The Utah home seller's guide
Your net seller proceeds, how the number is built.
The price on the sign is not what you keep. Your net proceeds are what is left after the loan is paid off, the costs of selling come out, and the year's taxes are split at closing. Here is the equation, how each number is figured, and a way to model your own.
This page is the math of the number. For the full line-by-line of what selling costs, see seller closing costs.
On this page
The short answer
What you keep, in one line.
Your net proceeds are one subtraction problem. You start with the price the home sells for, you subtract what you still owe on it, you subtract the costs of selling, and you subtract or add the items that get split at closing, mostly the year's property taxes. What is left is the check the title company sends you. Written out, it is sale price, minus loan payoff, minus selling costs, minus or plus prorations, equals net proceeds.
The catch is that none of those four numbers is the one already in your head. The sale price is not your list price. The payoff is not last month's statement balance. The selling costs are more than the agent line. And the tax split depends on the day you close. This page walks each number, shows how it is actually figured, and hands you a calculator so you can model your own. It does not itemize every closing cost line; the full breakdown lives in the two cost guides linked below.
The equation, in order
Four numbers, one result.
The same four moves, every sale. Get each one right and the bottom line stops being a surprise.
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Start with the sale price
The number the buyer agrees to pay, from the accepted contract, not your list price. If you granted a repair credit or agreed to pay some of the buyer's costs to hold the deal together, those concessions come off the top, so the figure you model from is the price after any credits you gave. How the price gets set.
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Subtract the loan payoff
Not your balance, your payoff. It is what the lender needs to close the loan on the day the money moves, which is more than the statement shows. Any second loan or line on the home comes out here too. Estimate your equity.
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Subtract the selling costs
Agent compensation, which is negotiable and set in your listing agreement, plus title and settlement, recording, the owner's title policy that Utah sellers customarily provide, and anything you agreed to put toward the buyer's side. This is the summary; the line-by-line is its own guide. Every cost line.
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Split the shared items at closing
Property taxes are billed for the calendar year and are not due until late November, so at closing they are prorated to the day. Depending on when you close, you either credit the buyer for your share of the year or get credited for theirs. Prepaid items and, for a condominium, the association dues are split the same way.
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What is left is your net proceeds
The title company settles every line and sends you the balance, usually the same day or the next. That figure is your proceeds, not your taxable gain; whether you owe any tax on the sale is a separate question for your accountant. Tax when you sell.
How the number is built
Where each figure actually comes from.
Two of these numbers cause almost every surprise: the payoff and the proration. Start with the payoff. The balance on your statement is a snapshot from the day it printed. Your lender's payoff is a live quote, good only through a stated date, and it adds the interest that keeps building every day you still owe, the per-diem, plus small items like a statement or reconveyance fee to release the lien. Order it through the title company as closing nears, and order it again if the date slips, because a payoff that has gone stale will come up short.
The payoff also has to clear everything attached to the home, not just the first mortgage. A second mortgage, a home-equity line even when the balance sits at zero, a solar loan or lease tied to the property, and any special assessment recorded against it all have to be paid or released before clean title passes to the buyer. If you are not sure what is on your title, the title company's search turns it up early, which is exactly when you want to know.
The proration turns on Utah's tax calendar. Property is assessed as of January the first, taxes are billed for that whole calendar year, and the bill is not due until the end of November. Because the year is usually still unpaid when you close, the seller typically credits the buyer for the part of the year they owned, and the buyer pays the full bill when it lands. Two Utah facts work in a seller's favor here: there is no state or local real estate transfer tax, so that line simply does not exist, and the whole settlement runs through a title company that holds the funds in escrow and disburses your proceeds. Sellers here also customarily provide the buyer's owner's title policy, though who pays what is negotiable in the contract.
You do not assemble all of this by hand. Before you list, your agent or the title company can prepare an estimated seller net sheet, and once you are under contract you get an estimated settlement statement that puts real numbers on every line. The figure firms up as the payoff and the prorations settle, and it is final only when you sign at closing. Treat the early version as a planning number, and confirm the last one before you sign.
Where sellers slip
The mistakes that shrink the check.
None of these change what your home is worth. They just make the take-home smaller than you planned for.
Using the balance, not the payoff
Modeling from last month's statement understates what it takes to close. The payoff runs higher: it carries daily interest to the closing date plus the fee to release the lien.
Forgetting a second lien or solar
A home-equity line, a second mortgage, or a solar loan tied to the home all have to be cleared from your proceeds. Left out of the math, they turn an expected check into a smaller one.
Ignoring the tax timing
Because Utah taxes are billed late in the year, a mid-year closing usually means you credit the buyer for months you already owned. Skip that and your estimate runs high.
Working the sale with me
An agent who also knows the loan side.
Here is where a guide stops and a person helps. The two numbers that trip sellers up, the payoff and the proration, sit right where real estate meets lending, and I work both sides.
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Twenty years living in Southern Utah. I have listed and sold homes across Iron and Washington counties through every kind of market, and run the net math on all of them. I know what your buyers are comparing yours to.
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Agent and lender, one picture. I am licensed in both, so I can read your payoff and your proceeds together. On any one purchase I take a single role, never both at once, and I disclose it.
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Honest numbers, every time. I would rather show you the real take-home before you list than talk up a price that shrinks once the costs come out. The math is the math, and it is not fooled.
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Statewide, told straight. In Southern Utah I am your agent. Anywhere else in Utah, I connect you with a partner agent I trust in your area and stay in the loop.
Questions, answered
What sellers ask about the net number.
Start with the sale price, then subtract three things: the payoff on every loan against the home, the costs of selling, and your share of the items that are split at closing, mainly the year's property taxes. What is left is your net proceeds. A seller net sheet does this math for your specific home, and the title company confirms the final figure at closing.
No, and the difference matters. Your balance is the amount on your last statement. Your payoff is what the lender needs to close the loan on the day funds move, so it adds the interest that builds each day until then plus small fees to release the lien. The payoff is always a little higher than the balance, so model from the payoff, not the statement.
No. Utah has no state or local real estate transfer tax, so unlike many states, no share of your sale price is taken at closing for that. You will still pay ordinary recording fees to file the documents, but there is no transfer tax line coming out of your net proceeds.
They are prorated to the day you close. Utah taxes are billed for the calendar year and are not due until late November, so at a typical mid-year closing the year is still unpaid. The seller usually credits the buyer for the months they owned, and the buyer pays the full bill when it comes due. The exact split shows up on your settlement statement.
Your proceeds and your taxable gain are two different things. Proceeds are the cash you walk away with; gain is profit over what you paid and put in, and many sellers who lived in the home qualify to exclude a large part of it. Whether you owe anything is a question for your accountant, not something to fold into this number. There is a separate guide on capital gains when you sell.
Through the title company, not from the buyer directly. Once the documents are signed and the deed records, the title company settles every line from the sale and releases your net proceeds, usually the same day or the next business day, by wire or check. In Utah the whole settlement runs through that escrow, which is why the payoff and the prorations all have to be final first.
Keep exploring
What will you actually walk away with?
I am Scott Buehler, and I have helped people across Southern Utah sell their homes and understand what they would truly net. An online estimate is a guess from a distance, and it never knows your loan payoff or your closing date. Tell me about your home and where you are, and I will send back an honest read on value and a real estimate of your proceeds. No pressure, and no obligation to list.
Not in Southern Utah? I will connect you with a partner agent I trust in your area, and stay involved.