What is a seller’s net sheet?

Written by Samantha SheltonNMLS 1647301Updated October 2026

This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, financial, or tax advice. Transfer taxes, property tax prorations, title practices and the tax treatment of a home sale change and depend on your individual circumstances. Confirm your figures with your settlement statement and consult a qualified tax professional or a Michigan real estate attorney about your situation.

A seller’s net sheet is a one-page worksheet that estimates what you actually keep from a home sale: it starts with the sale price, subtracts your mortgage payoff, brokerage compensation, closing costs, prorated taxes and any concessions, and ends at your estimated net proceeds. On a $325,000 Michigan sale, the state and county transfer tax line alone comes to $2,795, because Michigan charges $8.60 per $1,000 of sale price, and that is one of roughly a dozen subtractions the sheet works through before it reaches your number.

Nothing on a net sheet is binding. It is an estimate built from quotes, statements and assumptions, and it gets rebuilt every time an offer changes one of the inputs.

Learn how a net sheet is assembled line by line, where each figure comes from, why the estimate moves between your listing appointment and the closing table, and how two net sheets side by side settle which offer is really better. If you’re earlier in the process, start with our guide to selling a home.

Key takeaways:

• A net sheet is one long subtraction: in the worked example below, a $325,000 sale price runs down through five deduction lines to $99,275 in estimated net proceeds.
• Everything except the mortgage payoff came to $27,325, or 8.4% of the sale price: that gap is why the highest offer is not automatically the offer that nets you the most.
• Two lines move the most before closing: your mortgage payoff, which your servicer must deliver accurately within 7 business days of a written request, and your property tax proration, which swings with the closing date.

What is a seller’s net sheet?

A seller’s net sheet is an informal, non-binding estimate of your net proceeds from a home sale, prepared before or during negotiations so you can make decisions with a real number instead of the headline price. It is a planning tool, not a legal document, and no one signs it.

Your listing agent usually builds the first one at the listing appointment, then rebuilds it for every offer that lands. Title companies prepare them too, often with sharper closing-cost figures because they quote those fees for a living. Neither version normally carries a separate charge.

The value is in the sequence, not the arithmetic. A net sheet forces every deduction onto the page at once, which is exactly what sellers who budget from the sale price alone never do. Ask for one before you set a list price, so you know what price clears the number you actually need. Our guide to pricing a home for sale covers how that target gets set.

How is a net sheet built, line by line?

Every net sheet is the same seven-line skeleton with local numbers dropped in. Here it is filled out for a hypothetical $325,000 sale in Oakland County, Michigan, on a home carrying a $198,400 mortgage balance.¹

Strip out the mortgage payoff, which is your own debt rather than a cost of selling, and the remaining deductions total $27,325, or 8.4% of the sale price. Four lines are worth knowing how to source:

• Mortgage payoff is not your statement balance: a payoff quote adds interest accrued through the payoff date, a per-diem for each day past it, and any discharge or wire fees. Federal rule requires your creditor or servicer to provide an accurate payoff statement within 7 business days of a written request, so ask early. What a payoff actually contains, including the rare prepayment penalty and its statutory caps, is broken out in our guide to seller’s closing costs.
• Brokerage compensation is negotiable and belongs on its own lines: use the rate written into your listing agreement, not a rule of thumb. Since the National Association of REALTORS® practice changes took effect on August 17, 2024, offers of compensation to buyer brokers cannot be published in the MLS, so anything you agree to pay the buyer’s side is a separately negotiated term that gets its own line. NAR’s research library tracks transaction costs across the market.
• Closing costs are a quote, not a guess: ask the title company for a written figure covering the settlement fee, the title search, the owner’s policy premium if your contract puts it on you, transfer taxes and recording. Our breakdown of a seller’s closing costs defines each charge; the net sheet only totals them.
• Concessions and credits are the volatile line: a closing-cost credit in the offer, a repair credit negotiated after inspection, and a rate buydown all land here and all come straight off your net. Negotiating seller concessions covers how each gets papered, and seller-paid closing costs covers the program limits that cap them.

How do loan program limits cap the concessions line?

The buyer’s loan program caps what you can contribute toward the buyer’s costs. Fannie Mae calls these interested party contributions and caps them as a share of the lower of the sales price or the appraised value, according to Fannie Mae Selling Guide section B3-4.1-02, a topic last updated May 7, 2025, in the guide edition published October 7, 2026.

Source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.1-02, Interested Party Contributions, edition published October 7, 2026.

