No. A direct cash sale has no agent commission, and on a Maryland listing that commission usually runs five to six percent of the price. There is no listing fee and no repair credit negotiated back out of your number after an inspection.
That is the honest answer to the question. The less honest version, which you will see on plenty of websites, is that a cash sale costs you nothing at all. Maryland charges tax to transfer a deed no matter who buys your house, and you should hear that from a buyer before closing day rather than at the settlement table.
What a listing actually costs you
Commission is the largest line. Five to six percent of the sale price has been the normal range in Maryland, split between the listing side and the buyer's side.
That arrangement changed in August of 2024. A listing agent can no longer advertise on the MLS what the buyer's agent will be paid, so that number now gets negotiated inside the contract itself. The rules around it changed more than the totals did, and most sellers are still paying something close to what they paid before.
On a $300,000 sale, six percent is $18,000. Underneath it sit the costs nobody quotes you at the listing appointment: the repairs an appraiser will require, and every month of mortgage, taxes, insurance, and utilities you keep paying while the house waits for a buyer.
The costs that exist in every Maryland sale
Some closing costs follow the property rather than the type of buyer, and they apply whether you list with an agent or sell for cash.
Maryland charges a state transfer tax of one half of one percent of the sale price. Counties add their own on top. Baltimore County adds another one and a half percent, which brings the combined transfer tax there to two percent, the highest in the state. Baltimore County also charges a recordation tax, set at $2.50 per $500 of the transaction for fiscal 2026.
Who actually pays these is a matter of contract rather than law, and in Maryland practice they are commonly split between buyer and seller. There is one wrinkle worth knowing: when the buyer is a first time Maryland homebuyer, the state's share is cut in half and the seller pays all of it.
Ask your title company for a written estimate of your side before you sign anything. Any settlement company will produce one, and it costs you nothing to ask.
What a cash sale takes off the list
The commission goes away, because there is no agent on either side of the table. So does the listing fee, the photography, and the staging.
The repair list goes away with it. You would not fix the roof, replace the furnace, or empty the house before closing. A cash purchase is also not contingent on an appraisal, so the most common way a Maryland sale dies, a lender walking after a low appraisal, cannot happen.
The carrying costs stop sooner, which is the part sellers usually underestimate. Four to six months of mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, and utilities on a house you are trying to leave adds up quietly while the listing sits.
The only comparison worth making
A cash offer will come in below a retail list price. Any buyer who tells you otherwise is planning to renegotiate once you are committed.
That makes list price against offer the wrong pair of numbers. What you want is what reaches your pocket in each case. Take the list price, subtract the commission, subtract the repairs required to satisfy an appraiser, subtract the months of carrying costs, then set that figure next to the cash number.
Run it honestly and sometimes the listing wins. If your house is updated and would show well, an agent will very likely net you more, and that is the move you should make. A cash sale earns its discount somewhere else, by removing the lender from the transaction and letting you name the closing date.
How a sale works with Memorable Home Buyers
We buy directly from owners across Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County, Prince George's County, and Harford County. No agent, no listing, and nothing to repair first.
We will give you the number and show you how we got to it. If listing would put more money in your pocket, we will say so on that first call, before you have signed anything.
To talk through where you stand, call or text 443-363-0949. No pressure, and no commitment to sell.
Related reading
Costs shift a little depending on where the house is, because the county sets its own transfer and recordation rates. These pages cover what selling looks like in specific Baltimore County communities.