This report answers with an explicit, labeled illustration, not with a sourced sale, because no recorded 1,500,000 dollar transaction with its settlement figures exists in the material compiled for this study. What exists are the rates: commission at a typical total of 5 to 6 percent (National Association of Realtors, 2025), seller side closing costs of 1 to 2 percent including a documentary stamp tax of 0.70 dollars per 100 dollars of consideration (Florida Department of Revenue, 2026), and inspection concessions that the research ledger records at 15,000 to 35,000 dollars on older coastal cottages, with wider repair credit experience of 10,000 to 30,000 dollars in off market comparisons (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Applied carefully to a 1,500,000 dollar price, those sourced rates produce a kept figure in a band rather than a point: roughly 1,345,000 to 1,395,000 dollars before mortgage payoff, tax considerations and any price negotiation during the listing, with the middle of the band near 1,370,000 dollars. Every step of that arithmetic is shown below so any seller can rerun it with the exact figures from a real offer.
Key Findings
- The 1,500,000 dollar kept figure in this report is a labeled illustration built from sourced rates, not a sourced sale, and it should be read that way throughout (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Commission at the typical 5 to 6 percent takes 75,000 to 90,000 dollars from a 1,500,000 dollar sale (National Association of Realtors, 2025).
- The documentary stamp tax alone takes 10,500 dollars at that price, inside a seller closing cost band of 15,000 to 30,000 dollars (Florida Department of Revenue, 2026).
- Concessions on older coastal cottages in the research run 15,000 to 35,000 dollars, and market reporting for Florida describes sellers conceding as buyers wait (HousingWire, 2026).
- Mortgage payoff is separate from selling costs: the seller keeps the illustrated band only if no loan balance remains to be cleared at closing (Federal Reserve, 2026).
How Is the Illustration Built, Line by Line?
Begin with the gross price of 1,500,000 dollars and deduct only what the sources support. Commission comes first because it is largest and most certain: at 5 percent the charge is 75,000 dollars, at 6 percent it is 90,000 dollars (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Inside that total the buyer agent share alone, which averaged 2.4 percent in early 2025 sales (Redfin, 2025), accounts for about 36,000 dollars, which shows why even a seller who negotiates the listing side hard still pays a substantial sum to the other side of the table.
Closing costs come second. The seller side band of 1 to 2 percent gives 15,000 to 30,000 dollars at this price, and the composition is documented in our companion piece on closing costs Santa Rosa Beach sellers typically pay. The stamp tax is the fixed core of that band at 10,500 dollars (Florida Department of Revenue, 2026), with title, settlement, recording and prorations making up the remainder. National guidance for sellers describes the same categories in the same proportions (Freddie Mac via Bankrate, 2026).
Concessions come third and carry the widest uncertainty. The research ledger for older coastal cottages records inspection driven credits of 15,000 to 35,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A 1,500,000 dollar cottage with a sound roof and documented wind mitigation might land at the low end; one with roof age, flood questions and septic findings could pass the high end, since the credit scales with what the inspection finds rather than with a schedule. Florida market coverage through this period describes a buyer side willing to wait and a seller side conceding (HousingWire, 2026), which supports using the middle of the concession range rather than its floor in an honest illustration. Adding the three categories at their midpoints, commission near 82,500 dollars, closing costs near 22,500 dollars and concessions near 25,000 dollars, gives total deductions near 130,000 dollars and a kept figure near 1,370,000 dollars before loan payoff and taxes.
What Does the Seller Keep in the Low and High Cases?
The band matters more than the midpoint. In the favorable case, commission at 5 percent, closing costs at 1 percent and concessions at 15,000 dollars, deductions total 105,000 dollars and the seller keeps about 1,395,000 dollars. In the heavy case, commission at 6 percent, closing costs at 2 percent and concessions at 35,000 dollars, deductions total 155,000 dollars and the seller keeps about 1,345,000 dollars. The spread between those outcomes, 50,000 dollars, is larger than many sellers expect to negotiate over, yet it sits entirely inside ordinary variation in three sourced rates. That is the real lesson of the illustration: at corridor prices, small percentage differences are large dollar differences, and a seller comparing two routes or two offers should compare them at the level of these lines rather than at the level of headline price.
Two further deductions sit outside the illustration and must be named so the figure is not misread. The first is any mortgage balance, which is repaid from proceeds at closing; the amount is individual, and rate data frames what refinancing or payoff decisions surround it (Federal Reserve, 2026). The second is tax. Federal capital gains treatment depends on basis, ownership and use, and Florida imposes no personal income tax, but no tax figure is included in this illustration because none can be sourced for a hypothetical seller. Our companion report on capital gains taxes for Santa Rosa Beach sellers covers that framework, and a seller with a real transaction in view should have the tax line calculated from actual basis records rather than from any illustration, including this one.
