By Aidan Sowa · October 2026 · St Simons Island, GeorgiaA seller who closes a $1.5 million St Simons Island home on the listed route keeps the price minus three kinds of deductions: the percentage charges, the transaction specific concessions, and whatever mortgage and tax obligations the proceeds must settle. The percentage charges are the easiest to state. Commissions plus seller closing costs run 6 to 8 percent of the price in practice (Frontier Capitals, 2026; National Association of Realtors, 2025), which on $1.5 million is $90,000 to $120,000. Before a mortgage payoff, repair credits of $10,000 to $25,000 and carrying costs of $15,000 to $35,000 are typically layered in as well (Frontier Capitals, 2026), so a mortgage free seller commonly keeps in the region of $1.32 million to $1.39 million from the headline price, and a seller with a mortgage keeps that figure minus the payoff amount struck for the closing date.
The price itself sits inside the documented island range. New construction on standard lots has sold from $1.1M to $1.9M depending on beach or marsh proximity and lot size (Redfin, 2026), so a $1.5 million sale is a mid range island transaction, often a newer or premium older home rather than a typical cottage. The sample behind this research tracked 17 older homes with 9 acquired by builders and an average older home price of 23.1 percent of new build price (Frontier Capitals, 2026), which is why most $1.5 million sellers are selling a finished product to a household buyer and paying the full listed route ledger for the privilege. The general assembly method behind this calculation appears in the report on how homeowners can calculate their net proceeds from a sale.
Key Findings
- Commissions plus closing costs at 6 to 8 percent take $90,000 to $120,000 from a $1.5 million price (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- The commission alone, at a typical 5 to 6 percent, is $75,000 to $90,000 on this price (National Association of Realtors, 2025).
- The Georgia transfer tax on $1.5 million of consideration is $1,500 at $1 per $1,000 (Georgia Department of Revenue, 2026).
- A mortgage payoff includes interest to the payoff date and allowed fees, so it exceeds the statement balance (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2026).
- A qualifying seller may exclude up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 on a joint return, under Section 121 (Internal Revenue Service, 2026).
What do the percentage charges take at this price?
Scale is the first lesson of a $1.5 million sale: percentages that look tolerable on a cottage become six figure deductions on a premium home. The typical total commission of 5 to 6 percent (National Association of Realtors, 2025) is $75,000 to $90,000 here. Within that structure, the buyer agent share alone averaged 2.4 percent in the first quarter of 2025 (Redfin, 2025), which is $36,000 of the seller money at this price flowing to the other side of the transaction. Seller closing costs of 1 to 2 percent add $15,000 to $30,000, and statewide closing cost comparisons show the same title, recording and settlement stack applying at premium prices as at modest ones (Bankrate, 2025), with the percentage items scaling and the fixed fees staying small.
The fixed items are almost rounding errors at this level, which cuts both ways. The transfer tax is exactly $1,500 (Georgia Department of Revenue, 2026). Recording and settlement fees documented in the closing band do not triple just because the price did. The result is that a $1.5 million seller usually lands near the lower half of the 6 to 8 percent combined band when the file is clean, and drifts upward only when title work, lien releases or legal time enter the picture. The deed and any lien releases are recorded with the county as part of that work (Glynn County Clerk of Superior Court, 2026), and a premium sale with a clean file is the cheapest kind to close, relative to its size.
None of this is an argument that the charges buy nothing. At $1.5 million the listing buys exposure to the household and second home buyers who pay finished home prices, and the segments producing those prices are mapped in the report on which St Simons Island neighborhoods have the most new construction replacing older homes. The point of this section is narrower: the seller keeps the price after these percentages, not the price itself, and planning a purchase, a tax estimate or a division of proceeds from the gross figure overstates the available money by roughly the price of a new car, several times over.
What do concessions and carrying costs take?
The second deduction group arrives during the transaction rather than at its start. For older homes on the island, seller concessions together with credits tied to inspection repairs commonly total between $10,000 and $25,000 (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A $1.5 million home is usually newer or renovated, so an individual seller may land below that band, but premium buyers negotiate premium findings, and a roof, elevation or systems item at this level can just as easily exceed it. The band is the documented planning range, and the honest method is to budget inside it until an inspection proves a specific sale different.
