Most home sellers keep somewhere between 50% and 90% of the sale price, and the single biggest reason that range is so wide is how much mortgage is still owed. Transaction costs alone — commissions, closing fees, and taxes — eat roughly 7% to 10% off the top before the loan payoff even enters the picture. A seller who owns the home free and clear walks away with close to 90%. A seller still carrying a large loan balance may keep far less. So the honest answer to what percentage of a home sale the seller gets is: it depends almost entirely on your equity, and you can calculate yours before you list.
The Deductions That Always Come Off the Top
Two categories of cost hit every sale regardless of your loan situation: agent commissions and closing costs. Together they typically run 7% to 10% of the sale price.
Agent commissions are the larger piece. Total commissions have historically sat between 5% and 6% of the sale price, split between the listing agent and the buyer’s agent. On a $400,000 sale that’s $20,000 to $24,000. Sellers don’t write a check for this; the settlement agent deducts it from the sale 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 the National Association of Realtors practice changes that took effect in August 2024.1National Association of REALTORS®. NAR Provides Final Reminder of August 17 Practice Change Implementation
Closing costs for the seller typically add another 2% to 4%. These appear itemized on the Closing Disclosure that both sides receive at settlement.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Closing Disclosure The biggest line item in many states is the real estate transfer tax, charged when the deed changes hands. About two-thirds of states impose one, with rates running from small flat fees up to roughly 3% in the highest-tax jurisdictions. Some states and cities add a mansion tax surcharge above certain price thresholds.
Other common seller closing costs include:
- Title insurance. In roughly half the states, the seller customarily pays for the owner’s policy that protects the buyer.
- Escrow fees for the neutral third party handling funds and documents.
- Attorney fees, which are required at closing in some states and add several hundred to over a thousand dollars.
- Prorated property taxes covering your share of the year up to the closing date.
Because transfer tax rates vary so widely by location, the floor on your deductions can shift by a percentage point or two depending on where you’re selling.
The Mortgage Payoff Does the Real Damage
Your remaining loan balance is what makes the biggest difference between keeping half of your sale price and keeping nearly all of it. A seller with a $300,000 mortgage on a $400,000 sale loses 75% of the gross price to debt repayment alone, before any commission or tax comes out. A seller who owes nothing loses zero to the payoff.
Before title can pass cleanly to the buyer, every recorded lien has to be paid off and released. Your primary lender provides a payoff statement showing the remaining principal plus interest accrued since your last payment. Prepayment penalties are much less common than they used to be. Federal rules bar them entirely on high-cost mortgages, and for most standard fixed-rate loans any penalty is capped and limited to the first three years. If you’ve had your loan more than a few years, a penalty is unlikely, but the payoff statement will say so either way.
Secondary debt adds up too. Home equity lines of credit, second mortgages, and judgment liens all get paid through the settlement agent. Federal tax liens from the IRS attach to all your assets, including real estate, and follow the property until 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, fines, and contractor liens for unpaid home improvement work all surface during the title search and have to be settled before closing. A property carrying several layers of debt can leave the seller with single-digit percentages, or push the deal into short-sale territory where the lender agrees to accept less than what’s owed.
The flip side: as of late 2025, nearly 45% of mortgaged residential properties nationwide were equity-rich, meaning the owner owed no more than half of the home’s market value. A large share of today’s sellers are in a strong position to keep a meaningful percentage of their sale price.
Concessions and Repair Credits
Between contract and closing, buyer requests often shave more off the seller’s take. A seller concession is money the seller agrees to put toward the buyer’s closing costs. The headline sale price stays the same, but the seller’s net goes down.
Loan rules cap how much a seller can contribute. For conventional loans backed by Fannie Mae, the limit scales with the buyer’s down payment: 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 down more than 25%.5Fannie Mae. Interested Party Contributions (IPCs) FHA loans allow up to 6%. Anything above these caps gets treated as a price reduction for appraisal purposes.
Repair credits work the same way on the settlement sheet. After a home inspection flags problems, buyers often negotiate a lump-sum credit at closing instead of asking the seller to complete repairs. A leaking roof, aging water heater, or faulty electrical panel can translate to thousands of dollars in credits that come straight out of the seller’s proceeds.
Capital Gains Taxes After Closing
Taxes can take another bite after the checks clear, but most sellers never owe federal tax on the sale of their home. If you owned and used the property 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 can be claimed only once every two years.
If your profit exceeds the exclusion, or you don’t meet the residency rules, the gain is taxed at federal long-term capital gains rates. For 2026 those rates are 0% for lower-income filers, 15% for most middle- and upper-income filers, and 20% for the highest earners. A 3.8% net investment income tax may apply on top of that for high-income households. State income taxes on the gain vary widely, from zero in some states to above 10% in others.
Gain for tax purposes is not simply sale price minus purchase price. You can add the cost of major improvements to your tax basis, which reduces the taxable amount. The settlement agent typically files Form 1099-S with the IRS reporting the gross proceeds, so keeping records of your original purchase price, your closing costs from when you bought, and receipts for capital improvements matters even if your gain is fully excluded.7Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1099-S
One boundary worth flagging: if you’re a foreign national, the buyer is generally required to withhold 15% of the sale price under the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act and remit it to the IRS at closing, with a narrow exception for residences under $300,000 the buyer intends to occupy.8Internal Revenue Service. FIRPTA Withholding U.S. citizens and resident aliens avoid this withholding by signing a non-foreign certification before closing.
Running the Numbers on Your Own Sale
The math is straightforward: start with the contract sale price, subtract commissions, subtract closing costs and any concessions or repair credits, then subtract the full mortgage payoff and any other liens. What’s left is your net before taxes. Divide by the sale price to see your percentage.
A $500,000 sale with a $250,000 mortgage balance looks like this:
- 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 loan balance and the percentage moves sharply. The same sale with only $100,000 owed produces $352,500 in net proceeds, roughly 70.5%. A seller who owns the home outright keeps about 90% to 93% after transaction costs. The percentage you keep is mostly a function of how much of the sale price belongs to your lender before the deed changes hands.
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, so the number you see is the number you’ll walk away with.