Price history and what you keep
Sell now, wait, or if you had sold 5 years ago.
Enter your ZIP code and what you think the house is worth. The tool shows what the FHFA price index did there, what waiting one to three years has meant in the past (best, typical and worst windows, not a forecast), and what you would keep after commission, deed excise tax and closing costs, next to a direct offer with no commission.
Your house
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Where the defaults come from
Placeholders you should replace with your own quotes: commission 5.25% (the site calculator's default; sellers' commissions are negotiable), attorney $1,250 (midpoint of the $500 to $2,000 range one Massachusetts agent publishes), certificates $75 ($25 lien certificate set by statute plus a $50 smoke and CO fee one city charges; Title 5, lead and others are extra). Moving and prep start at zero because we have no sourced figure.
Want a real number? A calculator cannot see your house. Get a cash or option offer and compare it with listing, free, with no obligation.
Method
How this works.
History, not a forecast
The waiting scenarios apply the actual best, median and worst one, two and three year changes in your ZIP code’s FHFA index since 1990. Past price moves do not predict the next ones, and the worst windows in the data were real declines.
Value in earlier years
Your value today is divided by the index change since each earlier year (annual averages), so the numbers are the same house in a different market, not what you paid.
Net proceeds
Sale price, minus mortgage payoff (your number), the Massachusetts deed excise tax of $4.56 per $1,000 (paid by the seller by custom), agent commission, attorney, certificates, moving and any prep before listing. The commission default is the site’s calculator default and is negotiable. Every box can be changed.
Selling directly
A direct cash or option offer has no commission and no prep, and usually comes in lower than a full-price listing. The tool does not guess an offer: you set it with a slider, and it shows the offer level at which both routes leave you with the same cash.
Taxes on the gain
Federal and Massachusetts capital gains tax are not included. Many sellers owe nothing because of the home sale exclusion of up to $250,000 ($500,000 joint). Check the capital gains calculator and talk to a tax professional.
Questions
Common questions.
Will home prices go up or down if I wait?
Nobody knows. The tool shows what happened in your ZIP code in the past, including the years prices fell, so you can see the range. It does not predict.
What does "if I had sold 5 years ago" mean here?
It shows what the same house would have been worth five years ago by applying your ZIP code’s FHFA index, so you can see how much of today’s value is appreciation. It does not use your actual purchase or sale price.
What does waiting cost besides price?
Property tax, insurance, utilities, maintenance and the interest on your mortgage, plus the risk of a market move either way. Put your monthly cost in the box and the tool subtracts it.
What commission should I use?
The default is 5.25 percent, the same as our cash offer vs listing calculator. Seller-side commissions are negotiable and vary by agent and by home. Change it to what you have been quoted.
Is the deed excise tax really paid by the seller?
In Massachusetts the excise is set by law at $2.28 per $500 of price, and the seller pays it by custom unless the contract says otherwise.
Keep reading
- Seller net proceeds calculator for MassachusettsCalculators
- Capital gains tax calculator for a home sale in MassachusettsCalculators
- Selling a house in Massachusetts: every certificate and inspection you needSeller certificates and inspections
- Realtor commission in Massachusetts: what sellers pay nowCosts, taxes and net proceeds
- The best time to sell a house in MassachusettsWays to sell, timing and value
Selling? Add drone photos
Show the whole property.
Aerial photos show the lot, the yard, the roofline and the neighborhood in a way street photos cannot. Many sellers add them to a listing, and they are a short, inexpensive shoot (typically $250 to $900).
Want a real number?
Get a cash or option offer for your house. Free, no obligation, and you can stop at any point.
We are not a real estate broker or agent. Home Options MA is an advertising and lead-generation service: the independent buyers and agents we connect you with may pay us flat advertising fees to be featured or to receive inquiries, and any listing of a business here is advertising, not a recommendation. We never take a share of a commission and are never paid based on whether a home sells. No obligation.