Home Sale Proceeds Calculator

What you actually walk away with when you sell

Sellers routinely overestimate their proceeds by tens of thousands of dollars, because the mental math stops at "sale price minus mortgage." The real number has three more layers: selling costs (commission, title, escrow, transfer taxes), concessions and prep work, and — for rentals and investment properties — taxes on the gain. This calculator walks through all three so the number you plan around is the number that actually hits your account.

Selling costs alone typically run 7–9% of the sale price once everything is counted. On a $400,000 sale that's $28,000–$36,000 — money that comes off the top before your mortgage is paid off. If your equity position is thin, it's entirely possible to sell a home and receive nothing at closing, or even owe money.

Worked example

Using the default inputs: sale price $400,000, agent commission at 5.5% ($22,000), closing costs at 1.5% ($6,000), and a $240,000 mortgage payoff. Net proceeds = $400,000 − $22,000 − $6,000 − $240,000 = $132,000. Now the tax side, assuming it was a rental: original purchase price $250,000 means the amount realized ($372,000 after selling costs) exceeds the basis by $122,000. At a 15% federal rate that's an $18,300 tax bill, leaving $113,700 after tax — 28% less than the "$160,000 of equity" a back-of-the-envelope estimate would suggest.

Typical seller costs, itemized

• Agent commission (5–6%): Still the largest single cost, though it's increasingly negotiable and some sellers now pay only their listing side.
• Title, escrow, and attorney fees (0.5–1%): Varies significantly by state.
• Transfer taxes (0–2%): Some states and cities charge nothing; others (NY, DE, WA) take a real bite.
• Seller concessions: Credits toward the buyer's closing costs or repairs found at inspection. Common in buyer's markets.
• Prep work: Paint, staging, deferred maintenance. Small relative to price, but it's cash out of pocket before you list.

Selling a rental: depreciation recapture is the surprise

If the property was a rental, every dollar of depreciation you claimed reduced your basis — and the IRS collects it back at sale, taxed at up to 25%, before the regular capital gains rate applies to the rest. This applies even if you never actually claimed the depreciation ("allowed or allowable" in IRS terms). A property rented for 10 years can easily carry $70,000–$90,000 of accumulated depreciation, which means a $17,000–$22,000 recapture bill that surprises sellers who only budgeted for capital gains.

The main escape hatch is a 1031 exchange — rolling the proceeds into another investment property within strict deadlines (45 days to identify, 180 days to close) defers both the capital gains tax and the recapture. If you're selling one rental to buy another, run the numbers both ways before deciding to cash out.

The primary residence exclusion

If you lived in the home as your primary residence for at least 2 of the last 5 years, Section 121 lets you exclude up to $250,000 of gain from federal tax ($500,000 married filing jointly). The exclusion does not cover depreciation recapture from any rental period, and the eligible gain gets prorated if the home spent years as a rental. Recent converts — owners who moved out and rented the home for a year or two — often still qualify for the full exclusion, which can make selling sooner dramatically better than selling later.

Still deciding whether to sell at all? Run the numbers in our keep vs sell calculator to compare selling now against holding as a rental — or check what the property is worth as an income asset with the cap rate calculator. Tax rules here are simplified estimates; confirm your basis, exclusion eligibility, and recapture exposure with a CPA before closing.

Frequently asked questions