Almost every seller I sit down with starts in the same place. They have a number in their head for what the house is worth, and they assume that number, minus the mortgage, is roughly what lands in their account. It is not. Between the contract price and the wire that hits your bank, a stack of costs comes off the top. None of them are mysterious, and most of them are predictable to the dollar once we have a real price and a real closing date. The problem is that nobody walks sellers through them up front, so the final settlement statement feels like a surprise. It should not be. Here is the actual sequence of what comes out of a Santa Clara County sale, and where the money goes.
Start with the payoff, not the price
The single largest line for most sellers is the loan payoff. That is your remaining mortgage principal plus interest accrued through the day funds are disbursed, and sometimes a small recording or demand fee from the lender. If you have a HELOC or a second loan, that gets paid off too. One thing people forget: your payoff is not last month's statement balance. Interest keeps running until the loan is actually retired, so escrow orders a fresh demand from the lender with a good-through date. If you prepaid property taxes or have an impound account, some of that can come back to you, which works in your favor. Before you do any other math, pull your current payoff figure. It is the anchor for everything else.
Commissions, and why the structure changed
The next big line is real estate commission. This is where a lot of outdated advice still floats around, so let me be precise. As of the industry practice changes that took effect August 17, 2024 (out of the National Association of Realtors settlement), offers of buyer-agent compensation can no longer be posted on the MLS. In plain terms: what the listing agent earns and what, if anything, you offer to contribute toward a buyer's agent are now two separate negotiations, spelled out in your listing agreement and then again in each offer you receive. Commission is not a fixed rate set by law or by any board. It is negotiable, and how you structure it is a strategy conversation, not a checkbox. We work through that in a pre-listing strategy review so you understand exactly what you are agreeing to before anything goes live.
Transfer taxes: county, and sometimes city
This is the line most sellers have never heard of until it shows up on their statement. California counties charge a documentary transfer tax when title changes hands. In Santa Clara County the rate is $1.10 per $1,000 of sale price, and by local custom the seller pays it. On a typical sale that is real money, but it is straightforward arithmetic once we know the price.
San Jose is the part that catches people. The city has its own real property transfer tax, known as Measure E, that stacks on top of the county tax for homes inside San Jose city limits. It only applies above a threshold, and that threshold rose to $2.3 million effective July 1, 2025. Above it, the city tax is tiered: 0.75% on sales from $2,300,000 to $5,000,000, 1.00% from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000, and 1.50% above $10,000,000, and the rate applies to the entire price, not just the amount over the line. Some San Jose homes now cross that first tier, so it is worth checking against your address. Palo Alto and Mountain View have their own city transfer taxes as well. Which city your home sits in materially changes your bottom line, and the San Jose neighborhood view is a good reminder that the city is really a patchwork of very different submarkets.
Title, escrow, and the smaller lines
In much of Northern California, including Santa Clara County, custom is for the seller to pay for the buyer's owner's title insurance policy and frequently to cover the escrow (settlement) fee, though escrow fees are often split and everything here is negotiable in the contract. Title insurance protects the new owner against defects in the chain of ownership. Escrow is the neutral third party that holds funds and documents and makes sure everyone performs before money moves. Beyond those, you will see a cluster of smaller items: a county recording fee for the new deed, any HOA transfer or document fees if your property is in an association, a prorated share of property taxes through your closing date, and any natural hazard disclosure report. Individually small, collectively worth knowing about so they do not surprise you.
Then there are the costs that are optional but common: pre-listing inspections, repairs you agree to in negotiation, staging, and any concessions or credits you give the buyer. These are not fixed. They are choices, and good ones often raise your net rather than lower it. That is exactly the kind of trade-off worth modeling before you commit to a strategy.
What is left, and the tax question
Sale price, minus loan payoff, minus commissions, minus transfer taxes, minus title and escrow, minus the smaller lines and any credits, equals your net proceeds. That is the wire you actually receive. The last thing to keep on your radar is capital gains. If the home was your primary residence and you owned and lived in it for at least two of the five years before selling, federal law (Section 121) generally lets you exclude up to $250,000 of gain if you file single, or up to $500,000 if you are married filing jointly. Gain above that, or a sale that does not meet the rules, can be taxable. This is general education, not tax advice, and your basis, improvements, and timing all matter, so run your specific situation past your CPA before you count on a number.
- Loan payoff: remaining principal plus interest through the disbursement date, plus any second loan or HELOC.
- Commissions: negotiable, now structured as separate listing-side and buyer-side conversations after the August 2024 practice changes.
- County transfer tax: $1.10 per $1,000 of price in Santa Clara County, seller customarily pays.
- San Jose Measure E city tax: tiered, applies above $2.3 million as of July 1, 2025, calculated on the full price.
- Title and escrow: seller customarily covers the owner's policy and often escrow in this county, all negotiable.
- Smaller lines: recording fee, HOA transfer fees, prorated property taxes, disclosure reports.
- Optional and negotiated: inspections, repairs, staging, buyer credits and concessions.
The sale price gets all the attention. The net is the number that actually changes your life. Know it before you list, not at the signing table.
None of this should be guesswork. With a realistic price and your payoff figure, I can show you a clean estimate of your net well before we go to market, including how San Jose's city tax does or does not touch your specific address. Run the numbers yourself on the net proceeds calculator, or if you would rather I build it around your actual situation and pressure-test the strategy, start with a pre-listing strategy review. Either way, you should walk into a sale knowing your number, not discovering it.
Thinking about selling? Request a pre-listing strategy review.