular brand on the sign. Some sellers do, and their reasons are their own. We're a small brokerage in Aliso Viejo and the sign is going to say Wise Choices Realty.
For everyone else it comes down to what's left at the end. Get the full cost sheet from whoever you hire, in writing, before you sign a listing agreement. If ours doesn't come out ahead on your house, we'll tell you.