Per the Selling Guide, a financing concession above the cap is treated as a sales concession: it is deducted from the sales price and the loan-to-value ratio is recalculated. The guide also says a financing concession cannot exceed the buyer’s actual closing costs. FHA loans use one limit. HUD’s Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1, last revised August 12, 2026, lets interested parties, the seller included, contribute up to 6 percent of the sales price toward the buyer’s origination fees, other closing costs, prepaid items and discount points. HUD counts a seller-paid interest rate buydown inside that 6 percent, treats anything above it as an inducement to purchase, and does not count real estate agent commissions or fees typically paid by the seller under local or state law, or local custom. Align Lending is not acting on behalf of HUD or the FHA; these limits come from HUD’s own handbook.

Run Offer A from the comparison below through those rules. Its $15,000 concession is about 4.5% of the $335,000 price. If the home appraises at the price and the buyer’s conventional loan is above 90% loan-to-value, the Fannie Mae cap is $10,050, so the other $4,950 would be treated as a price reduction when the lender calculates loan-to-value, which usually means renegotiating. The FHA concession limit is $20,100, capped at the buyer’s actual costs. HUD also lists repair allowances, such as Offer A’s $2,500 credit, as inducements that cut the price used for FHA loan-to-value dollar for dollar. Hypothetical example, not an offer. Do that math before you counter; see our guides to FHA loans and conventional loans for the programs behind each limit.

Why doesn’t the highest offer always net the most?

Because four of the eight deduction lines move with the terms of the offer, not just the price. Run the same seller against two offers $10,000 apart and the smaller one wins by $3,086.

Offer A looks $10,000 better on the listing sheet and lands $3,086 behind at the table, because the concession and the repair credit ate the difference while the transfer tax and commission both scaled up with the price. Run a fresh sheet on every offer instead of comparing headline numbers.

Two terms belong on the comparison even though they carry no dollar figure: the closing date, which moves your payoff interest and your tax proration, and the financing type, which changes how likely the deal is to close at all. A net sheet ranks offers by money. You still have to rank them by certainty.

What do recent Michigan home price figures mean for your net sheet?

A net sheet built months before you list may start from a stale price. The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s purchase-only house price index for Michigan rose 3.80% over the year ending in the second quarter of 2026 and 0.39% in that quarter alone, according to the FHFA House Price Index quarterly report dated August 25, 2026.

The figure is a seasonally adjusted, statewide index, so it cannot price your house, but it shows how far prices can move in a single quarter. A 0.39% move on the $325,000 example is about $1,268, and the brokerage and transfer tax lines move with it because both scale with price. Hypothetical example, not an offer. If your sheet is more than a quarter old when you list, have it rerun on recent comparable sales, and if more than one buyer shows up, our guide to handling multiple offers shows how to score them side by side.

Why does the estimate change before closing?

Because a net sheet is built from assumptions with expiration dates, and three of them almost always move. The typical drift is a few hundred dollars, not a few thousand, but it moves in both directions.

• The payoff figure ages daily: interest accrues to the payoff date, so a quote good through the 15th is wrong on the 20th. If your closing slides two weeks, ask for an updated payoff instead of adding a guess.
• The proration follows the closing date: move a Michigan closing from early September to early October and you cross the summer tax due date, which changes both who owes what and how much sits in the proration line.
• Concessions get negotiated after the sheet is written: the inspection response is the most common reason a seller’s net drops after an offer is accepted, because repair credits land on a sheet built without them.
• Escrow comes back separately: money in your old escrow account is refunded by the servicer rather than netted at the table, so it never belongs on the sheet. The deadline that governs it, and the rest of the post-closing money calendar, is in our guide to when a seller gets money after closing; our explainer on mortgage escrow accounts covers how that balance builds.

Ask for a refreshed net sheet at three moments: when you set the list price, when you accept an offer, and about a week before closing when the title company has final figures. Comparing the three versions shows which assumption was soft.

Which net sheet lines also matter at tax time?

Several net sheet deductions return as selling expenses that reduce your taxable gain. According to IRS Publication 523, the amount realized on a home sale is the sale price minus selling expenses, and those include sales commissions, advertising fees, legal fees, and mortgage points or other loan charges you paid that would normally have been the buyer’s responsibility. The same publication says there is no tax deduction for transfer or stamp taxes paid on a sale, but a seller can treat them as selling expenses.

That makes your settlement statement a tax record: in the $325,000 example, the $2,795 transfer tax and the $16,250 brokerage line would both count as selling expenses under Publication 523. Hypothetical example, not an offer.

