The research behind this set works its cost ledger at a 600,000 dollar price point, and the honest way to answer this headline is to scale that ledger openly rather than pretend a separate study exists for higher priced homes. The percentages are the documented part: commissions typically take 5 to 6 percent, seller closing costs take another 1 to 2 percent, and together they consume 6 to 8 percent of the price (National Association of Realtors, 2025) (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2025). Percentages scale in a straight line, so at a price of 1,500,000 dollars, which is two and a half times the benchmark, the same layers take two and a half times the dollars: commission of 75,000 dollars to 90,000 dollars, closing costs of 15,000 dollars to 30,000 dollars, and a combined 90,000 dollars to 120,000 dollars before carrying costs, concessions, any mortgage payoff, and any tax question are considered. That scaled figure, and how to read it, is the subject of this page.
Key Findings
- The documented benchmark ledger at 600,000 dollars shows commissions and closing costs taking 36,000 dollars to 48,000 dollars combined (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Scaling is linear: a 1,500,000 dollar price is 2.5 times the benchmark, so the same 6 to 8 percent becomes 90,000 dollars to 120,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Commission alone scales from 30,000 dollars to 36,000 dollars at the benchmark to 75,000 dollars to 90,000 dollars at the higher price (National Association of Realtors, 2025).
- Seller closing costs scale from 6,000 dollars to 12,000 dollars to a range of 15,000 dollars to 30,000 dollars (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2025).
- A mortgage payoff and any tax liability sit below these cost layers and depend on the individual seller, so no single keep figure fits every sale (Internal Revenue Service, 2026).
Why does this page scale the benchmark instead of quoting a fresh study?
Because inventing a separate dataset for one price point would be worse than honest arithmetic. The local research sampled 21 older homes in 85251 and built its seller cost ledger at 600,000 dollars, so that the typical seller could see typical numbers (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Higher priced Old Town sales exist across the Arts District and the Historic District, and new construction in the ZIP sells between 1,300,000 dollars and 2,200,000 dollars, but the cost percentages that govern what a seller keeps are not price specific (Redfin, 2026). They are rate based. When a cost is defined as a percentage, the correct treatment at a new price is multiplication, and this page shows its multiplication in the open.
The scaling factor deserves one clear statement. The benchmark is 600,000 dollars. The headline price is 1,500,000 dollars. Dividing the second by the first gives 2.5, so every dollar figure in the benchmark ledger is multiplied by 2.5 to produce the corresponding figure here. Commission of 30,000 dollars to 36,000 dollars becomes 75,000 dollars to 90,000 dollars. Closing costs of 6,000 dollars to 12,000 dollars become 15,000 dollars to 30,000 dollars. The combination of 36,000 dollars to 48,000 dollars becomes 90,000 dollars to 120,000 dollars. A seller who distrusts any of those outputs can redo the multiplication in seconds, which is exactly the transparency the method is meant to provide.
What scaling cannot do is manufacture the seller specific lines. A mortgage balance is whatever the loan statement says. A tax outcome depends on basis, use, and the exclusion rules in federal guidance (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). Those lines are addressed below as method, with the limit stated plainly, rather than folded into a fake precision total.
Which layers scale exactly, and which only roughly?
The two percentage layers scale exactly, because they are defined as percentages of price. Commission at 5 to 6 percent and seller closing costs at 1 to 2 percent will take their share of a 1,500,000 dollar price just as mechanically as they take it at 600,000 dollars (National Association of Realtors, 2025) (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2025). The buyer agent portion inside commission, measured at an average of 2.40 percent in the first quarter of 2025, scales the same way, reaching roughly 36,000 dollars on its own at this price (Redfin, 2025).
Carrying costs scale only roughly. The benchmark figure of 15,000 dollars to 30,000 dollars across three to six months was built at a 600,000 dollar holding level (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A higher valued home usually carries higher insurance, tax, and maintenance lines, so the honest expectation at this price is a figure at or above the benchmark, scaled by the household actual bills rather than by a fixed multiplier. The time exposure is documented too: listed older homes take 60 to 120 plus days, and Arizona closing timelines add weeks after contract before proceeds arrive (Arizona Association of Realtors, 2025). A seller at this level should budget carrying cost from real monthly statements.
Concessions scale least predictably of all. The documented band for repair credits and post-inspection reductions on older inventory is 10,000 dollars to 25,000 dollars at the benchmark context (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A higher priced older home can draw larger absolute asks, especially where a buyer is paying a premium and inspecting accordingly, but the research gives no higher price band, and this page will not invent one. The full selling cost ledger shows how all of these layers are assembled at the benchmark before scaling.
