Don’t Forget the Excise Tax When Selling Your House!

By in Sellers with 0 Comments

A really nice couple I know are going to try to sell their house for-sale-by-owner.  They asked me for an approximation of title and escrow fees, so I gave them an estimate. Then I reminded them that as sellers in the state of Washington, they’d need to pay excise tax on the sale of their house.  They had moved from Oregon and were dumbfounded.  “How much?” they asked me.

Where they live, in Richland, like in most areas of Benton County (except in some of the outlying areas like Finley and Benton City, where it’s less), they’ll pay 1.78% of the selling price in excise tax.  Franklin County is also 1.78%, but in the city of Pasco, it’s 1.53%.

The couple is thinking of selling their house for $250,000, so that $4,450 is a pretty significant chunk out of what they thought they’d walk away with.

So, when selling your house here, don’t forget to figure in the excise tax figure, because it can be a doozy, especially if it’s unexpected.

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About The Author
Cari McGee

My husband and I came to the Tri-Cities in 1994, and we thought it would be a temporary stop on our way to larger cities. He was a television sports anchor at the time, and we planned to go wherever the "next step up" took us. Twenty-plus years later, we're still here and we've loved every minute of it! We have two children now, and we've found the Tri-Cities area is a wonderful place to raise a family. It's a great place to do outdoorsy things -- I like to hike Badger Mountain or run along the river path. I also love reading ... by a cozy fire in the winter or a beautiful picture window in the summer (with the A/C on!). I've been a licensed Realtor since 2004. I earned my managing broker's license in 2016, which means I can run my own brokerage, or create a team of real estate agents and supervise them, which is exactly what I did when I formed the Cari McGee Real Estate Team in 2018! We have administrative and marketing personnel, as well as additional agents to serve you. I became a director of the Tri-Cities Association of Realtors Board of Directors in 2016, became Secretary/Treasurer of the organization, and was elected to Vice President in 2019. Want to talk about real estate? Click here to schedule a meeting with me!

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