The sale is usually reported to the IRS on Form 1099-S. The IRS instructions for Form 1099-S make the settlement agent named on the Closing Disclosure the person responsible for filing, and they exempt the sale of a principal residence for $250,000 or less, or $500,000 or less for a married seller, when the seller gives a written certification. If you do receive a 1099-S, Publication 523 says you must report the sale on Form 8949 even if you have no taxable gain. Our guide to capital gains tax exemptions walks through the gain calculation.

When the seller is a foreign person, the buyer generally must withhold 15% of the amount realized, according to the IRS page on FIRPTA withholding. The same page allows reduced withholding from $300,000 to $1 million, and none at $300,000 or less, when the buyer plans to live in the home at least 50 percent of the days it is used in each of the first two years. Ask the title company which case applies; the holdback belongs on the first draft.

How do you protect the wire at the bottom of the sheet?

Your proceeds usually leave the title company by wire, a target for fraud. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported 24,768 business email compromise complaints with losses of $3,046,598,558 in 2025, in its 2025 IC3 Annual Report. The same report describes a March 2025 complaint from a Missouri senior citizen who was closing on a property and received a compromised email from the “title company” with wire instructions for over $1.3 million to a fraudulent account; the FBI’s Recovery Asset Team worked with banks to freeze the receiving account. A seller’s payout instructions travel through the same closing emails.

• Hand over payout instructions in person or by phone: give your account details at the signing table or on a call to a number you already have for the title company, not in reply to an email.
• Treat any change in wiring details as a warning sign: an email saying the instructions changed gets a call to a known number before anything moves.
• Report fast if a wire goes wrong: call your bank first, then file with the FBI at ic3.gov, because in the report’s cases the Recovery Asset Team began working to freeze funds once a complaint arrived.

Our guide to choosing a title company lists questions to ask a closer.

How is a net sheet different from a closing statement?

A net sheet is an estimate you use to decide; a settlement statement is the legal record of what actually happened. They look similar because they list the same categories, and that similarity is where sellers get caught.

The buyer’s side gets a Closing Disclosure, which the lender must deliver at least three business days before closing. Sellers are on a different clock: under federal rules the settlement agent provides the seller the portion of the disclosures relating to the seller’s transaction no later than the day of consummation, which is why your final numbers can land the morning of closing. The CFPB’s Closing Disclosure explainer walks through the buyer’s form.

Many Michigan closings also use an ALTA Settlement Statement, an industry form issued in buyer, seller, combined and cash versions that itemizes fees the Closing Disclosure does not break out. The American Land Title Association publishes those forms. Whichever version you receive, put it beside your most recent net sheet and question any line that moved by more than a few hundred dollars.

One more distinction: net proceeds are not taxable profit. The sheet shows cash, not gain. The federal home sale exclusion covers up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 on most joint returns, if you meet both the ownership and use tests during the five years ending on the sale date, and gain is measured against your adjusted basis rather than your payoff.²

How does a net sheet fit when you buy before you sell?

When the next home depends on this sale, the net sheet’s bottom line funds the next purchase, and timing matters as much as amount. Samantha Shelton, Align’s broker owner, puts it this way: “The biggest mistake is thinking this is just another purchase. It isn’t. You’re coordinating two houses, two transactions and one family trying to move between them.”

• Price the new home’s taxes on the new owner’s bill: the year after a Michigan home sells, its taxable value resets to half of the assessor’s market value, so the seller’s tax bill is not your tax bill. See how property tax assessments work and the Michigan property tax calculator.
• Choose the financing bridge early: a bridge loan or a payoff of a home equity line at closing changes the payoff line on this sheet, so build both sheets together.

Her advice on timing: “That’s why I would much rather have this conversation when somebody says, ‘We’re thinking about moving,’ instead of when they call me and say, ‘We found the house.'”

What Michigan sellers should know

Two lines on a Michigan net sheet are fixed by statute and can be estimated to the dollar long before you have an offer. A third is set by statute but is not your bill, and a fourth looks statutory and is not.

