A seller who lists and sells a Falls Church home for $1,500,000 keeps roughly $1,315,500 to $1,380,500 of that price before paying off any mortgage and before any tax on the gain, once the documented cost lines are applied at this price point (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The deductions are commission of $75,000 to $90,000 at the typical 5 to 6 percent, seller closing costs of $15,000 to $30,000 at 1 to 2 percent, seller transfer charges of about $4,500 at the Virginia rates, repair credits in the documented $10,000 to $25,000 range for older inventory, and carrying costs of $15,000 to $35,000 over the market period (National Association of Realtors, 2025).
Homes at this price in 22043 and 22046 are often large-lot older properties or substantial houses near the top of the older stock, in a market where new construction on comparable lots sells for $1,600,000 to $3,000,000 (Redfin, 2026). The keep figure therefore matters twice over: it decides what the seller actually banks from a listed sale, and it sets the benchmark any direct offer has to be compared against.
Key Findings
- Commission at the typical 5 to 6 percent on a $1,500,000 sale is $75,000 to $90,000, the largest single deduction from the price (National Association of Realtors, 2025).
- Seller closing costs at the documented 1 to 2 percent add $15,000 to $30,000 of further deductions (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Seller transfer charges at the Virginia rates come to about $4,500 at this price: $1,500 of grantor tax plus $3,000 across the two regional fees (Code of Virginia, 2026).
- Repair credits and carrying costs, documented at $10,000 to $25,000 and $15,000 to $35,000 respectively on older inventory, complete the stack (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- The combined result is a keep range of roughly $1,315,500 to $1,380,500 before mortgage payoff and taxes (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
How is the keep range built, line by line?
Start with commission, because at this price its dollar weight dominates everything else. The typical total commission in the Northern Virginia market is 5 to 6 percent (National Association of Realtors, 2025), and the national profile data behind the typical structure records 91 percent of sellers using an agent, so nearly every $1,500,000 seller pays this line in full (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Five percent of $1,500,000 is $75,000. Six percent is $90,000. Inside that total, the buyer agent share in the current structure averages 2.4 percent nationally for homes sold in early 2025, which at this price band is itself a charge in the mid thirty thousands (Redfin, 2025). Since August 17, 2024, that buyer agent share is no longer offered through the MLS and written buyer agreements are required, changing the paperwork without shrinking the money (National Association of Realtors, 2024).
Closing costs come next at the documented seller range of 1 to 2 percent, or $15,000 to $30,000 here (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Transfer charges are then computed exactly rather than estimated. The grantor tax at $0.50 per $500 of price gives $1,500 on $1,500,000. Each regional fee at $0.10 per $100 gives $1,500, and there are two of them, so $3,000. Seller transfer charges total about $4,500, consistent with the documented $1,200,000 example where the same rates produced roughly $3,600 (Code of Virginia, 2026). The buyer recordation tax at $0.25 per $100, about $3,750 at this price, is typically paid by the buyer and is not deducted from the seller keep (Code of Virginia, 2026). Owners who want each underlying charge explained can read the closing cost breakdown at what sellers typically pay at closing.
Where do repair credits and carrying costs fit at this level?
The two remaining lines come from the documented ledger for older homes, and a $1,500,000 Falls Church sale very often involves exactly that stock. Buyer concessions and repair credits after inspection on older inventory commonly run $10,000 to $25,000 (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A larger, older house may draw findings at the top of that range, but no higher range is documented in the research, so this post keeps the figure where the record puts it rather than inflating it for effect. Carrying costs over three to six months of market time run $15,000 to $35,000 (Frontier Capitals, 2026), and at this price point the tax and insurance components of the carry sit toward the upper end, since county assessment records set a substantial tax base on a property of this value (Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration, 2026).
Add the stack in both directions and the keep range emerges. Low deductions: $75,000 commission, $15,000 closing costs, $4,500 transfer charges, $10,000 of credits and $15,000 of carry total $119,500, leaving $1,380,500. High deductions: $90,000, $30,000, $4,500, $25,000 and $35,000 total $184,500, leaving $1,315,500 (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The spread between those outcomes, $65,000, is itself a finding: two sellers at the identical price can bank sums differing by the cost of a new car, depending on negotiated commission, inspection results and how long the house sat. Listed older homes commonly take 60 to 120 plus days including market time, so the carrying assumption inside the range is not pessimistic (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The general method behind this arithmetic is set out for any price point in the guide to calculating net proceeds.
What still has to come out after the keep range?
