Worked with the local percentages from the research ledger for this series, and labeled as a simplified illustration at this price rather than a quote, a seller at 1,500,000 dollars keeps roughly 1,380,000 to 1,410,000 dollars after the two standard fee layers alone. Commission at 5 to 6 percent takes 75,000 to 90,000 dollars (National Association of Realtors, 2025), and seller side closing costs at 1 to 2 percent take another 15,000 to 30,000 dollars, a band that includes documentary stamp tax of 10,500 dollars at the statutory rate (Florida Legislature, 2025). Carrying the home through a normal listed timeline lowers the kept figure further, as the sections below show month by month, while a mortgage payoff and any tax on the gain sit outside this illustration because both depend on the individual seller.
Key Findings
- At 1,500,000 dollars, commission at the typical 5 to 6 percent equals 75,000 to 90,000 dollars, the largest single deduction from the price (National Association of Realtors, 2025).
- Seller side closing costs at 1 to 2 percent equal 15,000 to 30,000 dollars at this price, and documentary stamp tax alone accounts for 10,500 dollars of that band (Florida Legislature, 2025) (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Together the two fee layers take 90,000 to 120,000 dollars, leaving 1,380,000 to 1,410,000 dollars before carrying costs, credits, any mortgage payoff, and any tax (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Scaled from the research carrying figure of 4,000 to 7,000 dollars a month on a 750,000 dollar property, carrying a 1,500,000 dollar home illustrates at 8,000 to 14,000 dollars a month, so three months on market can remove a further 24,000 to 42,000 dollars.
- A direct sale removes the commission and seller closing layers entirely, which at this price preserves the full 90,000 to 120,000 dollar band that the illustration deducts (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
How is the illustration built, and what does it leave out?
The method is deliberately plain. Take the percentages the research documents for this neighborhood, apply them to 1,500,000 dollars, and report the resulting ranges without decoration (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Commission behavior supports the rate: 91 percent of sellers nationally used an agent (National Association of Realtors, 2025), the buyer agent portion alone averaged 2.40 percent in early 2025 (Redfin, 2025), and only 37.4 percent of sellers negotiated the commission at all (Redfin, 2025), so the full 5 to 6 percent is the realistic planning figure rather than a pessimistic one.
Three exclusions must be named before the numbers are used. First, a mortgage payoff: the illustration works from the price, not from the seller equity, because no loan balance figure exists in the source material and balances vary too widely to illustrate honestly. Second, tax on any gain: that calculation runs through basis and the principal residence exclusion rules, and it is handled separately in the report on capital gains taxes when selling here. Third, price movement: the illustration holds the price at exactly 1,500,000 dollars, although the wider market reporting shows pending sales at their lowest in nearly three years and sellers outnumbering buyers by 58 percent (Redfin, 2026), conditions under which holding a high price for months is not guaranteed.
What remains after those exclusions is still the most useful version of the answer, because the fee layers are the deductions every listed seller at this price will certainly face, in roughly these amounts, whatever the individual circumstances.
What does the carrying illustration do to the kept figure?
The research ledger prices carrying a 750,000 dollar property at 4,000 to 7,000 dollars a month (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Scaling that figure to a 1,500,000 dollar home, and labeling the result plainly as an illustration rather than a measured local rate, gives 8,000 to 14,000 dollars a month. The scaling is reasonable because the components, mortgage service, taxes, insurance, and upkeep, all grow with the value of the property, and Florida insurance premiums are already among the highest in the nation (Insurance Information Institute, 2024).
Now apply time. Older homes here commonly spend 60 to 120 days reaching a closing, and three months sits in the middle of that experience. Three months at the illustrated carrying rate removes 24,000 to 42,000 dollars, pulling the kept figure down to roughly 1,338,000 to 1,386,000 dollars. A fourth month, well inside the normal range for older stock, removes another 8,000 to 14,000 dollars. None of this requires anything to go wrong; it is simply the meter running at the illustrated rate while the market takes its usual time.
A further scenario deserves one line, also labeled an illustration. If the inspection on an older home produces a credit inside the range the research calls normal on older 33143 inventory, 15,000 to 40,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026), the kept figure after fees and three months of carrying falls to roughly 1,298,000 to 1,371,000 dollars. That is the honest spread a seller at this price should carry into a listing decision: the celebrated price is 1,500,000 dollars, and the plausible kept band after an ordinary listed cycle is nearer 1,300,000 to 1,410,000 dollars, before mortgage and tax.
Why do the percentages bite harder at this price than at lower ones?