• Transfer tax is $8.60 per $1,000, and Michigan law puts it on you: the state tax is $3.75 per $500 of value, the county tax is 55 cents per $500, and the seller or grantor is the party liable for the state tax. On a $325,000 sale that is $2,437.50 to the state and $357.50 to the county, $2,795 combined. A county over 2,000,000 residents may be authorized to charge up to 75 cents per $500, but no Michigan county currently reaches that population.
• Recording is a flat $30 per document, but the discharge is not your fee: Michigan registers of deeds charge $30 per document regardless of page count, so any document your contract puts on you costs the same. The discharge of your paid-off mortgage is different: Michigan law makes the mortgagee prepare it, file it, and pay the recording fee. If your servicer bills a discharge or release fee, it shows up inside your payoff quote, not as a separate line on your sheet.
• Two tax bills make the closing date matter: summer taxes become a lien July 1 and accrue interest if unpaid after September 14, and most Michigan communities levy winter taxes December 1 with a February 14 due date. Where your closing falls against those dates decides how many months of tax hit the proration line.
• Title is a contract term, not a legal rule: Michigan purchase agreements commonly ask the seller to furnish the owner’s policy while the buyer pays for the lender’s policy, but that split is negotiable and belongs on the sheet exactly as your contract writes it. See why title insurance matters for what each policy covers.

What Michigan exemptions and county steps can change your net?

Three Michigan rules can move a seller’s net and rarely appear on a generic worksheet.

• The principal residence transfer tax exemption: under MCL 207.526(u), the state transfer tax does not apply when the seller claims the principal residence exemption under MCL 211.7cc, the home’s state equalized value is equal to or less than it was on the date you acquired it (or on the first tax day after its certificate of occupancy, whichever is later), and the price is one a willing buyer and a willing seller would reach. The statute lets the seller, or a buyer who paid the tax for the seller, request a refund from the Department of Treasury. That is the state tax, so in the $325,000 example the exemption reaches the $2,437.50 state portion. Hypothetical example, not an offer.
• Your exemption on a home you have moved out of: if you have a new principal residence, MCL 211.7cc(5) lets you keep the exemption on the old home for up to 3 tax years while it is not occupied, is for sale, is not leased and is not used for business, by filing a conditional rescission form with the local tax collecting unit and verifying those conditions to the assessor by each December 31, or the exemption is denied. Otherwise you must rescind within 90 days after it stops being your principal residence, with a penalty of $5.00 a day, up to $200.00, for failing to file. The exemption covers the local school operating millage, up to 18 mills, according to Treasury’s principal residence exemption page, which also lists a form for local units to bill the seller after a denial. See our homestead exemption guide.
• County tax certification before the deed records: the Oakland County Register of Deeds fee schedule, effective October 1, 2016, says warranty deeds, land contracts and any deed with a covenant of warranty must be tax certified at the Oakland County Treasurer’s Office, with a $5.00 Treasurer’s Tax Certificate fee paid with the recording fee, and that its $30.00 recording fee includes the $4.00 state survey and remonumentation fee. Put the certificate on whichever side your purchase agreement assigns deed recording.

FAQ: Seller’s net sheets

Here are answers to common questions about seller’s net sheets.

What is included on a seller’s net sheet?

Seven core lines: the sale price, your remaining mortgage payoff including accrued interest, brokerage compensation, closing costs such as title and settlement fees, transfer taxes and recording, prorated property taxes and HOA dues, any seller concessions, and the resulting estimated net proceeds. Some versions also list pre-sale spending like repairs and staging separately. Our guide to closing costs as a seller defines each charge in the closing-cost line.

Who prepares a seller’s net sheet?

Usually your listing agent, first at the listing appointment and again for each offer. Title companies prepare them too, and free online calculators produce a rough version. There is normally no separate charge, because it is part of an agent’s service. Ask for one before you set your list price so you know what number you have to hit, and see where it fits in the home selling process.

Is a seller’s net sheet accurate?

It is a good estimate, not a guarantee. Accuracy depends on how current the mortgage payoff is, whether title fees and transfer taxes were quoted correctly, and how the closing date shifts your tax and HOA prorations. Figures usually tighten to within a few hundred dollars by closing.

How is a net sheet different from a closing disclosure?

A net sheet is an unofficial estimate prepared before or during negotiations. The closing disclosure or settlement statement is the document the closing agent prepares from the actual final figures, and it determines the wire you receive. Compare the two side by side and question any line that moved significantly. Our overview of the finances of selling covers what happens to the proceeds afterward.

Is there a seller’s net sheet calculator for Michigan?

Yes. Align Lending’s seller net sheet calculator takes your price, payoff, listing commission percentage, any amount toward the buyer’s agent, concessions, title and closing fees, repairs and proration, and computes the state transfer tax under MCL 207.525 and the county tax under MCL 207.504 for you. A box removes the state portion when the principal residence exemption applies, with a note on the Treasury refund. It suggests no commission rate; you enter the one in your listing agreement.

Is earnest money on a seller’s net sheet?