Carrying costs run while the sale proceeds. A listed older island home commonly takes 60 to 120 plus days, and carrying costs over three to six months run $15,000 to $35,000 across mortgage or equity cost, insurance, taxes, utilities and maintenance (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Flood insurance pricing under the federal Risk Rating 2.0 methodology keeps island premiums well above mainland levels (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2026), and at a $1.5 million value the insured amount, and therefore the premium being carried each month, is larger than on the worked cottage example. Price reductions are the third and least predictable item in this group: a premium home that misses its market in the first month tends to be repriced rather than merely waited out, and every reduction comes directly out of the keep figure computed here.
Adding the groups gives the working answer for a mortgage free seller: $1.5 million, minus $90,000 to $120,000 of percentage charges, minus $10,000 to $25,000 of credits, minus $15,000 to $35,000 of carrying costs, lands between roughly $1.32 million and $1.39 million kept, before any capital gains tax position is settled. Sellers who inherit at this level face a different basis picture, set out in the guide to selling an inherited house in St Simons Island, where a stepped up basis can shrink the taxable gain even when the keep figure looks similar.
How does a mortgage change what is kept?
For most sellers the mortgage payoff is the largest single deduction, larger than every selling cost combined. The payoff is collected from proceeds at closing, and it is not the balance on the last statement: it includes interest to the payoff date and any fees the loan documents allow (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2026). On a large island mortgage the gap between balance and payoff can be several thousand dollars, and it grows with each day of the closing month, so the keep figure should always be built from an ordered payoff for the actual date.
The arithmetic after the payoff is simple but unforgiving. Take the post cost figure of roughly $1.32 million to $1.39 million and subtract the payoff: a $600,000 payoff leaves roughly $720,000 to $790,000 of equity in hand; a $900,000 payoff leaves roughly $420,000 to $490,000. Nothing about the selling costs changed between those two cases, yet the sellers walk away with very different cheques, which is why the question in the headline can only be answered as a formula plus a worked range rather than as one island wide number. Owners who need the equity quickly, including those reading the report on what happens if a house does not sell before foreclosure, should note that market time itself enlarges the interest portion of the payoff while the price stays still.
A seller with no mortgage is not finished with obligations either. Tax prorations settle at closing, prepaid insurance is credited back, and any tax on the gain is paid later through the return rather than at the table, which means the cheque at closing overstates the final keep for a seller with a large taxable gain. The next section separates that tax layer from the closing layer, because confusing the two is the most common planning error at this price point.
How does capital gains tax affect the final keep?
Capital gains tax is computed on the gain, the price minus basis and selling costs, not on the price and not on the proceeds. Owners who pass both the ownership test and the use test are permitted to shield as much as $250,000 of profit from tax, with that ceiling rising to $500,000 for joint filers, under Section 121 (Internal Revenue Service, 2026). For a long held island home bought decades ago at a fraction of $1.5 million, the gain can exceed the exclusion, and the excess is taxable; for a recent purchase at a high basis, the gain may be small and the tax smaller still. The exclusion rules and the 2 of 5 year tests are the governing framework (Internal Revenue Service, 2026), and they reward sellers who document their basis, including improvement records, before the sale rather than reconstructing them afterward.
Two practical consequences follow for the keep figure. First, the closing cheque is not the final number: a seller owing tax on a large gain should reserve for it out of the proceeds instead of spending the full cheque and meeting the liability the following spring. Second, selling costs reduce the gain as well as the proceeds, so the $90,000 to $120,000 of percentage charges that hurt at closing partially repay the seller at tax time by shrinking the taxable amount. Neither effect changes the closing statement; both change what the seller ultimately keeps, which is the question this report set out to answer. The fuller tax treatment is in the report on whether St Simons Island homeowners pay capital gains taxes when selling.
What would a direct sale keep at a comparable price?
A direct sale changes the cost side of the formula, though direct purchase prices on this island are land based and therefore usually attach to older homes rather than to $1.5 million finished properties. The comparison is still instructive for any seller weighing routes. Frontier Capitals works as a wholesale buyer, acquiring homes straight from owners and sourcing off market opportunities for builders. Its documented terms are privacy with zero showings and no public marketing period; flexible closing in 7 to 21 days or months out with a leaseback; no commissions, which at the typical 5 to 6 percent is $27,500 to $33,000 on the $550,000 worked example (National Association of Realtors, 2025); no seller closing costs, taking the combined saving on that example to $33,000 to $44,000; and no inspections or repairs, with no $10,000 to $25,000 repair credits.
