What percentage of a home sale does the seller actually get? For most sellers, the answer lands somewhere between 50% and just over 90% of the contract price, and the single biggest variable is how much you still owe on your mortgage. Transaction costs alone — commissions, closing fees, taxes, and concessions — take roughly 7% to 10% off the top before your loan payoff enters the picture. A seller who owns the home free and clear keeps around 90% to 93%. A seller carrying a large loan balance keeps far less.
What Comes Off Before Your Mortgage Is Touched
Two categories of costs get deducted from the sale price before any debt payoff. Together they usually run 7% to 10% of the contract price.
Agent commissions are the biggest. Total commissions have historically hovered between 5% and 6% of the sale price, split between the listing and buyer’s agents. On a $400,000 sale, that’s $20,000 to $24,000. You don’t write a separate check; the settlement agent deducts the amount from your proceeds at closing. Industry data from late 2025 shows average total commissions have drifted below 5.6%, and rates are more openly negotiable than they used to be following practice rule changes the National Association of Realtors implemented in August 2024.1National Association of REALTORS®. NAR Provides Final Reminder of August 17 Practice Change Implementation
Closing costs are the second layer, typically 2% to 4% of the sale price. Every deduction is itemized on page three of the Closing Disclosure, the standardized settlement form.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Closing Disclosure The biggest line item in many places is the real estate transfer tax, a state or local levy that runs anywhere from a nominal flat fee to about 3% of the sale price in the highest-tax jurisdictions. Some states and cities add a surcharge on properties above a certain price threshold, sometimes called a mansion tax.
Other closing costs commonly paid by sellers include:
- The owner’s title insurance policy, which the seller pays for in roughly half the states
- Escrow or settlement fees for the neutral third party managing the transaction
- Attorney fees, where state law requires an attorney at closing
- Prorated property taxes covering the portion of the year you owned the home
Because transfer tax rates and title practices vary so widely by state, check your local rate before estimating what you’ll clear.
The Mortgage Payoff Is the Biggest Lever
Your loan balance is what really determines the percentage you keep. A seller with a $300,000 mortgage on a $400,000 sale loses 75% of the gross price to debt repayment before commissions or taxes come out. Before the title can transfer cleanly, every recorded lien on the property has to be satisfied and released. Your lender will provide a payoff statement showing the remaining principal plus interest accrued since your last payment.
Prepayment penalties are far less common than they once were. Federal rules prohibit them on high-cost mortgages, and for most standard fixed-rate loans, any penalty is limited to the first three years with declining caps. If your loan is more than a few years old, a penalty is unlikely. Some non-conforming or specialty loans originated before these restrictions may still carry one, and the payoff statement will show it.
Secondary debt piles on. Home equity lines of credit, second mortgages, and judgment liens all have to be cleared through the settlement agent before the title company will issue a policy to the buyer. Federal tax liens attach to all your assets, including real estate, and the IRS’s claim follows the property until it’s resolved.3Internal Revenue Service. Understanding a Federal Tax Lien Property tax liens generally take priority over even the federal government’s claim.4Internal Revenue Service. 5.17.2 Federal Tax Liens Unpaid HOA dues, special assessments, contractor liens for home improvement work — the title search surfaces all of them, and each one comes out of your proceeds. In heavily leveraged situations, the seller’s percentage can shrink into single digits or trigger a short sale.
Concessions and Repair Credits
Concessions are money the seller agrees to contribute toward the buyer’s closing costs. The headline sale price doesn’t change, but your net does. Loan programs cap how much a seller can contribute. For conventional loans backed by Fannie Mae, the limit is 3% of the sale price when the buyer puts down less than 10%, 6% for down payments between 10% and 25%, and 9% when the buyer puts more than 25% down.5Fannie Mae. Interested Party Contributions (IPCs) FHA loans allow concessions up to 6% of the sale price.
Repair credits work the same way. After the inspection, a buyer may negotiate a lump-sum credit at closing instead of asking the seller to complete repairs. A leaking roof, aging water heater, or bad electrical panel can easily translate into thousands of dollars deducted from your proceeds on the settlement statement.
Capital Gains Taxes on What’s Left
After closing, taxes may take another cut, but most homeowners escape them. If you owned and used the home as your primary residence for at least two of the five years before the sale, you can exclude up to $250,000 of gain from your taxable income. Married couples filing jointly can exclude up to $500,000, provided both spouses meet the use requirement and at least one meets the ownership requirement.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 121 – Exclusion of Gain From Sale of Principal Residence The exclusion is available once every two years.
If your gain exceeds the exclusion or you don’t meet the requirements, the profit is taxed at federal long-term capital gains rates. For 2026, those are 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on income, and a 3.8% net investment income tax may apply on top for higher-income households. State income taxes on the gain vary widely, from zero in some states to over 10% in others. Your “gain” isn’t simply sale price minus purchase price — the cost of major improvements adds to your basis and reduces the taxable amount. The settlement agent typically files Form 1099-S with the IRS reporting the gross proceeds, so keep records of your purchase closing costs and improvement receipts.7Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1099-S
A boundary worth naming: sellers who are foreign nationals face additional 15% withholding on the sale price under the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act.8Internal Revenue Service. FIRPTA Withholding U.S. citizens and resident aliens avoid this by providing a certification of non-foreign status before closing.
What the Percentage Actually Looks Like
The math follows a simple sequence: sale price, minus commissions, minus closing costs and concessions, minus mortgage payoff and other liens. Divide the remainder by the sale price to see the percentage you kept.
On a $500,000 sale with a $250,000 mortgage balance:
- Sale price: $500,000
- Agent commissions at 5.5%: −$27,500
- Closing costs at 3%: −$15,000
- Buyer repair credit: −$5,000
- Mortgage payoff: −$250,000
- Net proceeds: $202,500, or 40.5% of the sale price
Change the mortgage balance and the percentage moves dramatically. The same sale with only $100,000 owed produces $352,500, about 70.5% of the price. Owning the home outright pushes the figure to roughly 90% to 93% after transaction costs. As of late 2025, nearly 45% of mortgaged residential properties nationwide qualified as equity-rich, meaning the owners owed no more than half of the property’s market value. That’s well above the pre-pandemic average, so a large share of today’s sellers are positioned to walk away with a meaningful percentage of their sale price.
Before you list, ask your agent or settlement company for a seller’s net sheet. It estimates every deduction based on your actual loan balance, local tax rates, and expected closing costs, and it will show you your real percentage before you commit to a next move.