What Selling A 650,000 Charlotte Home Actually Costs You At The Table

Your sale price is not your check. Here is a line-by-line net sheet on a 650,000 Charlotte sale, including the North Carolina excise tax most sellers have never heard of.

Sellers plan their next move off the sale price. Then they see the settlement statement and the number is 30 to 40 thousand lighter than the one in their head. None of it is a surprise if you build the net sheet before you list instead of at the closing table.

Here is the full stack on a 650,000 Charlotte sale.

Line by line

• Brokerage compensation. On a 650,000 sale, 5 percent total is 32,500. Important: commissions are negotiable and are not set by law. What you agree to, and what if anything you offer a buyer's agent, is a decision we make together in writing before you go live.
• North Carolina excise tax. This is the one nobody sees coming. The state charges 1 dollar per 500 dollars of sale price, so 650,000 divided by 500 is 1,300, times 1 dollar, is 1,300 owed at closing.
• Closing attorney and document fees. Budget roughly 800 to 1,200 in Mecklenburg County.
• Prorated property taxes. You owe from January 1 through your closing date, so a June closing carries roughly five months of your annual bill.
• Repair and inspection credits. Plan on something. On a 650,000 home, 1 percent is 6,500, and that is a reasonable placeholder until we see the actual inspection.
• Your mortgage payoff. Request the exact figure from your lender, not your last statement balance. Interest accrues to the closing date and the difference is real money.

Running the example

Start at 650,000. Subtract 32,500 in compensation, 1,300 in excise tax, and 1,000 in attorney and doc fees. You are at 615,200 before taxes, credits, and payoff. Add a 6,500 repair credit and a five-month tax proration and the working number lands closer to 605,000, then your payoff comes off that.

Why this matters before you list, not after

Two reasons. First, if the net does not get you where you need to be, we would rather find that out in August than in the middle of a negotiation in October. Second, once you know your floor, you negotiate completely differently. A buyer asking for 5,000 in credits stops feeling like an insult and starts being arithmetic you already ran.

Send me your address and your rough payoff and I will build your actual net sheet, not this example one. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out.