Two items sit below the line, personal to each seller. The first is the mortgage payoff. Whatever balance remains comes out of the seller proceeds at settlement, handled through the settlement agent disbursement and recorded with the deed transfer (Fairfax County Circuit Court Clerk, 2026). A long-held Falls Church home may carry a small balance or none; a recently refinanced one may carry a large balance that transforms the final check. No figure for it belongs in a general answer, because it is the seller's private balance, not a market cost.
The second is tax on the gain, which depends on basis rather than on price. The federal guidance on selling a home treats basis as the foundation of the calculation, and inherited property takes a basis at fair market value on the date of the owner's death, which is why two neighbors selling at the same $1,500,000 can owe very different amounts (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). Sellers who bought decades ago at Falls Church prices of that era should expect the gain question to be material and should have it computed professionally before spending the proceeds. Settlement agents in Virginia work under a registration framework through the state bar (Virginia State Bar, 2025), and while they disburse funds correctly, they do not compute a seller's personal tax position. The dedicated treatment of the tax side sits in the post asking whether Falls Church homeowners pay capital gains taxes.
How does the keep change if the sale is direct?
Almost every line in the stack is a listed sale artifact. A direct off-market sale charges no commission, so the $75,000 to $90,000 line disappears in full. It carries no conventional seller closing package of 1 to 2 percent. It involves no inspection, so no repair credit negotiation opens after acceptance. And its 7 to 21 day timeline compresses the carrying window from months to weeks (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A direct buyer at, say, $1,380,000 could therefore leave a seller at or above the top of the listed keep range, with certainty and speed the listed route cannot promise, while a direct buyer below $1,315,500 would leave the seller worse off than even the expensive end of a successful listing. The comparison is arithmetic, not ideology, and it has to be run on real figures for the specific house.
Context matters for what direct price is realistic at this level. In the builder sample, older homes sold at an average of 31.2 percent of new build value on comparable lots (Frontier Capitals, 2026), and on the right large lot the land residual alone can support seven figures, as the residual illustration of $850,000 to $1,050,000 on a $2,200,000 finished sale demonstrates (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Frontier Capitals, stated accurately, is not a builder; it sources off-market houses to builders, and at this price band its role is to bring the builder pool that prices land at those levels into a private negotiation. Sellers can open that conversation through the contact page and ask for the comparison in writing.
Why do sellers at this price level misjudge the keep most often?
Partly because the percentages look small at a glance. Six percent sounds modest until it is multiplied by $1,500,000 and becomes $90,000, a sum the same seller would negotiate hard over if it appeared as a separate invoice (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Partly because the lesser lines arrive disguised as details. A $4,500 transfer charge, computed from the grantor tax and regional fees at the Virginia rates (Code of Virginia, 2026), feels like a detail. A $25,000 repair credit feels like an insult rather than a budget line, yet the research records credits of $10,000 to $25,000 as a common outcome on older inventory, and a $1,500,000 older home presents an inspector with a long list of systems to examine (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
The deepest misjudgment, though, is treating the price as the achievement and the proceeds as an administrative afterthought. At this level the seller is often funding a next purchase, settling an estate, or dividing proceeds under an agreement, and each of those plans is written against a specific dollar figure. A plan written against $1,500,000 that meets proceeds of $1,330,000 has a $170,000 problem that no amount of satisfaction with the contract price will cure. That is why this post insists on the keep range, $1,315,500 to $1,380,500 before mortgage and taxes (Frontier Capitals, 2026), as the operative number. It is also why the sellers who fare best at this level tend to ask for an estimated settlement statement in the first week of a listing, not the last, while commission negotiation and pricing strategy can still respond to what the statement shows (Virginia State Bar, 2025). A seller in an estate situation should run the same figure past the estate records as well, since the disbursement and recording trail will become part of the file the personal representative must account for (Fairfax County Circuit Court Clerk, 2026).
What do sellers keep when a Falls Church sale stays off market?
At a $1,500,000 scale, an off-market seller keeps sums that match the price itself. Privacy is total, with no showings, no open houses, no lockbox traffic and no public marketing period, the sale surfacing only when the deed records. The calendar is the seller's own, a closing in 7 to 21 days or one set months out with a leaseback, rather than the 60 to 120 plus days a listed older home commonly needs. Commission is zero instead of the typical 5 to 6 percent, which at this price preserves the full $75,000 to $90,000 (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Seller closing costs of 1 to 2 percent, another $15,000 to $30,000 here, are not deducted, and the documented benchmark holds that commission and closing costs together commonly exceed $40,000 even on a $650,000 transaction (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The sale is as is, so the $10,000 to $30,000 pattern of repair credits and post-acceptance reductions never touches the proceeds.
