Sonoma County Seller Net Sheet: What You Actually Keep

If you're getting ready to sell your home in Sonoma County, there's one number that matters more than your list price: your net proceeds. That's the actual amount that lands in your account after everything else gets paid. And it's almost always less than sellers expect.

Here's how the math actually works.

Start with your expected sale price. Right now, homes across Sonoma County are selling for a median somewhere in the $800,000 range, though that swings widely by city, from the high $600,000s in parts of Santa Rosa to well over a million in Healdsburg and Sonoma Valley.

From that number, subtract real estate commission, which is negotiated between you and your agent. Then subtract the county's documentary transfer tax, which in Sonoma County runs $1.10 for every $1,000 of your sale price. On an $800,000 home, that's $880 right there.

Next comes your loan payoff, meaning whatever you still owe your lender, plus any prorated interest through your closing date. If you have a HELOC or second mortgage, that gets paid off too.

Then add escrow and title fees, which cover the paperwork and insurance that protect the transaction. These are usually a percentage of the sale price and split between buyer and seller by local custom, though everything is negotiable in California.

If you agreed to any repairs after the buyer's inspection, or if you're offering a credit toward their closing costs, those come off the top as well. And don't forget prorated property taxes and HOA dues, since you only owe for the days you actually owned the home during that period.

By the time all of this is subtracted, a lot of sellers are surprised at how much smaller their check is than their sale price. That's not a bad thing, it's just math nobody walks them through in advance.

This is exactly what a net sheet is for. It's a simple worksheet that takes your expected sale price and lays out every cost line by line, so you know your real number. A good net sheet uses your actual loan payoff, not a guess, and current local costs, not national averages.

I build one for every seller before we talk about pricing strategy, because pricing decisions look different when you know what you're actually walking away with. Sometimes that means pricing more aggressively to net what you need. Sometimes it means timing the sale differently or deciding whether a particular repair is worth it once you see it against your bottom line.

If you're thinking about selling in Sonoma County and want to know your real number, reach out and I'll put together a personalized net sheet using your specific home, your loan balance, and today's local costs. It takes me about ten minutes and it might change how you think about your sale.