Price movement during the listing is the third unnamed variable. The illustration assumes the house sells at 1,500,000 dollars. The listed older cottage in this market commonly spends 60 to 120 plus days reaching closing (Frontier Capitals, 2026), and a price reduction during that period lowers every percentage based deduction slightly while lowering proceeds almost dollar for dollar. Sold records for the ZIP code show where finished sales actually land (Redfin, 2026), and valuation trackers show asking expectations moving against them (Zillow, 2026).
How Does Time Change the Kept Figure for a Rental Property?
The illustration so far treats the 1,500,000 dollar property as a house. On Scenic 30A it is often a business, and the research ledger prices the time a listing consumes. A cottage earning within the corridor range of 60,000 to 100,000 dollars a year that is pulled from the rental rotation for showings loses 8,000 to 15,000 dollars a month in season, and three months of market time costs 30,000 to 60,000 dollars in lost income and holding expense combined (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Apply even the low end of that range and the heavy case kept figure falls toward 1,315,000 dollars; apply the high end and it approaches 1,285,000 dollars. None of that appears on a settlement statement, which is exactly why sellers who only read the statement overstate what they kept.
The contract form underneath the sale shapes how much of this risk the seller carries. Listed sales here run on the state association forms (Florida Realtors, 2026), with inspection periods and financing contingencies that extend the period during which the property is effectively off the rental market while remaining unsold in law. A failed contract restarts the clock with the season partly spent. Sellers of income property should therefore read the kept figure as a range with a time adjustment, not as a single number, and should ask any agent proposing a list price to show the net at 60 days and at 120 days alongside the net at closing. That request alone disciplines most pricing conversations.
How Does the Whole Illustration Read as One Ledger?
Gathered into a single column, the midpoint version of this illustration is easy to audit. Price: 1,500,000 dollars. Commission at the middle of the typical range, about 82,500 dollars. Closing costs at the middle of the seller band, about 22,500 dollars, of which the stamp tax supplies a fixed 10,500 dollars (Florida Department of Revenue, 2026). Concessions at the middle of the research range for older coastal cottages, about 25,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Total deductions: about 130,000 dollars. Kept before loan payoff and tax: about 1,370,000 dollars. Presented this way, the illustration stops looking like a prediction and reveals itself as what it is, a set of sourced rates arranged around a round price so that a seller can see the proportions. Roughly nine cents of every dollar in the price goes to the costs of the listed route in the midpoint case, and almost two thirds of that nine cents is commission.
The same ledger at other prices confirms the proportions rather than the particular numbers. The guides for this market record commission plus closing costs alone exceeding 65,000 dollars on a 1,100,000 dollar transaction and 70,000 dollars on a 1,000,000 dollar transaction, figures that represent the same percentage stack this illustration applies at 1,500,000 dollars, before concessions are counted at all. A seller whose actual price is 1,200,000 dollars or 1,800,000 dollars should not borrow the kept figure from this page; the seller should borrow the method, scale the two percentage lines to the real price, keep the stamp arithmetic exact, and carry concessions as a range set by the actual inspection profile of the actual cottage. That is also why this report refuses to present its headline number as a finding: at corridor prices, a borrowed number that is wrong by one percentage point is wrong by 15,000 dollars, and the honest product of research at this level is a worksheet, not a fortune.
One more discipline belongs in the ledger, and it concerns the order in which a household spends the result. Proceeds that will fund a replacement purchase, a tax reserve and family distributions should be assigned on paper before closing, in the proportions the worksheet supports, because money that arrives as one large balance tends to be treated as one large permission. The illustration gives the seller the size of the balance with reasonable honesty; what it cannot give is the plan, and confusing the two is how a well priced sale still ends in a strained year. Sellers who treat the kept figure as a budget to be allocated, rather than as a prize to be celebrated, are the ones who report later that the sale improved their position.
How Does the Kept Figure Look on the Off Market Route?
On the off market route through Frontier Capitals, which sources off-market properties and places them with vetted builders as a wholesaler rather than acting as a builder, the deduction structure changes category by category. Privacy removes the showing interruption: no public marketing period and no displaced guests, so the in season rental sacrifice does not occur. Flexible closing compresses the timeline to 7 to 21 days, or extends it by agreement with a leaseback that preserves a season of income, against 60 to 120 plus days on the listed path. No commission removes the 75,000 to 90,000 dollar line entirely at this price. No seller closing costs removes the 15,000 to 30,000 dollar band, a combined commission and closing saving that the research expresses as more than 55,000 dollars on an 815,000 dollar sale and that scales proportionally at 1,500,000 dollars. No inspections or repairs removes the concession negotiation, since the sale is as is.
