What Your North Carolina Sale Will Cost and Net
Program and regulatory figures verified September 19, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
Two numbers and you will see what the state takes and what is left to work with.
What will the sale cost and net?
North Carolina's excise tax is $1.00 on each $500 conveyed, paid by the seller before recording.
Illustration of state excise tax and payoff only. It excludes commissions, attorney and title charges, and any local land transfer tax. Your closing attorney calculates the actual figures.
Why this calculator is short
Because North Carolina's transaction tax is genuinely small. At 0.2% of the price it is a settlement-statement line item rather than a planning constraint, and a calculator that made it look otherwise would be misleading.
We built it anyway for two reasons. People who have read about other states often overestimate it, and the net-proceeds figure is what a bridge loan is actually repaid from, which is worth seeing regardless of how small the tax is.
What it deliberately leaves out
Commissions, attorney fees, title charges, recording fees and any credits negotiated at closing. Those vary by transaction and are usually much larger than the excise tax, and they all come out of the same proceeds.
It also leaves out any local land transfer tax. Some North Carolina counties have at various times been authorised to levy one, and whether it applies to your transaction is a question for your closing attorney rather than for this page.
How to use the answer
Treat the net figure as an upper bound. Size any bridge financing against a conservative version of it, and model a recast on it too, since that is what actually reduces the balance.
Background on the excise tax page.
Revaluation schedules, exclusion eligibility and excise tax treatment are legal and tax questions. Your county assessor, your closing attorney and your CPA own those answers. We flag them because they change the numbers we underwrite.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate North Carolina's excise tax?
One dollar for each $500 or fractional part of the consideration or value conveyed. On a $400,000 sale that is $800, or 0.2% of the price.
Who pays it?
The transferor, meaning the seller, pays it to the register of deeds of the county where the real estate is located, before the instrument of conveyance is recorded.
Does this show my full net proceeds?
No. It covers the state excise tax and your mortgage payoff only. Commissions, attorney fees, title charges and any local land transfer tax reduce proceeds further, so treat the figure as an upper bound.
Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about financing, not a loan commitment and not legal, tax, or real estate advice. Revaluation schedules, exclusion eligibility and excise tax treatment depend on your facts; your county assessor, your closing attorney, your CPA, and your real estate agent each handle their own part. Loans are subject to borrower and property qualification.