A homeowner calculates net proceeds by starting from the expected sale price and subtracting, in order, every layer the transaction will consume, and the research file supplies a completed example to copy: at a 900,000 dollar price, commission of 45,000 dollars to 54,000 dollars, closing costs of 1.5 to 2.5 percent, repair credits of 15,000 dollars to 40,000 dollars, and carrying costs of 20,000 dollars to 45,000 dollars leave the seller in the high 700,000s before any price reduction (Frontier Capitals, 2026; National Association of Realtors, 2025). Work through the five steps below with your own price and the same sourced rates, and the result is a defensible estimate rather than a guess.
Key Findings
- Net proceeds equal price minus commission, closing costs, credits, carrying costs, and any mortgage payoff, in that working order (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- At 900,000 dollars the worked example lands in the high 700,000s after the four sourced cost layers, before any price reduction (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Commission is computed first because it is the largest layer, at 5 to 6 percent or 45,000 dollars to 54,000 dollars on the example (National Association of Realtors, 2025).
- The documentary stamp tax inside closing costs is exactly computable at 70 cents per 100 dollars, or 6,300 dollars at the example price (Florida Department of Revenue, 2025).
- Every layer can be entered as a range, so the honest output of the worksheet is a kept range rather than a single fragile number.
What is step one and step two of the worksheet?
Step one is choosing an honest price. Use comparable sales and the character of your buyer pool rather than the highest number seen on the street: the ZIP median sale price was 780,000 dollars in October 2026, and Delray Beach homes sold at 95.5 percent of asking in August 2026, so an asking figure and an expected closing figure are cousins rather than twins (MyBrokerOne, 2026; Realty.com, 2026). Owners of land heavy older homes should test two prices, a household price and a builder price, because the sample shows older homes averaging 29.9 percent of new build prices and builders acquiring 64.0 percent of that stock (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The worksheet accepts either; it cannot fix a fantasy entered at the top.
Step two is subtracting commission at the rate you actually expect to pay. The typical total in the research file is 5 to 6 percent, producing 45,000 dollars to 54,000 dollars at 900,000 dollars, and commission analysis showing a 2.40 percent average buyer agent share helps you split the total if your listing agreement separates the sides (National Association of Realtors, 2025; Redfin, 2025). Enter both ends of the band if you have not negotiated yet, and notice how each half percent equals 4,500 dollars at the example price. Sellers often spend their negotiating energy on smaller lines while this one is decided by a signature, which the worksheet corrects by putting commission first and largest.
Write the running total after each step, not just at the end. A seller who watches 900,000 dollars become roughly 850,000 dollars after commission understands the sale differently from that moment onward, and every later decision, from a credit demand to a closing date, gets judged against the shrinking figure that will actually arrive. That running total discipline is the difference between a worksheet and a wish.
What belongs in step three, the closing cost layer?
Step three subtracts seller side closing costs at 1.5 to 2.5 percent of price, the band the research file gives for title work, transfer charges, prorations, and documentary stamp taxes (Frontier Capitals, 2026). At 900,000 dollars the band is 13,500 dollars to 22,500 dollars. Inside it, one item can be pinned exactly: the stamp tax at 70 cents per 100 dollars, seller paid in Palm Beach County, is 6,300 dollars at this price and rises by 700 dollars for every further 100,000 dollars of price (Florida Department of Revenue, 2025; Florida Statutes, 2026).
Prorations are the variable ingredient in this layer, because taxes and prepaid items settle to the closing date using assessed value and homestead records from the county appraiser (Palm Beach County Property Appraiser, 2026). A worksheet should carry a proration allowance rather than a pretend exact figure, unless the closing date and the appraiser record are both already known. The same records support the planning step after the sale, since Save Our Homes portability can move up to 500,000 dollars of homestead benefit to a new Florida homestead and belongs on the household balance sheet even though it is not a closing line (Florida Legislature, 2026).
Sellers sometimes double count in this layer, subtracting the stamp tax separately after already applying the full percentage band that contains it. The worksheet prevents that by nesting: the percentage band is the layer, and the stamp tax is a known component inside the band, useful for checking that an estimate is realistic rather than for subtracting twice. A title estimate showing stamp tax far from the statutory computation is a prompt to ask questions before signing anything. The closing layer receives its own full treatment in the report on what closing costs sellers typically pay, for owners who want each line explained.
How are credits and carrying costs estimated in steps four and five?
