Cost of Selling a Home in Seattle at $500K, $1M, and $2M

Three illustrative Seattle-area sales, three very different cost pictures:

Sale price	Illustrative total selling cost	As % of price
$500,000	~$26,550	~5.3%
$1,000,000	~$52,955	~5.3%
$2,000,000	~$111,938	~5.6%

Notice the pattern: selling costs don’t scale evenly. The percentage holds steady through the mid-market, then rises as the price climbs into seven figures, because Washington’s real estate excise tax (REET) is graduated — higher price tiers are taxed at higher marginal rates — while percentage-based commissions scale linearly and flat fees don’t scale at all. That interaction is the whole story of this article, and it’s why a seller at $2M should think differently about fees than a seller at $500K.

Below are the full worked tables. Every number is illustrative — commissions are negotiable and vary by agent, and local REET, where applicable, adds to the state figures shown. For the line-by-line anatomy of each cost (staging, concessions, payoff timing), see the complete Seattle seller-cost guide; this post is about how the totals move with price.

The assumptions

To make the three tables comparable, each uses the same illustrative structure:

• Listing-agent fee: 2.5% of sale price (a common percentage-model figure; many agents charge more, less, or a flat amount — more on that below)
• Buyer-agent compensation: 2.5%, offered by the seller. Post-NAR-settlement this is fully negotiable and some sellers offer less or none; it’s included here because many sellers still fund it to widen the buyer pool.
• State REET: exact marginal-tier math (1.1% on the first $525,000; 1.28% from there to $1,525,000; 2.75% to $3,025,000). Local REET excluded — confirm your city’s rate with your escrow company.
• Owner’s title policy + seller’s half of escrow: illustrative, scaled loosely with price.
• Excluded: mortgage payoff (that’s your equity, not a cost), prep/staging, and buyer concessions, which vary too much to generalize.

Selling at $500,000 (illustrative Beacon Hill condo)

Line item	Amount	% of price
Listing fee (2.5%)	$12,500	2.50%
Buyer-agent compensation (2.5%)	$12,500	2.50%
State REET (1.1% × $500,000)	$5,500	1.10%
Owner’s title policy	~$1,300	0.26%
Escrow (seller’s half)	~$1,000	0.20%
Total	~$32,800	~6.6%

Wait — the summary table said ~$26,550. That figure assumed the seller offers reduced buyer-agent compensation (1.25%), which has become more common at entry-level price points since 2024. Both versions are defensible; the spread between them is $6,250 of your equity, which is precisely why the buyer-side offer deserves an actual decision rather than a default.

At this price point, note that REET is the smallest of the three big line items. Fees dominate.

Selling at $1,000,000 (illustrative Wallingford craftsman)

Line item	Amount	% of price
Listing fee (2.5%)	$25,000	2.50%
Buyer-agent compensation (2.5%)	$25,000	2.50%
State REET ($5,775 + $6,080)	$11,855	1.19%
Owner’s title policy	~$2,200	0.22%
Escrow (seller’s half)	~$1,400	0.14%
Total	~$65,455	~6.5%

(The summary table’s ~$52,955 again models 1.25% buyer-side compensation.)

The REET math: the first $525,000 is taxed at 1.1% ($5,775) and the remaining $475,000 at 1.28% ($6,080) — full tier breakdown here. At $1M, REET has nearly caught up to half of one agent-side fee.

This is also the price point where flat-fee listing models get interesting. An illustrative $7,500 flat listing fee instead of $25,000 keeps $17,500 in your pocket — if the service level matches what your sale needs. That’s a real “if,” not a rhetorical one: some flat-fee packages are genuinely full-service, others are little more than MLS entry.

Selling at $2,000,000 (illustrative Clyde Hill remodel)

Line item	Amount	% of price
Listing fee (2.5%)	$50,000	2.50%
Buyer-agent compensation (2.5%)	$50,000	2.50%
State REET ($5,775 + $12,800 + $13,063)	$31,638	1.58%
Owner’s title policy	~$3,500	0.18%
Escrow (seller’s half)	~$1,800	0.09%
Total	~$136,938	~6.8%

At $2M, your sale crosses into REET’s 2.75% tier: everything above $1,525,000 is taxed at that marginal rate. REET alone is $31,638 before any local addition — more than the entire cost of selling many homes elsewhere in the country.

And here is the percentage-commission question at its sharpest: is selling a $2M house four times the work of selling a $500K condo? Sometimes — luxury marketing, longer days on market, more delicate negotiations. Often, not even close. Agents who price with hybrid models (a flat base plus a smaller percentage) or tiered percentages exist precisely because of this mismatch. The agent pricing models overview walks through how flat, percentage, hybrid, and performance structures differ.

What actually moves your number

Ranked by dollars at stake:

1. The two agent fees. Together 2–5%+ of price depending on what you negotiate. Negotiable at every price point; most negotiable above $1M.
2. REET. Not negotiable. Plan for it; don’t discover it on your settlement statement.
3. Buyer concessions and prep costs. Excluded from the tables, but in a soft market a credit toward the buyer’s costs or repairs can outweigh title and escrow combined.
4. Title and escrow. Real money, but the rounding error of the deal. Shop them if you like; don’t expect miracles.

The honest take

Selling costs in Seattle run roughly 5–7% of the sale price once you include both agent sides and REET, and the share grows with your price because of REET’s tiers. The only levers you control are the fee structures you agree to — which means the highest-leverage hour of your entire sale is the one where you compare what different agents actually charge.

That comparison is exactly what Manaky Homes is built for: a free marketplace where Greater Seattle agents post their listing fees — flat, percentage, hybrid — side by side, no phone calls required. Get on the waitlist and run your own price point through the math before you sign a listing agreement.