Chicago Seller Net Sheet: Every Line Between Your Sale Price and Your Wire

The first time most sellers see a net sheet, they are already at the closing table, and every number on it has already been decided. I believe that is backwards. The net sheet is the single most useful document in a home sale, and it is most useful before you sign a listing agreement, when every line is still a decision instead of a receipt.

This page does two things. The calculator above builds your estimated net sheet with real Chicago numbers. The sections below explain every line on it in plain English, including the one line that is negotiable and the one line that surprises almost everyone.

What a seller net sheet is

A net sheet starts with your expected sale price and subtracts everything that comes out of it before the money reaches you:

Line	What it is	Typical Chicago range
Listing fee	What you pay the brokerage that lists and sells your home	Example 2.5% ($12,500 on $500K), or $1,995 flat
Buyer-agent compensation	Optional. What you choose to offer the buyer’s agent, if anything	0% to 3%, negotiated per deal
Transfer taxes	State, county, and city taxes on the transfer, set by law	About 0.45% in Chicago ($2,250 on $500K)
Owner’s title insurance	Protects the buyer’s ownership. Sellers customarily pay for it in Illinois	Roughly $1,500 to $3,000
Attorney fee	Illinois closings run through attorneys	Roughly $500 to $1,000
Survey	A drawing of your lot lines. Houses only, condos are exempt	Roughly $500 to $700
Recording and payoff fees	Filing the documents, releasing your mortgage	A few hundred dollars
Property tax proration	A credit to the buyer for taxes you owe but have not paid yet	Depends on your tax bill and closing date
Mortgage payoff	Your remaining loan balance, from your lender’s payoff statement	Your balance

The number left over is your net proceeds. That number, not the sale price, is what you are actually selling your house for.

The lines that are fixed

Transfer taxes are set by statute and compute exactly from the price. A Chicago seller pays three stacked taxes: Illinois state at $0.50 per $500 of price, Cook County at $0.25 per $500, and the seller’s CTA portion of the city tax at $1.50 per $500. Together that is $2.25 per $500, about 0.45% of the sale price. The buyer customarily pays the city’s larger $3.75 per $500 portion. Sell in most suburbs and the city layer drops off, though some towns levy their own.

Title insurance, the attorney, the survey, and recording fees move a little between providers, but they live in narrow ranges. On a $500,000 sale they total roughly $3,000 to $4,500 combined. Worth shopping, not worth agonizing over.

The line that surprises people

Cook County collects property taxes in arrears. You pay this year for last year. So when you sell, the buyer is going to receive a bill for a period when you still owned the home, and you owe them that share at closing. It shows up on your net sheet as a tax proration credit, commonly calculated at 100% to 110% of the most recent annual bill, prorated to the day you close.

On a $10,000 tax bill, closing at mid-year, that credit can exceed $5,000. It is not a fee and nobody is taking your money, it is taxes you always owed, settling up. But if the first time you see it is at the closing table, it feels like a fee. Enter your tax bill and sale month in the calculator above and it will size the credit for you.

The line that is negotiable

Every line above is either set by law or confined to a narrow market range. One line is not: commission.

Traditionally, the listing fee has been a percentage of the sale price, commonly 2% to 3% for the listing side. Commission rates are not set by law and never have been. On a $500,000 Chicago sale, an example 2.5% listing fee is $12,500. That single line is larger than the transfer taxes, title insurance, attorney, survey, and recording fees combined.

I built Net Gain Realty because I believe that line deserves the same scrutiny as every other line on the sheet. We list homes for a flat $1,995: full MLS exposure through the same MLS every brokerage uses, professional photography, pricing from comparable sales data, showing coordination, negotiation, and closing support. The calculator above shows both versions of your net sheet side by side, the same sale with an example 2.5% listing fee and with a flat fee, so the comparison is arithmetic instead of argument.

Buyer-agent compensation is its own decision. Since the 2024 NAR settlement, buyers sign agreements with their own agents and that fee is theirs. You can choose to offer coverage to strengthen a deal, and buyers can ask for it in an offer, but it is a negotiation. The slider in the calculator lets you model it from 0% to 3%.

When to build your net sheet

Before the first listing appointment. Not because agents hide the numbers, but because the order changes the conversation. A seller who walks in knowing their transfer taxes, their proration, and their payoff can evaluate a fee quote in ten seconds: it is the only number on the sheet that moved.

If you want the same math for your specific block, the home sale calculator breaks down the full cost to sell, commission rates in Chicago covers what the percentage model costs at every price point, and how realtors get paid explains where the money actually flows in plain terms.

All figures are estimates for illustration. Transfer tax rates are subject to change. Commission rates are negotiable and not set by law. Your attorney and your lender’s payoff statement determine final figures at closing. Net Gain Realty is a licensed Illinois brokerage, #481.014232.