What comes off after the cost layers at this price?
Two seller specific items sit below the percentage layers, and either one can outweigh them. The first is the mortgage payoff. Any existing loan is repaid from proceeds at closing, with liens recorded and released through the county process so title passes clean (Maricopa County Recorder, 2026). A seller who bought recently with a large loan may keep far less cash than a long time owner with no loan at all, even at the same sale price and the same cost percentages. This is the single largest reason the headline question has no universal answer.
The second is tax. Federal guidance on selling a home sets out exclusion rules that can shelter part or all of a gain for qualifying sellers, and the same publication covers rental use considerations that change the picture for homes held or used differently (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). The companion federal topic on the sale of a home walks through the reporting side, and inherited property basis rules matter where the home came to the seller through an estate (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). None of those outcomes can be read off a price alone. A seller at this level should run the tax line with a professional against the actual basis and use history, and the capital gains overview for local homeowners explains the framework without pretending to settle individual cases.
Price reductions belong in this section as a risk rather than a layer. With 36 percent of sellers reducing price at least once nationally, a reduction at this price level is expensive in absolute terms: a 3 percent trim is 45,000 dollars, larger than the entire closing cost layer (National Association of Realtors, 2025). The keep figure should always be modeled at the price the market will actually pay, not the price first imagined, since a late adjustment at this level costs more than several of the planned layers combined.
So what does the seller keep, stated as carefully as the evidence allows?
For a seller with no mortgage and no tax liability after exclusions, the documented layers alone put the keep figure in the region of 1,380,000 dollars to 1,410,000 dollars, being the 1,500,000 dollar price less the scaled 90,000 dollars to 120,000 dollars of commission and closing costs (Frontier Capitals, 2026). From there, subtract the household actual carrying costs across the months the sale takes, subtract any concessions agreed after inspection, and the figure settles lower by those real amounts. For a seller with a mortgage, subtract the payoff next, a step that can move the result by hundreds of thousands and has nothing to do with the cost of selling itself.
Read the answer as a structure, not a lottery number. Price, minus 6 to 8 percent of documented sale costs, minus time costs, minus condition concessions, minus debts attached to the property, minus any tax due after exclusions, equals what the seller keeps. Every term in that sentence is either a documented percentage, a household specific figure the seller can pull from a statement, or a professional question with a named source. The step by step net proceeds method turns that structure into a worksheet any seller can complete in an afternoon.
How can a seller verify the keep figure before committing to a route?
Verification takes three documents and about an hour. The first is a loan statement, which fixes the payoff line that no percentage table can supply. The second is a preliminary settlement estimate at the actual expected price, which converts the 1 to 2 percent closing cost range and the agreed commission into named line items for this specific file (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2025). The third is the household own record of monthly holding costs, because carrying cost at this level should be built from real insurance, tax, and maintenance figures rather than borrowed from a benchmark built at less than half the price (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
With those three in hand, the seller can also stress test the result. Run the model at the full expected price, then run it again 3 percent lower, reflecting the reduction that 36 percent of sellers nationally end up making at least once (National Association of Realtors, 2025). At this level that single stress costs 45,000 dollars of proceeds, and seeing it in advance changes behavior in useful ways: pricing discipline improves, concession allowances get funded honestly, and the temptation to chase an extra few weeks of marketing for a marginal price gain fades once its carrying cost is priced. A seller who has done this work can also evaluate a direct offer instantly, because the comparison is no longer between a gross price and a net figure. It is net against net, which is the only comparison that has ever mattered.
One more check belongs at this level specifically. Higher priced Old Town homes often sell into the same demand pool that pays 1,300,000 dollars to 2,200,000 dollars for new construction, so the seller should confirm whether the expected price is a household price, a finished product price, or a land driven price, since each carries a different buyer pool and a different inspection posture (Redfin, 2026). The keep structure is the same in each case, but the risk of reductions and concessions is not.
What does a private sale preserve at a higher Old Town price point?
At this price level the off-market savings stop sounding like percentages and start sounding like money, because the structure removes the two big percentage layers entirely. No commission is deducted, which at a 1,500,000 dollar price preserves the full scaled 75,000 dollars to 90,000 dollars the listed route would have taken (National Association of Realtors, 2025). No seller closing costs are deducted either, preserving the scaled 15,000 dollars to 30,000 dollars, for a combined 90,000 dollars to 120,000 dollars kept that a listing would have consumed (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
The rest of the pattern holds at any price. Privacy is complete, with no showings, no open houses, and no public marketing period, a meaningful benefit on prominent Old Town streets. The calendar is the seller choice, closing in 7 to 21 days when speed helps or months out with a short leaseback when a household needs to coordinate a move carefully, instead of the 60 to 120 plus days of a listed campaign plus closing time. The home passes as it stands, so no inspection repair credits are negotiated out of the proceeds after the price is set.
