We’ve yet to meet a seller who doesn’t want to know how much money will be left after the sale. Once you have a realistic sense of your home’s market value, you can then calculate the amount of profit you’re likely to receive. This is particularly useful if you’re going to be searching for a new home to buy—how much down payment you’ll have, for example, or how much you can use to pay off debt so that you can qualify for a larger or more expensive home.

Nobody can tell you EXACTLY how much you’ll receive because there are many factors that will influence some of the charges. For example, if you have a loan on your house now, that amount changes from month to month; prorations of taxes, insurance, utilities, homeowners association dues and fees, and mortgage interest are all calculated as of the actual date of your home’s sale, which means that your sales proceeds check can’t be determined until the final sale date.

To get close, though, you should subtract from your selling price:

• The payoff balance on your current mortgage and/or home equity loan(s)
• The amount of any penalty your lender will charge for prepaying the loan
• Any unpaid property taxes
• Any outstanding homeowners association dues or fees
• Escrow fees and recording costs
• Your broker’s commission
• The county real property transfer tax
• The cost of providing title insurance to the buyer

There may be other costs involved, depending upon the terms of the offer you accept. These may include:

• A home warranty protection plan
• A home inspection
• Loan and document preparation fees (for example, fees charged by lenders that FHA will not allow a buyer to pay when obtaining an FHA-insured loan)
• A pest inspection (also known as a termite report)
• Repairs based on inspections and/or the appraisal report

FYI: One of our jobs is to help you determine which closing costs can or should be negotiated between you and the buyer, which are customarily paid by the seller, and how to minimize your costs while maximizing your sales price.