Step four subtracts the concessions and inspection repair credits that older inventory routinely attracts, documented in the research file at 15,000 dollars to 40,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Estimate inside the band by condition: a home with a newer roof and updated panels sits low, a home with original 1960s systems sits high, and a sale to a builder or an as is cash buyer may remove the layer entirely. The error to avoid is entering zero by default. Credits are not a punishment for a bad house; they are the standard mechanism by which inspection findings become money, and in this submarket the findings are predictable enough that budgeting for them is simply realism.
Step five subtracts carrying costs for the full period from listing to closing, priced in the file at 20,000 dollars to 45,000 dollars over three to six months of market time (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Build your figure from your own tax bill, insurance premium, utilities, and upkeep, multiplied by the months you honestly expect, using the ZIP average of 76 days on market as a floor rather than as the whole journey (MyBrokerOne, 2026). Preparation weeks before listing and the closing window after contract both consume carrying money, and a failed first contract can add a second marketing period. Sellers with a vacant home should also count the cost of keeping it insured and presentable while empty, since an empty older house still burns money at nearly the occupied rate.
Only after those five steps does the mortgage payoff enter, subtracted from the result to give the cheque the seller actually receives. Keeping the payoff outside the five steps preserves the distinction between the cost of selling and the settlement of a debt, which matters when comparing two routes for the same house: the payoff is identical on both routes, while the five layers are not. Tax is handled after the worksheet as well, because capital gains exposure depends on basis and the Section 121 exclusion of 250,000 dollars or 500,000 dollars for qualifying sellers (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). The complete stacked example at a higher price is worked in the 1,500,000 dollar proceeds illustration, which shows the same steps producing a kept range at that level.
How should the finished worksheet be used to compare offers?
Convert every offer into a worksheet before comparing any of them. A listed offer arrives as a headline price and must be run through all five steps with realistic assumptions about credits and time. A direct offer arrives much closer to its net, with several layers already removed, and should still be written onto the same page so the household sees both outcomes in one format. Comparing a gross figure with a net figure is the most common and most expensive mistake in seller arithmetic, and the worksheet exists to make that mistake structurally impossible.
Run sensitivity checks on the two or three assumptions that move your result most. At land heavy prices those are usually the achieved price itself, the commission rate, and the marketing duration inside the carrying layer. If a small change in an assumption flips which offer wins, the decision deserves more evidence, perhaps a parcel level valuation or a second direct figure, rather than more optimism. If the winner survives every reasonable variation, the household can proceed with justified confidence. Either way the conversation changes from impressions to arithmetic, which is where sellers hold the advantage.
Refresh the worksheet whenever a material fact changes instead of treating the first version as a verdict. A new comparable sale on the street, a commission proposal from an agent, an insurance renewal that lifts the carrying layer, or a direct figure arriving by letter each rewrites one line and therefore rewrites the bottom line. Sellers who keep the page current find that decisions become smaller as the sale approaches, because each choice has already been priced in draft form. Sellers who file the first version away tend to re-litigate the whole question at every phone call, which is exhausting and rarely improves the answer.
Keep the worksheet after the sale as well. Comparing the estimate with the actual closing statement teaches a household its own cost signature, which is valuable the next time a property decision arrives, and the comparison usually shows the bands in the research file to have been fair. Sellers who sold with the worksheet also find their tax conversation easier, because basis, selling costs, and proceeds are already gathered in one place for the adviser. The habit compounds, like everything else in this report, in the seller favour.
What does the same worksheet show on the direct route?
Frontier Capitals is a wholesaler sourcing off market homes to builders, not a builder, and running its route through the worksheet is instructive: commission enters as zero, seller closing costs enter as zero, the credit layer enters as zero because the purchase is as is, and the carrying layer shrinks to the short period before a fast closing. The direct price may differ from a listed price, yet the worksheet shows exactly how much headline difference the removed layers can absorb before the listed route pulls ahead. Owners can request the direct figure through the contact page and complete the comparison on one page.
At the 900,000 dollar reference point, the five benefits attach to the worksheet as follows. Privacy keeps the process off the public market, with zero showings while the numbers are tested. Timing offers closing in 7 to 21 days or a leaseback months out, against 60 to 120 plus days listed, directly reducing step five. Commission savings remove step two entirely, worth 45,000 dollars to 54,000 dollars at the reference price (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Closing savings remove step three, and the file records that commissions plus closing costs commonly exceed 50,000 dollars combined on a 900,000 dollar conventional sale. The as is term removes step four in its repair credit form, sparing the 10,000 dollar to 30,000 dollar credits the benefits schedule documents.
The lesson generalises beyond any one company: net proceeds are a property of the route as much as of the price. A seller who calculates carefully will sometimes still choose the listed route, for a finished home with strong household appeal, and will choose it knowing the toll rather than suspecting it. That knowledge is the real deliverable of the worksheet.
