July 11, 2026 · 5 min read
What Would You Actually Walk Away With?
A $900,000 sale and a $530,925 check can be the same transaction. Every line of net proceeds, from negotiated commission to Washington's graduated excise tax.
Nine hundred thousand dollars and $530,925 can describe the same sale. The first number goes on the sign, the contract, and the dinner-party story. The second is the wire that lands after closing. The distance between them is five lines of arithmetic, and every line can be estimated before a sign ever touches the yard.
Knowing those lines matters more in 2026 than it did three years ago. The Northwest MLS put King County's median single-family price at $889,000 in June, down 2.7 percent year over year, with homes averaging 51 days on market. When buyers negotiate, the sellers who know their bottom line negotiate better. So here is the anatomy of net proceeds, line by line, using one illustration throughout: a $900,000 sale carrying a $300,000 mortgage balance.
Line one: commission is whatever you negotiate
There is no standard commission rate in Washington. The fee you pay your listing broker is set in a conversation, not by a rule, and whether you contribute anything toward the buyer's broker is a separate negotiation on top of that. Rates vary with service level, price point, and how much of the work you take on yourself. For this illustration we will use 5 percent all-in: $45,000. Your number may land lower or higher. The point is that it is the one large line you have real influence over, which is exactly why it deserves the most deliberate conversation.
Line two: the excise tax works like tax brackets
Washington's real estate excise tax is graduated. The state charges 1.1 percent on the first $525,000 of the sale price, 1.28 percent on the portion between $525,000 and $1,525,000, 2.75 percent on the portion between $1,525,000 and $3,025,000, and 3.0 percent above that. Most cities and counties then add a local portion, typically 0.5 percent of the full price.
Run the $900,000 illustration through the tiers. The first $525,000 owes 1.1 percent: $5,775. The remaining $375,000 owes 1.28 percent: $4,800. State total: $10,575. Add the 0.5 percent local portion, $4,500, and the whole excise bill is $15,075, an effective rate of about 1.68 percent. Notice what did not happen: nobody paid 3.0 percent. The top tiers only touch dollars above $1,525,000, so a sale at this price never reaches them.
Line three: closing costs
The small print adds up quietly: the owner's title insurance policy, which sellers customarily pay in Washington, the seller's half of the escrow fee, recording charges, and property taxes prorated to the day of closing. On a sale this size, $9,000 is a reasonable planning figure, roughly one percent. This is also the easiest line to pin down early; an escrow officer will estimate it for you before you commit to anything.
Line four: the payoff
The largest deduction is usually not a cost at all. It is your own mortgage. Whatever is secured by the house gets paid at the closing table: the first mortgage balance, any home equity line, and per-diem interest through the payoff date. Our illustration carries $300,000. Yours might be $80,000 or $600,000, and that single line moves the final number more than every fee combined. Two houses selling for the identical price can hand their owners checks that differ by six figures for this reason alone.
The line that matters
Put it together: $900,000, minus $45,000 in commission, minus $15,075 in excise, minus $9,000 in closing costs, minus the $300,000 payoff. The check is $530,925.
That is why a headline estimate of your home's value, however flattering, tells you almost nothing by itself. The value is a starting point. The check is the answer.
The lines that move when buyers negotiate
One more line deserves a mention because it did not exist in the frenzy years: concessions. At 51 average days on market, buyers ask for things, and sometimes it is smart to say yes. A credit for a worn roof, a contribution toward the buyer's closing costs, a price adjustment after inspection. None of these appear on a listing sheet, and all of them come out of the same check. A seller who has already computed the ledger above knows exactly what a $10,000 concession does to the bottom line and can trade it calmly for something worth more, like certainty of closing. A seller who has not done the math negotiates blind.
Two honest boundaries on all of this. First, every figure here is an illustration, not a quote; your commission, your closing costs, and your payoff are all knowable, but only by asking. Second, this ledger covers the transaction itself. What the gain means for your own taxes is a separate question for your tax advisor, and worth asking before you list rather than after.
It also explains why the sale path you choose matters as much as the price you get. An as-is sale, a lightly prepared listing, and a fully renovated launch each produce a different top line and different cost lines, a comparison we walk through in as-is, selective repairs, or a full launch. And if you have owned for a decade or more, the number at the bottom of this ledger may be larger than you expect: have you captured the premium you hoped for does that math. Whether any of it is timely for you depends on where you are in your real estate journey.
Questions worth sitting with
What would you actually walk away with, after everything?
If you knew prices would be flat for three years, would you still hold this property?
If one of our letters brought you here, your private Property Brief includes a walk-away calculator with your numbers already started: go to sellerradar.io/d and enter the code from the letter. It takes about ten minutes to replace a guess with a figure.
Seller Radar analyzes public-record, property, ownership, and market data to help real-estate professionals identify likely seller opportunities earlier.