What selling
actually costs
Sellers plan around the sale price and then meet their net at the closing table. The gap between the two is not mysterious, but it comes from five or six places at once, and one of them — concessions — is not knowable until you have an offer.
This guide walks the deductions, notes which are negotiable, and works a single example end to end so the arithmetic is concrete.
On a financed resale in Central Florida, expect total seller costs in the range of 7% to 10% of the sale price once commissions, title and settlement charges, documentary stamps, prorated taxes and typical buyer concessions are counted. Your mortgage payoff comes out of the same column, and it is the principal balance plus accrued interest, not your last statement.
Where the money goes
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The deductions, line by line
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A worked example
Change any one assumption and the bottom line moves: a cash buyer removes most of the concession line, a longer hold changes the payoff, and a community with high estoppel or assessment charges adds to it. The point of the example is the shape, not the number.
What is actually negotiable
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Two things to get in writing early
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Capital gains treatment, the primary-residence exclusion, depreciation recapture on a former rental and withholding on a foreign seller are all fact-specific and none of them are decided by your closing statement. Talk to a CPA before you list if the property has been a rental, if you have owned it a long time, or if you are not a US resident.
The bottom line
Ask for a written net sheet before you list, and a revised one with every offer you consider. Two offers at the same price can net you thousands of dollars apart once concessions and closing dates are counted.
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