Methodology and limitations
The worksheet rates and bands are taken unchanged from the research file ledger built at 900,000 dollars: commission of 5 to 6 percent, closing costs of 1.5 to 2.5 percent, concessions and inspection repair credits of 15,000 dollars to 40,000 dollars, and carrying costs of 20,000 dollars to 45,000 dollars over three to six months (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The example outcome, a net in the high 700,000s before any price reduction, is the file own summary of those layers at that price. Market inputs for price realism come from the ZIP and city sources in the pool as dated there (MyBrokerOne, 2026; Realty.com, 2026).
Individual worksheets will differ where an owner negotiates unusual commission terms, sells to a cash buyer without inspection credits, or carries a property for a shorter or longer period than the band assumes. Mortgage payoff and capital gains tax are excluded from the five steps by design and flagged in the body, with the exclusion framework cited to the federal source (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). The worksheet is an estimating discipline, not a settlement guarantee, and a title company estimate should replace the percentage bands before any contract is signed.
Conclusion
Net proceeds in Downtown Delray and Lake Ida South are calculated by subtracting commission, closing costs, credits, and carrying costs from an honestly chosen price, in that order, and then settling any mortgage payoff, a method whose worked example turns 900,000 dollars into a net in the high 700,000s (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Entering each layer as a range produces a kept range sturdy enough to compare offers, routes, and timing decisions without self deception. To have the worksheet run on your own property with a direct figure included, call 401-219-4207.
If you ran your last price expectation through all five steps tonight, would the number at the bottom still support the plan you have built on it?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the first number a seller should write down?
Write the expected closing price, not the dream asking price, using comparable evidence such as the ZIP median sale price of 780,000 dollars in October 2026 as a reality anchor (MyBrokerOne, 2026). Every later layer is calculated from that starting figure, so honesty at step one protects the whole worksheet.
Where does the documentary stamp tax fit in the calculation?
It sits inside the closing cost layer, computed exactly at 70 cents per 100 dollars of consideration and seller paid in Palm Beach County (Florida Department of Revenue, 2025). At 900,000 dollars it equals 6,300 dollars, and the statute states the same rate (Florida Statutes, 2026).
Should the mortgage payoff be counted as a selling cost?
No, because the payoff settles the seller own debt and is identical whichever route is chosen, so the worksheet subtracts it after the five cost layers to reach the actual cheque (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Mixing it into the layers would distort route comparisons.
How does capital gains tax enter the worksheet?
Tax is assessed after the sale on the gain, with the Section 121 exclusion sheltering 250,000 dollars for a single filer and 500,000 dollars for a married couple meeting the ownership and use tests (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). It depends on basis, so it is planned separately rather than entered as a worksheet layer.
Why enter ranges instead of single figures?
Each layer genuinely varies: commission between 45,000 dollars and 54,000 dollars and credits between 15,000 dollars and 40,000 dollars at the example price are bands, not points (Frontier Capitals, 2026; National Association of Realtors, 2025). A kept range built from honest bands survives contact with the real closing statement far better than a precise guess.
Sources
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189 neighborhood builder acquisition sample: 25 homes sampled in 33444, 16 acquired by builders, average older home price 29.9 percent of new build price, minimum lot 5,500 sq ft. Market data.
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Typical seller commission structures, South Florida market. Industry report.
- Florida Department of Revenue, 2025. Documentary stamp tax: $0.70 per $100 of consideration, seller-paid. Government data.
- Florida Statutes, 2026. Section 201.02: documentary stamp tax on deeds, 70 cents per $100 of consideration. Official record.
- Internal Revenue Service, 2026. Publication 523: Selling Your Home; Section 121 exclusion, $250,000/$500,000 with ownership and use tests. Government data.
- Florida Legislature, 2026. Save Our Homes portability provisions: up to $500,000 transferable benefit between Florida homesteads. Official record.
- Palm Beach County Property Appraiser, 2026. Just value, assessed value, and homestead exemption records. Official record.
- MyBrokerOne, 2026. ZIP 33444 market trends, October 2026: median sale price $780,000; 76 average days on market; lots/land median list $1,711,160. Market data. https://mybrokerone.com/en/real-estate-market-trends/florida/33444
- Realty.com, 2026. Delray Beach housing market, August 2026: selling at 95.5% of asking; 60.0% paid in cash (county records). Market data.
- Redfin, 2025. Commission analysis: average buyer's agent commission 2.40% for homes sold in Q1 2025. Market data.