Methodology and limitations
This post applies the documented Falls Church cost ledger to the $1,500,000 price in the headline, using commission structures reported for the Northern Virginia market (National Association of Realtors, 2025), transfer rates from the Virginia code (Code of Virginia, 2026), and the credit and carrying ranges from the research ledger, which was worked on older inventory at a $700,000 example and is applied here without inflating its ranges (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The result is an illustration built entirely from documented rates, not a quote for any individual property. Mortgage balances and tax outcomes are seller specific and are excluded from the keep range by design. Individual sellers may negotiate commission below the typical range, face smaller credits, or sell faster than the documented timelines, and each improvement moves the keep toward or past the top of the range given.
Conclusion
At $1,500,000, the Falls Church seller does not keep $1,500,000. On the documented ledger the keep is roughly $1,315,500 to $1,380,500 from a listed sale, before the mortgage is paid off and before the tax on the gain is settled, with commission alone accounting for $75,000 to $90,000 of the difference. Knowing that range in advance converts the sale from a surprise at the settlement table into a decision the seller actually makes.
If you are weighing a sale anywhere near this level and want the keep figure computed for your house, your balance and your timeline, call 401-219-4207 or email [email protected]. Which number have you been planning around so far, the price on the hoped-for contract or the check that would actually reach your account?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the largest deduction from a $1,500,000 sale?
Commission, at $75,000 to $90,000 under the typical 5 to 6 percent structure (National Association of Realtors, 2025). It exceeds all the other seller cost lines combined at their low ends, which is why negotiating it, or avoiding it through a direct sale, moves the keep more than any other decision.
Are the transfer charges at this price exactly $4,500?
On the documented rates, yes, to a close approximation: $1,500 of grantor tax at $0.50 per $500, plus $1,500 for each of the two regional fees at $0.10 per $100, totals $4,500 of seller transfer charges on $1,500,000 (Code of Virginia, 2026). The buyer recordation tax of about $3,750 is typically the buyer charge.
Does the keep range include paying off my mortgage?
No. The range of $1,315,500 to $1,380,500 is what remains of the price after market and settlement costs, before the mortgage balance is paid from the proceeds at closing (Fairfax County Circuit Court Clerk, 2026). Subtract your actual payoff figure to get the cash you would bank.
How much tax would I owe on a sale at this price?
It depends on your basis, not on the price alone. Inherited property takes a stepped-up basis at the owner date of death value, often shrinking the taxable gain sharply, while a home bought decades ago at a low price may carry a large gain (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). Have the computation done on your own acquisition records before relying on any proceeds figure.
What if my home sells for somewhat more or less than $1,500,000?
The method scales even when the headline figure is only a benchmark. Commission moves dollar for dollar with price at the typical 5 to 6 percent (National Association of Realtors, 2025), closing costs move with it at 1 to 2 percent (Frontier Capitals, 2026), and the transfer charges recompute exactly from the statutory rates at whatever price is struck (Code of Virginia, 2026). A sale at $1,400,000 therefore keeps roughly $100,000 less before fixed-feeling lines like credits and carry, which do not shrink with the price, while a sale at $1,600,000 keeps somewhat more than the simple difference suggests for the same reason. The range in this post is a worked example, and the worksheet behind it is the durable takeaway.
Could a direct offer ever beat the listed keep at this level?
Yes, when it lands above the listed keep range after costs. A direct price has no commission, no seller closing package and no repair credits deducted, so an offer modestly below $1,500,000 can still deliver proceeds inside or above the $1,315,500 to $1,380,500 band (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The only honest test is running both nets side by side.
Sellers in Falls Church also ask How Much Does It Cost to Sell a House in Falls Church? and What Hidden Expenses Can Reduce Profits When Selling a Falls Church Home?
Sources
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189-neighborhood builder-demand study: 44 homes sampled across 22043 and 22046, 18 acquired by builders and redeveloped, 40.9 percent aggregate rate, ranked 72nd of 189. Research institute.
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Industry report.
- National Association of Realtors, 2024. Settlement rules effective August 17, 2024: written buyer agreements required, buyer-agent compensation no longer offered through the MLS. Industry report.
- Redfin, 2025. Commission analysis: average buyer's agent commission 2.4 percent for homes sold in Q1 2025. Market data.
- Code of Virginia, 2026. Title 58.1, Chapter 8: recordation tax and grantor's tax. Government data.
- Virginia State Bar, 2025. Real estate settlement agent requirements. Official record.
- Fairfax County Circuit Court Clerk, 2026. Land records, deed recording and disclosure filing procedures. Official record.
- Internal Revenue Service, 2026. Publication 523, Selling Your Home: basis of inherited property. Government data.
- Redfin, 2026. Recently sold homes and new construction, ZIP codes 22043 and 22046, Falls Church VA. Market data.
- Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration, 2026. Real estate assessment records, Falls Church area VA. Official record.