How We Calculate Your Net Proceeds

What the calculator estimates

The calculator estimates your net proceeds — the amount you'd actually walk away with after selling a home, once the sale price has had typical seller costs and your remaining mortgage subtracted from it. It is designed to answer the question, "If I sell at this price, what hits my bank account?"

It is not a binding settlement statement, not a tax return, and not a substitute for the closing disclosure your title company or attorney prepares. It's a fast, defensible first-pass estimate.

The cost components we model

Most of what comes out of a seller's proceeds falls into a small number of buckets, and the calculator models each of them explicitly:

• Agent commission. A percentage of the sale price, typically split between the listing and buyer's brokerages. Commission is always negotiable, and the calculator lets you adjust it.
• Transfer or excise taxes. State, county, and sometimes city taxes charged when a deed is recorded. Some states have none; others use flat rates per thousand dollars of value; a handful use tiered or marginal rates.
• Title and recording fees. Owner's and lender's title insurance, the settlement or escrow fee, and the small government fees to record the deed and release of mortgage. Which side customarily pays the owner's policy varies by state.
• Mortgage payoff. Your remaining loan balance, paid off from the proceeds at closing. The calculator treats this as a single payoff figure you provide.
• Seller concessions and credits. Anything you agreed to contribute toward the buyer's costs, repair credits, or a home warranty — all subtracted from your proceeds.

Where the state-specific defaults come from

For each state we maintain a small dataset of typical values: who customarily pays transfer tax, the customary title and escrow split, a typical combined commission range, and a typical all-in seller closing-cost range. These defaults populate the calculator when you load a state page so you see a sensible starting point, not a blank form.

The defaults reflect customary practice, not law. Real transactions negotiate around them all the time, and a few high-tax cities and counties layer their own taxes on top of the state rate. We review and refresh the dataset on the cadence shown above.

What we deliberately do not do

• We do not compute federal or state capital-gains tax. Those depend on your basis, holding period, exclusion eligibility, and other items the calculator doesn't ask for.
• We do not include pre-sale spending — staging, repairs, photography, or pre-listing inspections — unless you enter them as concessions or adjustments.
• We do not predict the sale price. The sale price is your input, and the calculator shows what would happen at that price.

Estimates only — verify before relying

Every number on this site is an estimate. Real closings are shaped by the specific contract, the county, the title company's fee schedule, and last-minute prorations. Before making a financial decision, verify your numbers with a licensed real-estate professional or a real-estate attorney in your state.

Try it

See the calculator in action on the homepage, pick your state, and the defaults described above will fill in automatically.