Selling a house in Virginia comes down to six costs, and five of them barely move. The sixth is the commission, and it is the only one with real money on the table. Below I break down all six, then run them against Alexandria’s actual July 2026 sale prices.
Selling a house in Virginia: the 6 costs you actually pay
Here is the whole bill, in the order it lands on you. Nothing else on a Virginia settlement statement comes close to these six.
- Your listing agent’s commission. Usually 2.5% to 3% of the sale price at a traditional brokerage. It is the biggest single number on the page, every time.
- The buyer’s agent compensation. Often another 2% to 3%. Since August 2024 you negotiate it separately, and it is no longer published on the MLS.
- Virginia’s grantor tax. The state charges the seller $0.50 per $500 of the price. Northern Virginia adds $0.10 per $100 on top of that.
- Settlement and title work. The settlement agent’s fee, the deed preparation, and the paperwork that clears your old mortgage off the record.
- Credits you hand the buyer. Repair money, closing-cost help, and anything else you concede after the home inspection.
- Getting the house ready. Paint, carpet, the handyman list, staging, and the deep clean nobody enjoys paying for.
Costs three through five are real, and they are small. The grantor tax on a typical Alexandria sale runs about $1,653. Cost six is whatever you decide to spend, and costs one and two together can run past $45,000 on the same house.
So I tell every seller the same thing. Ignore the small stuff on the first pass. I once watched a client argue over a $450 settlement fee for a week. Then he signed a 3% listing agreement without a blink, and that trade cost him thousands. If you want the mechanics of who pays whom, we walked through how realtors get paid in a separate piece.
What Alexandria’s market looked like in July 2026
Local numbers matter far more than national ones here. Alexandria is its own city, with its own recorder, its own tax rate and its own buyers.
In July 2026, 170 Alexandria properties went to closing, down from 174 a year earlier. The citywide average sale price was $826,512, up 1.5% year over year. Detached homes averaged $1,323,944. Attached homes, which carry most of the city’s volume, averaged $728,426. Condos on their own averaged $550,390. Those figures come from Bright MLS through MarketStats by ShowingTime, as reported by ALXnow.
Speed held up. Homes took an average of 24 days from listing to a ratified contract, one day faster than the previous July, and they sold at 98.9% of list price.
Supply is the part I would watch. The city finished July with 411 homes for sale, up by roughly a third from a year before, against only 128 pending sales, a drop of about 30%. Regionally the picture matches. NVAR counted 3,025 active listings across Northern Virginia, up 19.6%, with condo inventory alone up 41.1% and detached inventory down 2.5%. For context, the Northern Virginia median sold price was $750,000 in July, down 1.3% from a year earlier. The typical regional listing went under contract in 21 days, and closed sales slipped 1.9%.
One city, several markets. A July regional report built from Bright MLS data by a local Alexandria brokerage put the median sale price in 22314 at $862,000. In 22304 it was $400,000, and in 22302 it was $422,500. Your ZIP code and your property type tell you more than the citywide figure does.
My read: this is not a market where you test a high number. With that much standing inventory and fewer homes going under contract, a patient buyer can simply outwait you. I would price at or just under the last strong comparable sale and let the 24-day clock do the work. Sellers who chase a price down all fall usually net less than the ones who priced it right in week one.
The commission math on a real Alexandria sale
Every conversation about selling a house in Virginia ends up here, at the number that decides what you actually walk away with. Run the listing side against Alexandria’s $826,512 July average and the gap stops being abstract.
| Listing fee | What you pay | Houwzer at 1% | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.00% | $24,795 | $8,265 | $16,530 |
| 2.75% | $22,729 | $8,265 | $14,464 |
| 2.50% | $20,663 | $8,265 | $12,398 |
The same math at other Alexandria price points: on the condo average of $550,390, a 3% listing fee is $16,512 against $5,504 at 1%, so you keep $11,008. On the detached average of $1,323,944, it is $39,718 against $13,239, and you keep $26,479. Across all our markets, Houwzer sellers save about $12,000 in fees. In Alexandria the number runs higher, because the houses cost more.
None of these rates are set by anyone. The National Association of Realtors now requires listing agreements to carry a conspicuous disclosure that compensation “is not set by law and is fully negotiable”. That sentence sits in your own paperwork, and most sellers never read it.
Here is where I think Virginia sellers now lose the most money: the buyer-agent side. It stopped being automatic when the MLS rules changed in August 2024, yet plenty of sellers still agree to 3% out of pure habit. I would treat it as a marketing budget rather than a fixed cost. Offer what the property needs to compete in its own ZIP code, and not a point more. If you want to test your own figures, our realtor commission calculator does the arithmetic in a few seconds.
