What you'll net when you sell: the costs between the sale price and your check

Figures checked October 21, 2026.

The sale price is the number everyone talks about. What you take home is smaller. At closing, the title company pays off your loan and the agents, covers the title work, and settles taxes and HOA dues. You get what’s left. Here’s each of those lines for a Colorado sale, then an example with real numbers run through it.

Your loan payoff

For most sellers this is the biggest line. Order a payoff statement from your lender, and it will show your principal balance plus interest up to the payoff date, with a daily interest amount in case closing moves.

Mortgage interest is paid in arrears. The payment you make on the 1st covers the month before, so if you close on June 30, you still owe about a month of June interest on top of the principal.

A second mortgage or a HELOC is paid off from your proceeds too, along with any other lien on the home, such as a judgment, a tax lien, or unpaid HOA dues. The title commitment lists them, so you’ll see them well before closing.

Commission

Commission is set in your listing agreement, and it’s negotiable. Under the 2024 NAR settlement, listing agreements must say plainly that broker fees and commissions are fully negotiable and not set by law. Your rate is a line in your own agreement, so the example below leaves it for you to fill in.

Paying the buyer’s agent, and credits to the buyer

Since August 17, 2024, offers to pay a buyer’s agent no longer appear in MLS, and buyers now sign a written agreement with their agent before touring. Sellers can still offer to pay a buyer’s agent outside MLS, and they can offer buyers a credit toward closing costs.

In practice, both get settled in the contract with each buyer. Colorado’s standard contract has one spot for a seller credit to the buyer and a separate one for buyer-brokerage pay “by Seller.” Either one comes off your side of the closing statement. In most sales, these negotiated lines change your net far more than the title and recording fees below.

Title insurance and the closing fee

The owner’s title policy protects the buyer’s ownership. Colorado’s contract has two options: the seller picks the title company and pays for the owner’s policy, or the buyer does. The parties check one. The Colorado Division of Insurance says the seller customarily pays, though not always.

Title insurers in Colorado can charge different rates, and the Division’s guide notes that you can shop. Your agent or lender can’t require you to use a particular company. As one example, Chicago Title’s filed rates for the Denver metro (effective February 6, 2025) list an owner’s policy at $2,293 on a $650,000 sale. Extended coverage, which adds protection a standard policy leaves out, is $95 more, and the contract says who pays it.

The title company also charges a closing fee. The same rate card lists a bundled closing fee of $420. The contract says whether the buyer pays it, the seller pays it, or you split it.

Property taxes, paid a year behind

Colorado property taxes are billed a year late. Your 2026 taxes are paid in 2027. In Jefferson County, for example, the full bill is due by April 30, or in two halves at the end of February and on June 15.

So if you close on June 30, 2026, you owned the home for half the year, but the buyer will pay that year’s bill. At closing, the title company collects your share of the current year from you and credits it to the buyer. The contract lets you and the buyer base it on last year’s taxes or on the most recent mill levy and valuation from the county assessor.

HOA fees

If the home is in an HOA, Colorado’s contract has the seller pay for the association’s status letter. Record change fees and transfer fees are paid by whoever the contract says. Dues you’ve paid ahead for the period after closing are credited back to you, and anything owed for the time before closing is yours to pay.

Smaller charges

• Final water and sewer bills, and propane if you have it, are prorated to closing day.
• The title company charges small fees to release and record the payoff of your loan, and they show on your settlement statement.
• Colorado’s documentary fee is 1 cent per $100 of the price, so $65 on a $650,000 sale. Under Colorado’s standard practice the buyer pays it, so it isn’t in the example below.
• Anything you spend before listing, such as repairs, paint, or staging, plus any home warranty you offer the buyer, comes out of your money too, even though most of it isn’t on the closing statement.

An example on a $650,000 home

These numbers are invented to show the math. The example assumes a $400,000 loan balance at 6.5%, $4,000 a year in property taxes, a closing on June 30, 2026, a $10,000 credit to the buyer negotiated in the contract, no HOA, and the seller paying half the closing fee. It also assumes last year’s tax bill is already paid. Title figures are from Chicago Title’s Denver-metro rate card.

Line (example)	Amount
Sale price	$650,000
Credit to the buyer or buyer’s agent, per the contract	minus $10,000
Owner’s title policy	minus $2,293
Closing fee, seller’s half of $420	minus $210
Loan principal payoff	minus $400,000
Interest on the loan, June 1 to 30	minus $2,137
Property tax credit to the buyer, January 1 to June 30 (181 days)	minus $1,984
Net before commission	$233,376
Commission, at your listing agreement’s rate	minus $650,000 times your rate
Estimated net to you	$233,376 minus commission

Each 1% of commission on a $650,000 sale is $6,500. Drop the $10,000 credit and your net before commission rises to $243,376. Close on June 15 instead and you’d owe about half as much interest and a slightly smaller tax credit.

Taxes on your gain

The IRS lets you exclude up to $250,000 of gain from the sale of your home, or up to $500,000 if you file jointly with your spouse. You need to have owned the home for at least two of the five years before the sale, and lived in it for at least two of those five years. For a couple filing jointly, either spouse can meet the ownership test, but both have to meet the living-in test. You can’t use the exclusion if you used it on another home in the two years before this sale. If you get a Form 1099-S, you have to report the sale even when none of the gain is taxable. IRS Publication 523 covers the exceptions and partial exclusions.

If you’re not a U.S. person for tax purposes, the buyer generally has to withhold 15% of the amount realized under FIRPTA, with lower rates or an exception for some sales of homes the buyer will live in. Brett isn’t a tax advisor. Talk with a CPA or tax professional before you list.

When you’ll know the real number

Brett prepares an estimated net sheet for every price you’re weighing, and before you sign any offer, so you know what you’d walk away with before you go under contract. The net sheet gets updated with each offer, because the price, the credit, and the closing date all change it. Before closing, the title company prepares a settlement statement with the final figures, down to the day’s interest on your loan.