Percentages scale without mercy, and South Miami prices expose that. The same 5 to 6 percent commission that takes roughly 31,000 dollars from a 555,000 dollar older home takes 75,000 to 90,000 dollars here, and the same closing band that forms part of a 37,000 dollar combined deduction at 555,000 dollars reaches 15,000 to 30,000 dollars on its own at this level (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A seller moving up in price therefore gains in absolute kept dollars while surrendering an amount that would itself buy a meaningful property elsewhere.
The documentary stamp line shows the scaling in miniature. At 0.70 dollars per 100 dollars of consideration (Florida Legislature, 2025), the tax is 3,885 dollars on the 555,000 dollar example and 10,500 dollars here. It also consumes most of the low end of the closing band at this price: a seller quoted closing costs at the 1 percent end should understand that over two thirds of that figure is a single statutory tax, leaving little room for the remaining settlement charges to be smaller than expected.
Context from the neighborhood explains why a 1,500,000 dollar older home sale is a realistic case rather than a fantasy. Finished construction here sells from 1,900,000 to 3,500,000 dollars (Redfin, 2026), and older homes average 20.6 percent of comparable new build prices (Frontier Capitals, 2026), so well placed older homes and land rich parcels transact in the low millions as a matter of record. The parcel file for any candidate property (Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser, 2026) will show whether a given address belongs to that tier or to the more modest tier of the sample.
What should a seller verify before treating the illustration as a plan?
Verify the title and deed position first, because a clean file keeps the closing band at its low end. Recorded deeds and entity filings are searchable in the county system (Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts, 2026), and anything that needs clearing is cheaper to address before a contract clock starts running.
Verify the tax position second. The county tax record shows the payment status that the closing proration will be built from (Miami-Dade County Tax Collector, 2026), and at a 1,500,000 dollar price the proration is a meaningful sum moving between the parties at settlement. A seller who has read that record can model the closing statement to within a narrow band instead of meeting it cold.
Verify the closing route third. Florida sellers settle through title companies or attorneys (Florida Realtors, 2025), and either can produce an estimated seller statement at the start of the process. Asking for that estimate, at this price, with the percentages in this report in hand, turns the illustration into a property specific worksheet, which is exactly what an illustration is for.
City level context completes the preparation. South Miami is a compact, established city with a real downtown on Sunset Drive, and buyers at the 1,500,000 dollar level are purchasing into that stability as much as into the house. That demand is the reason the price is achievable; the fee stack is the reason the kept figure is not the price, and a prepared seller holds both facts at once.
How does this illustration compare with the lower price ledgers in the research?
Placing the 1,500,000 dollar illustration beside the documented ledgers shows how the percentages compound with price. At 555,000 dollars, commission and closing costs together consume over 37,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). At 650,000 dollars, the same two layers pass 40,000 dollars. At the illustration price here, they reach 90,000 to 120,000 dollars, roughly three times the 555,000 dollar burden for a price not quite three times as large, because the closing band widens in dollars as the commission line grows (National Association of Realtors, 2025). The carrying comparison moves the same way: the documented 4,000 to 7,000 dollar monthly figure belongs to a 750,000 dollar property (Frontier Capitals, 2026), and the scaled illustration for this price doubles it. Sellers stepping up from a smaller South Miami home to this tier often carry intuitions formed at the old price, where the stack felt tolerable, and are genuinely surprised by the stack at the new one. Running the illustration before listing, rather than discovering it inside a closing statement, is the entire purpose of working the example at this headline price.
What does the seller keep if the same home sells off market?
At the same 1,500,000 dollar price, the direct route keeps the entire fee band the illustration deducts. No commission removes 75,000 to 90,000 dollars of loss, and absorbing the seller side closing costs preserves the 15,000 to 30,000 dollar band, subject always to the mortgage payoff and tax position that sit outside any price based illustration.
The supporting terms protect the kept figure in quieter ways. The transaction runs privately, with zero showings and zero open houses, so the price never becomes a public anchor that a later negotiation must defend. The closing can be set in 7 to 21 days, which caps carrying at the illustrated 8,000 to 14,000 dollar monthly rate to a matter of weeks, or arranged months out with a leaseback when the household needs the time more than the speed. The purchase is made as is, so no inspection credit appears after the price is set, and the older home credit range of 15,000 to 40,000 dollars documented in the research never enters the statement.
The intermediary in that route should be identified without varnish: Frontier Capitals sources off-market deals to builders and is a wholesaler in the technical sense, not a builder and not a lender. Sellers can test the buying side with the standard checks from the local research: proof of funds dated within 30 days in the buyer name, recorded deeds in the buyer entity name checkable with the county clerk (Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts, 2026), earnest money of typically 1 percent or more, and no assignment clause in the contract.