Applied as percentages to a hypothetical direct price, the commission and closing savings scale with the price, while the as is term removes the credit line and the fast closing shrinks the carrying line. What a direct route cannot do is conjure a finished home price for a house the market prices as a homesite, and what the listed route cannot do is avoid its own ledger. The seller task is to compare two nets, each honestly built, and this report gives the listed side of that comparison in full. The cost side in isolation is priced in the report on how much it costs to sell a house in St Simons Island, including the smaller lines this summary passed over quickly.
Methodology and limitations
The keep ranges in this report apply documented percentage bands from the island research to the $1.5 million headline price: commissions of 5 to 6 percent, seller closing costs of 1 to 2 percent, combined 6 to 8 percent, repair credits of $10,000 to $25,000 and carrying costs of $15,000 to $35,000 over three to six months (Frontier Capitals, 2026; National Association of Realtors, 2025). The underlying sample is 17 older homes, 9 builder acquired, at an average of 23.1 percent of new build price (Frontier Capitals, 2026), and the $550,000 worked example in that research is the source of the fixed ranges, which are applied here as planning bands rather than as measurements of $1.5 million sales specifically.
No individual $1.5 million closing was audited for this report, and no seller tax position was computed. Mortgage payoffs, basis figures and gains are property and household specific; the report gives the formula, the documented bands and a worked range, and states plainly that an exact keep figure requires the actual payoff, the actual basis and the actual closing statement for the property in question.
Conclusion
After a $1.5 million listed sale, a mortgage free St Simons Island seller typically keeps roughly $1.32 million to $1.39 million before any capital gains tax settlement, having given up $90,000 to $120,000 in commissions and closing costs plus credits and carrying costs along the way. A mortgage reduces the cheque by the payoff amount struck for the closing date, and a large taxable gain reduces the final keep further when the return is filed. The headline price is the start of the calculation, never the answer to it.
Owners who want the keep figure built for their own price, payoff and basis can telephone Frontier Capitals at 401-219-4207 or email [email protected].
If your plans after the sale were budgeted from the $1.5 million headline, how much of that budget survives the honest version of the arithmetic?
Frequently Asked Questions
How much commission is paid on a $1.5 million sale?
At the typical total commission of 5 to 6 percent, the commission is $75,000 to $90,000 (National Association of Realtors, 2025). The buyer agent share within structures like this averaged 2.4 percent in early 2025, about $36,000 at this price (Redfin, 2025).
What is the transfer tax on a $1.5 million sale?
Georgia charges $1 per $1,000 of consideration (Georgia Department of Revenue, 2026), so the transfer tax on $1.5 million is $1,500. It is one of the few closing lines a seller can compute exactly in advance.
Why is the amount kept lower than the price minus the mortgage?
Because selling costs leave before the mortgage is touched: $90,000 to $120,000 of commissions and closing costs, plus repair credits and carrying costs, come out of the same proceeds. The payoff is then subtracted from what remains, and the payoff itself exceeds the last statement balance (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2026).
Does the seller pay tax at the closing table?
Generally the capital gains position is settled through the tax return, not withheld line by line at closing. A qualifying seller may exclude up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 jointly, under Section 121 (Internal Revenue Service, 2026), and any tax on gain above the exclusion should be reserved out of the proceeds.
Can a direct sale keep more of the price?
On the cost side, yes: no commission and no seller closing costs are charged, the sale is as is with no repair credits, and closing in 7 to 21 days shrinks carrying costs. Direct prices on this island are land based, so the comparison belongs on older homes rather than on finished $1.5 million properties.
Sellers in St Simons Island also ask Can a House Be Sold Without Making Repairs Before Foreclosure in St Simons Island?
Sources
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189 neighborhood builder acquisition sample: 17 homes sampled in 31522, 9 acquired by builders, average older home price 23.1 percent of new build. Market data.
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Highlights from the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Industry report.
- Redfin, 2025. Commission analysis: average buyer's agent commission 2.4% for homes sold in Q1 2025. Market data.
- Bankrate, 2025. Average closing costs by state. Market data.
- Georgia Department of Revenue, 2026. Real estate transfer tax: $1 per $1,000 of consideration. Official record.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2026. What is a payoff amount and is it the same as my current balance?. Government data.
- Internal Revenue Service, 2026. Topic 701, sale of your home: $250,000/$500,000 exclusion and 2-of-5-year ownership and use tests. Government data.
- Glynn County Clerk of Superior Court, 2026. Recorded deeds and plat records for 31522. Official record.
- Redfin, 2026. Recently sold homes and new construction, ZIP code 31522, St. Simons Island GA. Market data.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2026. National Flood Insurance Program: Risk Rating 2.0 methodology and elevation certificate requirements. Government data.