To keep the comparison honest, note what the route does not claim. A builder buyer prices from the residual method, and at this tier the sample shows builder purchases averaging 38.8 percent of new build value on comparable lots (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A 1,500,000 dollar asking expectation and a builder valuation are different conversations, and the kept figure comparison only works when the gross prices being compared are real offers rather than aspirations. The disciplined question is always net against net at prices that can actually close. A seller can request that comparison at 401-219-4207 or [email protected], and the methodology page explains how the figures behind it are built.
Methodology and limitations
This report is an illustration and labels itself as one in every section. Its inputs are sourced rates only: commission structure (National Association of Realtors, 2025), the buyer agent commission average (Redfin, 2025), the documentary stamp schedule (Florida Department of Revenue, 2026), seller closing cost categories (Freddie Mac via Bankrate, 2026), concession experience in Florida coverage (HousingWire, 2026) and the research ledger for the Santa Rosa Beach sample (Frontier Capitals, 2026). No sourced sale at 1,500,000 dollars with settlement detail exists in the compiled material, and the data file for this set says so expressly, directing that the figure be worked as a labeled illustration from the rates. Mortgage payoff, individual tax outcomes and negotiated price movement are excluded by design. Individual results will vary with condition, contract and timing, and a title company estimate plus a tax review are the right instruments for a live transaction.
Conclusion
A seller of a 1,500,000 dollar Santa Rosa Beach home, on the sourced rates available, keeps roughly 1,345,000 to 1,395,000 dollars in a traditional listed sale before loan payoff and taxes, near 1,370,000 dollars at the midpoint of the ranges, and meaningfully less once the rental income sacrificed to a long listing is counted (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The illustration earns its keep not by predicting a settlement but by showing where the money goes: about 82,500 dollars to commission at the midpoint, about 22,500 dollars to closing costs anchored by a 10,500 dollar stamp tax, and about 25,000 dollars to concessions that no schedule controls. A seller who can see those lines can negotiate them, route around them, or accept them knowingly, and all three are better than discovering them at the table.
When the difference between two selling routes is larger than the difference between two asking prices, which number will you negotiate first?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the 1,370,000 dollar figure a real sale result?
No. It is the midpoint of a labeled illustration built from sourced commission, closing cost and concession rates applied to a hypothetical 1,500,000 dollar price. No recorded 1,500,000 dollar sale with settlement figures exists in the material for this report, and the text says so wherever the number appears.
What is the largest deduction at this price?
Commission, at 75,000 to 90,000 dollars for the typical 5 to 6 percent total (National Association of Realtors, 2025). The buyer agent portion alone averages 2.4 percent (Redfin, 2025), about 36,000 dollars at this price, which is why commission negotiation focuses so heavily on structure.
Does the seller keep the illustrated amount if a mortgage exists?
No. A mortgage balance is repaid from proceeds at closing, ahead of what the seller takes away. The illustration isolates selling costs only; loan payoff depends on the individual balance, and rate conditions around payoff and any replacement purchase are tracked in federal rate data (Federal Reserve, 2026).
Why are taxes left out of the calculation?
Because they depend on basis, holding period, ownership and use, which a hypothetical illustration cannot know. Federal guidance governs the treatment of a home sale, Florida levies no personal income tax, and the stamp tax that does apply is already counted inside closing costs at 10,500 dollars for this price (Florida Department of Revenue, 2026).
How much higher is the kept figure without commission and seller closing costs?
By the full amount of those lines: 90,000 to 120,000 dollars at this price, before counting avoided concessions of 15,000 to 35,000 dollars and avoided rental interruption. That is why the research expresses the combined saving as exceeding 55,000 dollars already at an 815,000 dollar price point (Frontier Capitals, 2026), and why route comparison belongs in net terms.
Sources
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189 neighborhood builder acquisition sample: 99 homes sampled in 32459, 21 acquired by builders, average older home price 38.8 percent of new build. Market data.
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Typical seller commission structures, Emerald Coast market. Industry report.
- Redfin, 2025. Commission analysis: average buyer's agent commission 2.4% for homes sold in Q1 2025. Market data.
- Florida Department of Revenue, 2026. Documentary stamp tax schedule: $0.70 per $100 of consideration. Official record.
- Freddie Mac via Bankrate, 2026. Closing costs for sellers. Industry report.
- HousingWire, 2026. Florida buyers are waiting, sellers are conceding. Press.
- Florida Realtors, 2026. Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase (AS IS) form and related riders. Industry report.
- Federal Reserve, 2026. Interest rate policy and mortgage rate data. Government data.
- Redfin, 2026. Recently sold homes and new construction, ZIP code 32459, Santa Rosa Beach FL. Market data.
- Zillow, 2026. Home values and recently sold, 32459. Market data.