Frontier Capitals sources off-market homes to builders and is explicit about that role, never presenting itself as a builder. A seller weighing a higher priced sale can have the scaled ledger and the direct structure compared in writing at 401-219-4207 or [email protected].
What surprises sellers most at this level?
Almost always, it is the size of the percentage layers once they are translated out of percentages. Six to 8 percent sounds modest in a listing presentation, and at 600,000 dollars it already means 36,000 dollars to 48,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). At the headline price the same modest sounding rates mean 90,000 dollars to 120,000 dollars, enough to fund a long list of plans the seller had for the proceeds. The second surprise is how quickly the smaller layers stop being small: a few months of carrying a high value home, one round of inspection concessions on an older property, and one modest price trim can together rival the closing cost layer without any single item feeling dramatic at the time (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Sellers who scale the full ledger in advance, rather than only the two headline percentages, meet none of these as surprises, because each one was already sitting in the model with its name on it.
Methodology and limitations
This page is a scaling exercise and says so openly. The documented seller cost ledger in the underlying research is worked at 600,000 dollars, and every higher price figure here is that ledger multiplied by 2.5, the ratio between 1,500,000 dollars and the benchmark (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Percentage layers scale exactly; carrying costs and concessions are identified as household and negotiation specific, with no invented higher price bands. Mortgage payoff and tax outcomes are excluded from the headline keep range because they depend on the individual seller, and the federal sources cited describe the framework rather than any person result (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). The neighborhood sample itself covers 21 pre-1981 homes assembled to study builder acquisition and over-represents builder demand relative to the ZIP overall.
Conclusion
A seller at a 1,500,000 dollar price in Old Town Scottsdale keeps the price minus a documented cost structure that scales in plain sight: 90,000 dollars to 120,000 dollars of commissions and closing costs on the listed route, then time, concessions, debts, and any tax the exclusions do not shelter. The math is not mysterious once the benchmark is understood, and the same multiplication works at any price a seller is considering. Before your next sale, will you run your own price through the benchmark percentages and see what the listed route really leaves you?
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the research use a 600,000 dollar benchmark for a higher price question?
The benchmark sits near the typical older home price in the study, so the percentages were documented there first (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Scaling by 2.5 is the transparent way to apply those same documented rates at this price.
Is the combined cost at this price really 90,000 dollars to 120,000 dollars?
Yes, on the documented rates: 6 to 8 percent of 1,500,000 dollars is 90,000 dollars to 120,000 dollars, split between commission at 75,000 dollars to 90,000 dollars and closing costs at 15,000 dollars to 30,000 dollars (National Association of Realtors, 2025) (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2025).
Does the keep figure include paying off my mortgage?
No, the headline range covers sale costs only. A mortgage payoff is deducted from proceeds at closing through the recorded lien release process, and it varies entirely by household (Maricopa County Recorder, 2026).
Can exclusions really remove the tax line altogether?
Federal guidance provides exclusion rules for qualifying home sales, and whether they shelter all, part, or none of a gain depends on basis, ownership, and use (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). That determination belongs with a tax professional.
How much would a direct sale preserve at this price?
The full scaled percentage layers, 90,000 dollars to 120,000 dollars, since neither commission nor seller closing costs are deducted in the documented off-market structure (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
Sources
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189 neighborhood builder acquisition sample: 21 homes sampled in 85251, 13 acquired by builders, average older home price 29.9 percent of new build. Market data.
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers: typical seller commissions of 5% to 6%. Industry report.
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers: 36% of sellers reduced price at least once. Industry report.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2025. Settlement cost guidance: seller closing costs typically 1 to 2% of the sale price. Government data.
- Redfin, 2025. Commission analysis, Q1 2025: average buyer's agent commission 2.40%. Market data.
- Redfin, 2026. Recently sold homes and new construction, ZIP code 85251, Scottsdale AZ. Market data.
- Maricopa County Recorder, 2026. Lien recording and release requirements. Official record.
- Internal Revenue Service, 2026. Publication 523, Selling Your Home: exclusion rules; rental-use considerations. Government data.
- Internal Revenue Service, 2026. Topic no. 701, Sale of your home. Government data.
- Arizona Association of Realtors, 2025. Market statistics on closing timelines and off-market transactions. Industry report.