Seller Net Sheet Calculator

The number in your head is not your net

The number in your head is usually the sale price you hope for, or the Zestimate (Zillow's automated value estimate) you looked up last night. That number is a starting point, not your net. A value estimate deducts nothing. It does not subtract the agent commissions, the transfer tax (a tax on the sale itself), the escrow and title (insurance protecting ownership) costs, or the balance you still owe on the mortgage. Escrow is the neutral third party that handles the money and the paperwork. Your net proceeds are what is left after all of that comes off.

So the question that actually matters is not "what will it sell for," it is "how much do I keep." This tool subtracts every real cost, line by line, and shows you the gap between the price and the proceeds. It is an estimate with named assumptions, not a quote. When you are close to selling, I build your exact net sheet for free, but this shows you the real shape of the number today.

Who pays what in the Bay Area

By the time you reach the closing table, a handful of costs have to be assigned to the buyer or the seller. Most of that split follows local custom, which varies by county. None of it is fixed law. Every one of these items can be negotiated in the contract, and a title company can quote it differently, so treat the defaults below as the usual starting point, not a rule.

Two of the biggest are escrow and title. Escrow holds the money and the paperwork during the sale, so neither side can walk away with the funds before the deal is done. An owner's title policy is title insurance that protects the buyer's ownership against hidden claims on the property, like an old lien or a boundary problem. Someone pays for each, and who that is depends on the county.

The county documentary transfer tax (a tax the county charges when a property changes hands) is $1.10 per $1,000 of the sale price, and the seller customarily pays it in all seven counties this tool covers. In San Francisco it is folded into the city's own transfer tax rather than charged on top.

Here is the outlier worth knowing. In Santa Clara County, the seller customarily pays both the escrow fee and the owner's title policy. In Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Marin, Solano, and San Francisco, the buyer customarily pays both. That single difference can swing your net by thousands of dollars depending on which side of the county line your home sits on. The tool applies your county's custom automatically, but remember it is a custom: you can negotiate it, and your title company will give you the real figures.

What generic calculators miss

A national "seller closing cost" calculator usually applies one flat percentage and calls it a day. That misses the parts of a Bay Area settlement statement that actually move the number. Here is what a one-size tool leaves out.

City transfer tax varies by city, a lot. On top of the $1.10 per $1,000 county rate, some Bay Area cities add their own transfer tax, and the amounts are not close to each other. A few examples:

• Oakland uses a tiered city transfer tax: roughly 1.0% of the price up to $300,000, 1.5% from $300,001 to $2,000,000, 1.75% from $2,000,001 to $5,000,000, and 2.5% above $5,000,000. It is a whole-price cliff, not a marginal rate, so the entire price is taxed at the bracket you land in. A $1,500,000 sale is taxed at 1.5% on the full amount.
• San Jose charges a base $3.30 per $1,000 on every sale, plus Measure E, an added tax that kicks in above a threshold currently set at $2,300,000 (indexed for inflation, with the next change due in 2030). Below that threshold, you pay only the base.
• Alameda (the city, not the county) charges a flat $12.00 per $1,000, which is 1.2% of the price on every sale.
• Meanwhile 29 of the 38 cities in this tool have no extra city transfer tax at all, just the $1.10 per $1,000 county rate. Only 9 levy one.

A generic calculator applies a single flat percentage and gets nearly all of this wrong. This one uses your city's actual rate.

Sewer lateral compliance at point of sale. In Oakland and the city of Alameda, a private sewer lateral (PSL, the pipe that carries wastewater from your house to the public sewer main) must have a compliance certificate before the sale can generally close. Getting one can cost anywhere from an inspection fee to a full lateral replacement, depending on the pipe's condition, and who pays is negotiated between buyer and seller. A national calculator has no idea this requirement exists.

Natural hazard disclosure (NHD) report. California requires the seller to disclose whether the home sits in a flood, fire, earthquake, or other hazard zone. The seller customarily orders and pays for this report, typically $50 to $150, commonly $70 to $100. It is small, but it is real, and it shows up on your side of the statement.

Per-diem payoff interest. As noted above, your mortgage payoff is more than the balance on your last statement. Interest accrues per day (per diem) until the loan is actually paid off at closing, so the written payoff demand from your lender is the number that matters, not the statement balance. A generic tool that just subtracts your "loan balance" understates what it takes to clear the mortgage.

None of these are exotic. They are ordinary lines on a real Bay Area closing, and they are exactly the ones a national tool built for the whole country tends to skip.

A note on capital gains

One thing this tool does not calculate is capital gains tax, and it is worth explaining why. Capital gains is the tax on your profit from the sale, the gain above your cost basis (roughly what you paid for the home plus the money you put into improvements). It is not a fee taken out at closing like commission or transfer tax. It is a later matter that gets sorted out on your tax return, so it does not belong on the net sheet above.

For most people selling a primary residence, the federal Section 121 exclusion does a lot of work. It lets you exclude up to $250,000 of gain from tax if you are single, or up to $500,000 if you are married filing jointly, as long as you owned the home and lived in it as your primary residence for at least 2 of the last 5 years. Gain above the exclusion may be taxable, and the rules have exceptions.

This is general information, not tax advice. Your situation, your basis, and your eligibility for the exclusion should be confirmed with your own tax professional or CPA (certified public accountant) before you count on any number.

Thinking of selling a rental rather than a primary home? The Bay Area multi-family rules map lays out each city's rent-control, just-cause, and relocation rules that shape what a small income property is worth.

Seller net sheet FAQ

City transfer tax and who-pays reference

Every city this tool covers, its county, its city transfer tax (a rate or "none"), and who customarily pays that city tax. The county documentary transfer tax of $1.10 per $1,000 applies on top in every county except San Francisco, where it is folded into the city rate.