Know your net before you list.

On a typical Orange County sale, cost of sale lands near 6% of the price before your mortgage payoff: total commission (negotiated, often around 5%), roughly $1,200 plus $1 per $1,000 in escrow, about $500 plus $2.50 per $1,000 for the owner's title policy, $1.10 per $1,000 in county transfer tax, about $850 in recording and doc fees, and a few hundred each for the natural hazard report, a home warranty, and termite. On $1,200,000 that is roughly $68,000 to $78,000 all in. Subtract your loan payoff and adjust for the property tax proration and you have your net. The variable that moves the answer most is not the closing costs, it is your payoff.

Back into it. Your original loan amount is your recorded purchase price minus your down payment, and your first payment came about a month after closing. Strip your monthly payment down to principal and interest by removing the taxes and insurance in your impound account, and there is exactly one interest rate that produces that payment on that loan over that term. Solve for it, amortize forward to your close date, and you have the balance. That is what the calculator on this page does automatically, using your actual county tax bill for the impound piece. Then add what the demand statement adds: interest to the day the wire lands plus the reconveyance, statement, and wire fees. Extra principal payments or a recast will move it, so order the real payoff demand once you are in contract.

Both of you, split by the day. California's fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30, billed in two installments: the first covers July 1 to December 31 and is due November 1, the second covers January 1 to June 30 and is due February 1. Escrow charges you for every day you owned the home in the current fiscal year and the buyer for the rest, then compares your share against what you already paid. If you prepaid past your close date you get a credit; if you closed before an installment was paid you get a debit. The swing on a $14,000 bill is easily four figures depending on the month you close.

Compare your billed total against your assessed value. California's ad valorem rate is Prop 13's 1% plus voter-approved bonds, so a normal bill lands around 1.05% to 1.25% of assessed value depending on the county. When your bill runs meaningfully above that, the difference is a special tax line: a Mello-Roos community facilities district, a 1915 Act improvement bond, or a lighting and landscape district. Your tax bill itself confirms it under Special Assessment Charges, and the county tax collector publishes district lookups. Homes built before 1983 predate the Mello-Roos Act entirely. Districts do end, so the payoff year is worth getting in writing before you price.

Every California county charges $1.10 per $1,000 of the sale price ($0.55 per $500), customarily paid by the seller. On $1,200,000 that is $1,320. A small number of cities add their own on top. No Orange County city does. In Los Angeles County the recorder lists five: the City of Los Angeles at $4.50 per $1,000 plus Measure ULA at 4% of the full price above $5.4M and 5.5% above $10.9M as of July 1, 2026; Culver City on a 0.45% to 4% tiered scale; Santa Monica at $3 per $1,000 rising to 5.6% at $8M under Measure GS; and Pomona and Redondo Beach at $2.20 per $1,000. The ULA and GS tiers apply to the entire price once the threshold is crossed, not just the amount above it.

Only if you don't certify an exemption. California requires escrow to withhold 3 1/3% of the total sale price and remit it to the Franchise Tax Board, unless the seller signs Form 593 before the close of escrow claiming an exemption. The principal residence exemption under IRC Section 121 covers most home sellers, and there are exemptions for a sale at a loss, a 1031 exchange, and a sale price at or under $100,000. On a $1,200,000 sale that form is worth $40,000 of cash flow at the table. Withholding is not an extra tax, it is a prepayment credited when you file, but you wait months to see it. Sellers who are foreign persons for tax purposes face a separate 15% federal withholding under FIRPTA.

Close, and for the reasons that matter. The costs escrow controls (escrow fee, title premium, transfer tax, recording) are formula-driven, so those land within a couple hundred dollars. The tax proration is exact once your close date and installment status are right, which is why this calculator asks. The two lines that can move are your payoff, which depends on extra principal you have paid and the exact wire date, and any repair credits negotiated after inspections, which have not happened yet. Escrow's estimated closing statement is the binding version and arrives once you are in contract. I reconcile the two line by line before you sign.

Usually not, and when you do it is on less than you think. If you owned and lived in the home as your main residence for at least 2 of the last 5 years, you exclude up to $250,000 of gain filing single or $500,000 married filing jointly. Gain is the sale price minus your selling costs minus your basis, and your basis is what you paid plus capital improvements, so a remodel, an addition, or a new roof all reduce the gain. Anything above the exclusion is federal long-term capital gains at 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on your total taxable income, plus 3.8% net investment income tax over $200,000 single or $250,000 joint, and California taxes the gain as ordinary income at up to 13.3%. The estimator on this page runs all of it, and it belongs in front of your CPA before you price.

By Southern California custom, escrow fees are split evenly between buyer and seller, the seller pays the owner's title policy that insures the buyer's ownership, the buyer pays their own lender's policy, and the seller pays the county documentary transfer tax. Northern California runs differently, which is why a statewide calculator gets it wrong. None of this is law. Every line is a custom that the purchase contract can reassign, and in a competitive market who pays what becomes a negotiating lever worth real money.

Then the net sheet comes out negative, and that is useful information rather than a dead end. Run the real payoff against a real valuation first, because a meaningful share of owners who believe they are underwater are not once the current value is in front of them. If the math truly is upside down, a short sale is a documented exit with real protections in California, and the calculator's negative number is the first page of that conversation. Start with what the home is worth, then decide.