Massachusetts seller math
What will you actually take home?
Every site online will estimate what your house is worth. Almost none will tell you what reaches your account once the mortgage, the stamps, the attorney and the prep work come out — and that gap is usually six figures.
Your numbers
Estimates are fine. We refine them together with real figures for your town.
Left blank on purpose. Brokerage fees are always negotiable and are set between you and your broker — there is no standard or customary rate.
Fill in your numbers and press calculate. Nothing is sent anywhere — this runs entirely in your browser.
An estimate, not a net sheet. It excludes prorated property taxes, water and sewer, condo fees, and any capital gains tax you may owe above the $250,000 single / $500,000 married federal exclusion. Your closing attorney and CPA have the final word.
The costs Massachusetts sellers forget
- Deed excise stamps
- Massachusetts charges $4.56 per $1,000 of the sale price, paid by the seller. On an $800,000 sale that is $3,648 — small next to the mortgage payoff, but it surprises nearly everyone.
- Title V septic inspection
- If your home is on septic rather than town sewer, Massachusetts requires a Title V inspection before transfer. Across much of MetroWest this applies to a real share of homes, and a failed system can turn into a five-figure line item mid-transaction. Worth knowing in advance, not in the middle of a deal.
- Smoke & CO certificate
- Required at every residential closing in the state. Cheap, but the inspection has to be scheduled with your local fire department, and in busy months that timing can move a closing date.
- The brokerage fee is yours to negotiate
- We left that field blank on purpose. Fees are negotiated between you and your broker in every transaction — there is no standard, customary, or going rate, and anyone who tells you otherwise is telling you something that is not true.
- Capital gains, above the exclusion
- A married couple filing jointly can generally exclude $500,000 of gain on a primary residence, $250,000 if single. If you bought fifteen or twenty years ago, appreciation can run past that — worth modelling with your CPA well before you list.
Want these numbers checked against your actual town?
Prep costs and timing vary a lot between Shrewsbury, Natick, Belmont and Andover. We will put real local figures against your situation — no cost, no obligation.
Get a local net sheet