2026-07-29 · Josh Douglas
The short version: Selling a $400,000 house in Brevard costs about $7,600 before you pay anyone a commission. Add a commission and you are looking at roughly $29,600 off the top, or about 7.4 percent of the sale price. Two of those lines are set by the state and cannot be argued with. The biggest one is negotiable, and always was.
Brevard's median single-family sale price hit $400,000 in June 2026, up 2.6 percent year over year, per the Space Coast Association of Realtors. That is the number I will use here. Run your own through the net proceeds calculator.
The lines you cannot argue with
Florida charges a documentary stamp tax of 70 cents per $100 on the deed that transfers the property. That is the Department of Revenue's rate in every county except Miami-Dade, and in Brevard the seller customarily pays it. On a $400,000 sale that is $2,800. It is calculated on the price, not on your profit, so you owe it whether you made money or lost money.
Owner's title insurance is the other one. Florida sets that premium by rule, so every title agency in the state quotes an identical number: $5.75 per $1,000 on the first $100,000 of coverage, then $5.00 per $1,000 above that. On $400,000 that is $2,075. Shopping title companies will not get you a better premium, because there is no better premium to get. It only moves the smaller service fee.
Local custom in Brevard puts the owner's policy on the seller. Custom is not law, it is a checkbox in the contract, and in a few Florida counties it flips to the buyer. Either side can ask.
Property taxes: you owe the part of the year you owned it
Florida property taxes are paid in arrears. The 2026 bill covers all of 2026 but does not mail until around November 1. So if you close mid-year, the bill has not been issued and nobody has paid it. At closing you credit the buyer for the days you owned the house, and they pay the full bill later.
That credit is built on your annual tax bill, not on the sale price. If your bill is $3,000 and you close September 30, you are handing over about $2,240 of it. Close in December after you already paid, and the credit runs the other way. On a long-held homesteaded house this is usually smaller than people fear, because your capped assessment kept the bill low.
Commission is the big number, and it is the negotiable one
There is no standard commission rate. There never was one legally, and since the National Association of Realtors practice changes took effect in August 2024, there is not even a habit propping it up. Listing services can no longer publish an offer of buyer-agent compensation, and sellers are not required to pay the buyer's agent at all. Whatever you do pay gets written into your listing agreement after a conversation.
Survey numbers floating around for Florida in 2026 land somewhere in the 5 to 6 percent range for both sides combined, but those surveys mostly come from companies selling a discount, so treat them as a starting point and not a fact about your house. Ask any agent, including me, what they charge and what you get for it. If the answer is vague, that is information.
For the example below I used 5.5 percent total. That is an assumption, not a rate.
The whole line, on a $400,000 sale
- Deed doc stamps: $2,800
- Owner's title insurance: $2,075
- Property tax proration (a $3,000 bill, closing September 30): about $2,240
- Settlement and closing fee: about $500, varies by title company
- Commission at 5.5 percent: $22,000
That is about $29,600, leaving roughly $370,000 before your mortgage payoff. Subtract the payoff and what is left is your check. The net proceeds tool does this with your actual loan balance and closing month.
The costs that show up after you are under contract
None of the above includes the wildcard. A buyer inspects, finds a soft roof deck or a failing water heater, and asks for a repair or a credit. That negotiation is where a sale gets expensive, and it is the reason to handle the obvious items before you list.
If your house is in an HOA or a condo association, the association charges for the estoppel letter the closing agent orders. State law caps that fee near $300 for a standard request, more if it is rushed or there is a past-due balance. The cap is adjusted for inflation on a five-year cycle, so confirm the current figure with your association. Under the standard Florida contract that one is the seller's.
Florida has no state income tax, so no state capital gains bill is waiting for you. The federal side depends on how long you lived there and what you paid, and that is a CPA question, not an agent question.
Fine print worth repeating: these are estimates built on current state rates and typical Brevard ranges as of today. Your title company's service fees, your association, your closing date, and what a buyer asks for after inspection all move the total. The closing disclosure is the document that binds, not this page. And if you already have a buyer lined up, a neighbor or a family member, you may not need a full listing at all. Say so and I will tell you honestly whether hiring me is worth it. Otherwise there is more on how I list at the sell page. Send me your address and rough loan balance and I will put a real net number in front of you, no obligation. Text me at (321) 576-2239.