Usually not. The buyer’s earnest money sits in escrow and is credited to the buyer at closing, so it lowers what the buyer brings rather than raising what you receive. It reaches your sheet only if the buyer defaults and the purchase agreement lets you keep it, and then only when the escrow holder releases it under the contract’s terms. Our guide to earnest money deposits covers who holds it and when it is released.

What happens to my net if the appraisal comes in low?

On a financed sale, a low appraisal usually changes the sale price line itself. If you cut the price to the appraised value, the lines that scale with price fall too: Michigan transfer tax under MCL 207.525 and MCL 207.504 drops about $8.60 for each $1,000 of reduction, and a percentage commission drops with it. If the buyer covers the gap in cash, your price and net hold. Our guide to selling with a low appraisal compares the options.

Can you get a net sheet if you sell without an agent?

Yes. A title company can prepare one from your purchase agreement, and the arithmetic is the same without a listing commission line. Keep a line for any compensation you agree in writing to pay a buyer’s agent, and add the costs an agent would otherwise handle, such as listing photos or an attorney to draft or review the contract. Our guide to selling without a Realtor covers the extra steps.

The bottom line on the seller’s net sheet

A seller’s net sheet is a non-binding worksheet that turns your sale price into estimated net proceeds by subtracting the mortgage payoff, brokerage compensation, closing costs, prorated taxes and any concessions. In the $325,000 example above, those deductions ran the number down to $99,275, with everything but the payoff totaling $27,325, or 8.4% of the price. Rebuild it for every offer, because the highest price and the highest net are frequently not the same offer. The binding figures arrive later, on the settlement statement at closing.

If you’re ready to turn an estimated net into a real plan for your next home, talk to Align Lending. We’ll shop your scenario across our lender network and show you what that down payment actually buys, side by side. Call 248-506-5727 or start online.

Footnotes:

1. Example figures in this article are hypothetical and for educational purposes only; they do not constitute an advertisement of credit terms or a rate quote under federal or state lending laws. Brokerage compensation is fully negotiable and is set by your listing agreement, not by any standard rate. Your actual net proceeds depend on your sale price, loan payoff, contract terms, closing date, county and service providers, and will be itemized on your settlement statement. Return to text.

2. This is general information, not tax advice. Eligibility for the federal home sale gain exclusion depends on your individual circumstances, including ownership and use history, filing status, prior use of the exclusion, and adjusted basis. Consult a qualified tax professional about your situation, and a Michigan real estate attorney about any title, contract, or disclosure question. Return to text.

Sources: Michigan state real estate transfer tax of $3.75 per $500 of value, MCL 207.525; seller or grantor liability for the state transfer tax, MCL 207.523; county real estate transfer tax of 55 cents per $500, with up to 75 cents authorized only in a county of more than 2,000,000 population, MCL 207.504. Register of deeds recording fee of $30 per document regardless of page count, MCL 600.2567(1)(a). Duty of the mortgagee to prepare a discharge of a paid mortgage, file it with the register of deeds, and pay the recording fee, MCL 565.41(1). Summer property tax lien date of July 1 and interest added to taxes collected after September 14, MCL 211.44a(4) and (6); winter levy and February 14 due date, Michigan Department of Treasury. Accurate payoff statement required within seven business days of a written request, 12 CFR § 1026.36(c)(3). Prepayment penalty limits of 2% in the first two years, 1% in the third year, and none after the three-year period following consummation, on a qualified mortgage that is not a higher-priced mortgage loan, 12 CFR § 1026.43(g). Return of remaining escrow balance within 20 days, excluding legal public holidays, Saturdays and Sundays, of payment of the loan in full, 12 CFR § 1024.34(b). Closing Disclosure delivery at least three business days before consummation, 12 CFR § 1026.19(f)(1)(ii); settlement agent’s delivery of the seller’s disclosures no later than the day of consummation, 12 CFR § 1026.19(f)(4). MLS offers of compensation prohibited and written buyer agreements required as of August 17, 2024, National Association of REALTORS®. Buyer, seller, combined and cash versions of the ALTA Settlement Statement, American Land Title Association. Home sale gain exclusion of $250,000, or $500,000 on most joint returns, and the ownership and use tests over the five years ending on the sale date, IRS Publication 523.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, financial, or tax advice. Transfer taxes, recording fees, proration methods, title customs and program rules change and vary by property, county and contract; confirm your figures with your title company and your settlement statement, and consult a qualified professional about your situation. Figures shown are illustrative, are not a rate quote or an offer of credit, and are subject to change. Align Lending is an independent Michigan mortgage broker, NMLS #2041154.

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