What’s your Michigan home worth today?

An online estimate is an algorithm's guess from square footage and public records; a hand-built CMA is a real Realtor checking the specific recent sales that match your home and adjusting for condition and location. The first is a starting point. The second is the number you can actually price and plan around.

Selling a home in Michigan typically costs the seller around 7 to 9 percent of the sale price once you add agent commission, the state and county transfer tax, title fees, and any prep. Commission is negotiable and is the largest piece. I'll walk you through a clear estimate for your specific situation before you commit to anything.

Michigan's real estate transfer tax is $4.30 per $500 of sale price, about 0.86 percent, combining the state and Oakland County rates, and it's customarily paid by the seller.

A well-priced, well-presented home in Royal Oak, Ferndale, or Berkley usually goes under contract in about one to three weeks, then closes roughly 30 to 45 days after that. Royal Oak homes sold in a median of about 8 days, Ferndale about 13 days, and Berkley about 9 days in July 2026. Overpriced or unprepared homes sit longer, so price and condition are the biggest levers.

You rarely need to fix everything, but a few targeted repairs and a clean, decluttered home almost always pay off in Royal Oak, Ferndale, and Berkley. I'll walk your home and tell you honestly what's worth doing and what to skip, so you spend money only where it moves your sale price.

Alec Levine is a licensed Michigan Realtor with Levine Homes, focused on Royal Oak, Ferndale, and Berkley, and also helps clients across the surrounding Oakland County market. If your home is nearby but not in those three cities, reach out anyway. I can tell you quickly whether I'm the right fit or point you to someone who is.

If the appraisal comes in below your accepted price, you're not automatically obligated to do anything. You can renegotiate with the buyer to a number you're comfortable with, ask them to cover the gap, or put the home back on the market for a new buyer. A low appraisal is the start of a conversation, not the end of your sale.

Before we ever get there, I pre-position the home for the appraiser with the same comps and data I used to price it, so surprises are rare.

Usually you shouldn't spend real money on big projects before you have feedback from actual buyers. Dropping fifteen to twenty thousand dollars with no guarantee you'll earn it back is a gamble. A few low-cost fixes and a clean, decluttered home almost always return more. Get it on the market and let buyers tell you what matters.

Pricing high and cutting later usually costs you money. Homes sell for the most in the first week or two, when the listing is fresh and buyers are competing. A home that sits gets stale, buyers assume something's wrong, and the offers that eventually come in are lower. Pricing right from day one is how you get a strong, fast offer.

A lower commission isn't automatically a better deal, because the piece that usually gets cut is the marketing that sells your home for more. Commission also covers the broker and the actual work of selling. What matters is your net proceeds, not the headline rate, and an agent who won't negotiate their own fee may not fight hard for your price either.

You can absolutely sell while living in the home with kids and pets. Every showing request comes to you by text to approve or decline, so you control the timing, and showings are pre-qualified so only serious, able buyers walk through, not neighbors or window-shoppers. Tell me how much notice you need and we'll build the schedule around your family.