Cutting the fee is not the same as cutting the service, and the distinction is the whole argument. A 1% listing fee buys a full-service agent, professional photography, MLS syndication and negotiation. It just stops paying a percentage that grew with the house rather than with the work. Prefer to start from the agent side? We covered top real estate agents in Northern Virginia and the tests that separate them.
Virginia’s disclosure rule shifts risk to the buyer
Virginia does not make you catalogue every flaw in the house. The Residential Property Disclosure Act runs the other way around, and that surprises sellers who moved here from Maryland or New Jersey.
Under § 55.1-703, you hand the buyer a disclosure statement telling them to beware. The statement itself says the owner makes no representations or warranties about the condition of the property. It tells buyers to run whatever inspections they think they need. That is unusual, and it is genuinely in a Virginia seller’s favor.
Timing is where people get hurt. Section 55.1-709 says the disclosure goes to the buyer before the purchase contract is ratified. Deliver it late and the buyer gets a right to terminate. That window is three days after hand or electronic delivery, or five days after a mailed postmark.
I have watched a late disclosure hand a wobbly buyer a free exit deep into a contract, and there is no fixing it once the clock starts. Send the form out with the listing paperwork, because it costs nothing and closes the escape hatch before anyone needs it.
One more quirk worth knowing when selling a house in Virginia: you do not need a lawyer at the closing table. Section 55.1-1002 of the Virginia Code lets a registered lay settlement agent handle escrow, closing and settlement services anywhere in the Commonwealth. Our own Newfound Title runs that side of the deal in-house, which is one fewer party to chase in the final week. If you are curious what that team actually does, we explained what a title company does from the seller’s chair.
The grantor tax lives in the same corner of the file. The City of Alexandria’s recordation tax page puts the state grantor rate at $0.50 per $500 of the price. Northern Virginia adds a further grantor’s tax of $0.10 per $100. Together that is about $1,653 on an $826,512 sale. Note that the buyer, not you, pays the state and city recordation tax on the deed. If you want that side laid out in full, we have a breakdown of closing costs in Virginia written for buyers.
When a 1% listing fee is the wrong call
I sell this model for a living, so weigh what follows with that in mind. It is still true, and it belongs in any honest guide to selling a house in Virginia.
A 1% listing fee is the wrong choice for some sellers. If your house needs a genuine repositioning campaign over several months, an agent working for $8,265 has less runway than one working for $24,795. That is arithmetic, not modesty, so ask the question directly in the listing appointment and make the agent answer it.
It is also wrong if you want one person picking up the phone at nine on a Sunday night. Houwzer runs a team, with an agent, a listing coordinator and a title side. Most sellers prefer that structure. Some genuinely hate it, and those sellers should hire the solo agent they trust.
And below roughly $250,000, the percentage gap narrows to a few thousand dollars. At that price the right agent matters more than the fee does, and I would pick the person over the number.
Alexandria is not that market. The average closing here cleared $826,000 in July, which makes the spread between 1% and 3% a used car or a year of tuition. Before you sign anything, ask your agent what the extra two points buy that the first point does not. If the answer takes longer than a minute, you have your answer. Compare our low-commission realtors in Alexandria, VA against whoever else is pitching you. Selling elsewhere in the Commonwealth? Start with low commission realtors in Virginia.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does selling a house in Virginia cost in total?
There is no single price tag on selling a house in Virginia. Commission is the largest of the six costs above by a wide margin, commonly 4% to 6% combined at traditional brokerages. Virginia’s grantor tax adds roughly 0.2% of the price, and settlement work, buyer credits and prep make up the rest.
Who pays the grantor’s tax when selling a house in Alexandria, VA?
The seller does. Selling a house in Virginia puts the grantor tax on you at $0.50 per $500 of the price, and the Northern Virginia region adds $0.10 per $100. On Alexandria’s $826,512 July average that comes to about $1,653.
Do I need a lawyer to close a home sale in Virginia?
No, and that surprises people: selling a house in Virginia does not require an attorney at settlement. Section 55.1-1002 of the Virginia Code lets a registered lay settlement agent provide escrow, closing and settlement services anywhere in the Commonwealth. Plenty of Virginia closings run through a title company rather than a law firm.
When do I have to give a Virginia buyer the property disclosure statement?
Before the purchase contract is ratified. That deadline is the one date worth circling when you are selling a house in Virginia. A late statement lets the buyer terminate within three days of in-person or electronic delivery, or five days after a mailed postmark. Send it with the listing paperwork.
Is Alexandria’s average sale price really above $800,000?
Yes, and it is the figure to plan around when selling a house in Virginia’s inner suburbs. The citywide average for July 2026 closings was $826,512, up 1.5% year over year, on Bright MLS data reported by ALXnow. Condos on their own averaged $550,390, so your property type matters more than the citywide number.