How should the kept ranges be used in an actual negotiation?
Treat the ranges as a floor for preparation rather than as a prediction. A seller who knows the fee layers will take 90,000 to 120,000 dollars can evaluate any offer, listed or direct, by asking which of those layers the offer absorbs and which it leaves in place, instead of reacting to the headline price alone (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The same ranges discipline the conversation about time: every month of delay at the illustrated carrying rate has a price, and a buyer asking for a long closing should be expected to compensate for it in the number. Used that way, the illustration stops being an abstract exercise and becomes the seller side of the negotiating table, stated in dollars before anyone signs anything.
Methodology and limitations
Every figure in this report is an illustration, built by applying the documented local percentages to the 1,500,000 dollar price named in the headline: commission at 5 to 6 percent, seller closing costs at 1 to 2 percent, documentary stamp tax at the statutory rate, and a carrying figure scaled from the research example at 750,000 dollars and labeled as scaled wherever it appears (Frontier Capitals, 2026) (Florida Legislature, 2025). The source material contains no seller specific data for this price point, no mortgage balance figure, and no individual tax computation, so those items are excluded and named as excluded rather than estimated. The neighborhood sample behind the percentages covers 36 pre-1981 homes in 33143 with 25 builder acquisitions, and no property was inspected and no title search was performed for this report.
Conclusion
At 1,500,000 dollars, the price is not the payday: the worked illustration keeps 1,380,000 to 1,410,000 dollars after fees alone, nearer 1,338,000 to 1,386,000 dollars after three ordinary months of carrying, and less again if an inspection credit lands. Owners who want the illustration rebuilt around their own price, timeline, and tax picture can call 401-219-4207 or email [email protected]. If two routes both promise you 1,500,000 dollars, would you rather know which one leaves you 100,000 dollars more, before or after you sign?
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the kept figure include paying off a mortgage?
No, and deliberately so. The illustration deducts the fee layers that apply to every listed sale at this price (Frontier Capitals, 2026), while a mortgage payoff depends on an individual balance that the source material does not contain. A seller should subtract the actual payoff from the kept band to reach a personal figure, using the net proceeds method to order the steps.
Why is documentary stamp tax so large in this illustration?
Because the rate is proportional and the price is large. At 0.70 dollars per 100 dollars of consideration (Florida Legislature, 2025), a 1,500,000 dollar price produces 10,500 dollars of tax, and that single item fills most of the 1 percent end of the seller closing band, which is why the band is quoted as a range.
Is the scaled carrying figure a measured local rate?
No. It is an illustration, produced by scaling the research carrying figure of 4,000 to 7,000 dollars a month on a 750,000 dollar property to twice the price (Frontier Capitals, 2026), and it is labeled as scaled in every place it appears in this report. A specific home carrying cost will vary with its loan, tax, and insurance position, with Florida premiums among the highest in the nation (Insurance Information Institute, 2024).
Could a seller negotiate the kept figure closer to the price in a listed sale?
At the margins. Only 37.4 percent of sellers negotiated commission at all in the research (Redfin, 2025), and negotiation trims percentages rather than deleting them, while carrying time and inspection exposure remain. The structural way to keep the full band is to remove the layers, which is what the direct route described in this report does.
Where does tax on the gain fit into the kept figure?
After it. Any capital gains tax is computed on the gain, using basis and the principal residence rules, and it is owed out of the kept amount rather than deducted at the closing table in the manner of the fee layers. The companion tax report works through that method with the federal sources, and the contact page can route a seller to a full worksheet.
Sources
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Highlights from the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Industry report.
- Florida Legislature, 2025. Documentary stamp tax of 0.70 dollars per 100 dollars of consideration; HOA disclosure summary under Statutes 720.401. Government data.
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189 neighborhood builder acquisition sample: 36 homes sampled in 33143, 25 acquired by builders, average older home price 20.6 percent of new build. Market data.
- Redfin, 2025. Real Estate Agent Commissions Have Not Changed Much Since the NAR Settlement Took Effect. Market data.
- Redfin, 2026. Recently sold homes and new construction, ZIP code 33143, South Miami FL. Market data.
- Insurance Information Institute, 2024. Homeowners insurance market conditions; Florida average premiums among the highest in the nation. Industry report.
- Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser, 2026. Parcel and permit records, South Miami FL. Official record.
- Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts, 2026. Official records search: recorded deeds and entity filings. Official record.
- Miami-Dade County Tax Collector, 2026. Property tax records and payment status. Official record.
- Florida Realtors, 2025. Residential closing practices: title company and attorney closing options for sellers. Industry report.