Last reviewed: September 2026.
Say you sell your old bike for 100 dollars. Before that money is really yours, you might pay a few dollars to clean it up, give a small cut to the friend who found the buyer, and fix a flat tire. You do not walk away with 100 dollars. You walk away with less.
Selling a house works the same way, and the costs are more specific than most sellers expect. If you’re thinking about selling a home in Bryan, Defiance, or anywhere else in Northwest Ohio, here’s where the money actually goes — with real numbers, not guesses.
The real estate commission — and what changed in 2024
Commission is usually still the biggest single cost when you sell a home. But the way it’s structured changed. Following a 2024 legal settlement, National Association of REALTORS® practice changes took effect on August 17, 2024: a seller’s agent can no longer publish buyer-agent compensation on the MLS, sellers are no longer automatically on the hook to pay the buyer’s agent, and buyers now sign a written agreement with their own agent up front, spelling out exactly how that agent gets paid (NAR — The Facts).
Practically, that means commission is a conversation you have directly with your agent, not a number pulled from a standard published rate. Ask for a clear, written number before you sign a listing agreement — and ask specifically whether you’ll be asked to offer any compensation to a buyer’s agent, since that’s now your choice rather than an automatic requirement.
Ohio’s real property conveyance fee
This is a real, specific cost most sellers don’t know about until closing. When a deed is recorded to transfer a home, Ohio charges a real property conveyance fee: a mandatory $1 per $1,000 of the sale price statewide, and counties are allowed to add a permissive fee of up to $3 more per $1,000 (Ohio Revised Code §319.54 and §322.02). Williams County charges the full combined rate — $4 per $1,000 of the purchase price — plus a separate $0.50-per-parcel transfer fee (Williams County, OH — Conveyance Standards).
On a $189,000 home — roughly Redfin’s recently reported median sale price for Bryan — that’s about $756 in conveyance fee alone. By custom in Ohio, the seller typically pays this at closing, though like commission, it’s a negotiable line in the purchase agreement.
Title fees and other closing costs
Beyond the conveyance fee, someone has to confirm the title is clean — that no one else can claim they own part of your home — and that costs money too, usually through a title insurance policy and related closing fees. Most sellers never see this work happen directly, but everyone pays for it, typically through the title company handling the closing.
Prorated property taxes — the part sellers forget
This is the cost most likely to catch a seller off guard. Ohio counties bill real estate taxes about a year in arrears: the tax bill issued this year actually covers last year’s taxes. Because of that built-in lag, when you sell, you owe taxes for the time you lived in the home during the current, unbilled period — even though the county hasn’t sent that bill yet.
To handle this, the title company runs a proration at closing: they take your most recent annual tax figure, calculate a daily rate, and multiply it by the number of days you owned the home during the current tax period. That amount comes out of your proceeds as a credit to the buyer, not as a separate bill you pay later. It’s a real, calculable cost — just one that’s easy to forget when you’re mentally spending your sale price.
Repairs the buyer asks for
After the home inspection, a buyer might ask you to fix a few things, or give them money instead of fixing it. You don’t have to say yes — repair requests are negotiable, not automatic. But it happens often enough on real inspections that it’s smart to leave a little room in your budget for it.
Where the money actually goes
| Cost | What it covers | Who typically pays |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | Your agent’s work and the buyer’s agent’s work | Negotiated directly with your agent — no longer a standard published rate as of the August 2024 NAR settlement changes |
| Conveyance fee | Recording the deed transfer with the county | Seller by custom, though negotiable — $4 per $1,000 of sale price in Williams County |
| Title insurance & closing fees | Confirming the title is clean and handling the closing | Split by local custom, confirmed by your title company |
| Prorated property taxes | Taxes accrued during your ownership but not yet billed (Ohio bills a year in arrears) | Comes out of seller proceeds as a credit to the buyer |
| Repairs or credits after inspection | Issues found during the buyer’s home inspection | Negotiable — you can decline, credit, or fix |
So what do you actually walk away with?
Every home, every commission agreement, and every county’s fees are a little different — which is exactly why a single flat “it costs X% to sell in Ohio” answer isn’t trustworthy. Try the seller net proceeds calculator to plug in your own price, payoff, and estimated costs and see a real ballpark. Curious what your home might actually be worth first? Start with the free home value estimate.
Conclusion
The number on the sign was never the number you keep — but now you know specifically why: a commission that’s negotiated directly rather than automatically split, a real conveyance fee set by state and county law, a property tax system that bills a year behind and settles the difference at closing, and whatever an inspection turns up. None of those costs are guesswork once you know where to look. Once you’ve run your own numbers, call Dave. He’ll look at your actual home and give you a straight answer, not a guess pulled from a website.
Call or text Dave Dempsey at 419-799-0291 to talk through what selling your specific home would actually look like.