Closing Costs When Selling to a Cash Buyer: Who Pays What

In a cash sale you typically get a settlement statement from the closing company. A common one is a form from the American Land Title Association, and it has columns for what gets charged and credited to you and to the buyer. These are the lines I would look at.

The bottom two rows are where people get surprised. ProPublica used this example in its 2023 piece on cash home buyers: if the offer is $100,000 and you're behind $25,000 in bills and back taxes, you only get $75,000. A buyer paying your closing costs does not change that math.

There is no one number here. It just depends on which side you're on and whether a commission is in there. Here are the rules of thumb, with the math run on both prices.

Lodestar, a closing cost data provider, puts the buyer's side in our states well under that 2 percent. Bankrate reported its figures in August 2025: Iowa at $1,640, Missouri at $1,740, Indiana at $1,810, Wisconsin at $2,741, New Mexico at $3,011, Ohio at $3,394, Colorado at $3,479 and Illinois at $4,702. We haven't seen anybody explain the gap between those numbers and the 2 to 5 percent rule. Either way, those are costs for a buyer with a loan, so they are not what you would pay.

When there's a loan in the deal, the buyer has most of the line items. The CFPB says when you are buying a home you "generally pay all of the costs associated with that transaction," though the contract or state law can move some of them to the seller. In dollars, the seller has often paid more once a commission is on the statement.

Take the loan out and here's what I think people miss. Those lender fees were mostly the buyer's to begin with, so going cash mostly saves the buyer money. You only see any of that if the buyer gives it back in the price or pays your costs in the contract.

This is the line that swings the most by state, and a lot of sellers have never heard of it. Three of our states have no state transfer tax at all, and Ohio can run up to $1,200 on a $300,000 house.

A buyer can agree to fund this in the contract, even where the law puts it on the seller. If somebody in Chicago tells me they pay all closing costs, I would ask if that includes the seller's $1,350 on a $300,000 sale. This is also a separate thing from income tax on your gain, which we cover in the guide on taxes when you sell for cash.

We could not find a legal definition of that phrase, so it means whatever the contract says. Usually it's talking about the transaction fees, meaning title, escrow, recording and transfer tax. Your mortgage payoff and liens are a separate section on the statement, and so are prorations. A buyer can pay all closing costs and still take a property tax credit from you.

Pay attention to the wording, too. Here's how a few of the big names describe it on their own sites, as of November 2, 2026. These are their words.

When I make a cash offer, I say it like this: "I will cover all of the costs at closing, and there are no additional fees or anything else. That's what you would walk out the door with." If you have a mortgage, your payoff comes out of that number. Get something like that in writing, with a list of the line items they are paying. If they won't, I would just move on.

First is title. Iowa does not handle title like most states do. Iowa Title Guaranty, a state program, describes itself as "Iowa's exclusive title coverage provider," and a certificate works off an abstract and an attorney's title opinion. So if somebody says title insurance on an Iowa house, I would ask what they actually mean, and who is paying for the abstract update and the opinion.

Second is property taxes. Iowa taxes are paid in arrears, so the bill you pay in September is for a year that already ended. Iowa's revenue department says the January 2026 assessment comes due in the fall of 2027 and the spring of 2028. The first half is due September 1 and the second half March 1.

That means you can be all caught up on your taxes and still see a charge at closing. Here's an example. Say you close on November 2, 2026, your taxes are $3,000 a year, and you paid the first half in September. The second half of that bill, due in March, is $1,500. Then you owe for July 1 through November 1 of the new tax year, which is 124 days out of 365, or about $1,019. That's about $2,519 credited to the buyer, and since the new bill isn't out yet, last year's number is the estimate.

That's just an example. Your contract controls how it gets handled, and your closing company runs the real number. Other states have their own timing, and this example is Iowa only.

With no loan, the lender's charges go away, like origination, appraisal, credit report and underwriting. The federal Closing Disclosure rule is written for consumer loans too, so I would not expect to see that form. You should get a settlement statement instead.

Your own lines stay. Payoff, liens, prorations, and any transfer tax or fee your contract puts on you are all still there. The standard cash form also still prints rows for an appraisal fee and a credit report fee. If either one has a number next to it on a deal with no loan, I would ask why.

The first step I would take is to ask for the statement ahead of closing and lay it next to your contract. Check the sale price, the deposit, any seller credit, the dates on the tax proration, and every fee the contract says the buyer is paying.

Then get your payoff in writing. Your loan servicer has to send a payoff statement within seven business days of a written request, with some exceptions like bankruptcy or foreclosure. Interest keeps running daily, so that number moves until closing day.

I would also ask who owns the title company. The federal rule that makes whoever refers you to an affiliated title company disclose the tie in writing is written for loans, so on a cash sale you may never get that disclosure unless you ask. No federal rule we found gives you the right to choose it in a cash deal either. That's something to negotiate in the contract.

If you're getting your money by wire, call the closing company at a number you already trust. The CFPB's advice to buyers is "Never follow instructions contained in an email," and I think that goes for sellers giving out bank details as well.

Then read before you sign. The standard form has you state that you reviewed it and that it's true and accurate, and a party is usually bound by the document they sign. The FTC says "If a buyer pressures you to act immediately, walk away." It said that about sale-leaseback offers, and I would apply it to any cash offer.

There are three practical steps I would take. Ask every buyer for your net number in writing. Get the list of line items they are paying, by name. Read the settlement statement before closing day, not at the table.

If you want more than one number to compare, that's why we built this site. You can use our seven-line worksheet in the guide on comparing cash offers to lay them side by side.