How much money did we make on the sale of our home?

Wondering how much money we really made when selling our home? Let's take a look at the nitty gritty details!

So, I know that it is taboo to talk about money. However, I find this subject extremely fascinating, and since most of the big numbers are public record anyways, I wanted to share!

We shared our profits on when we sold our condo and what we did with them, so we want to do that again now.

A little background: we bought our home in July 2016 and are selling it in August 2020.

In that time, real estate here in Charleston has gone up in value pretty well.

However, we also put a lot of money into our home.

Like, a lot.

So, I am going to attempt to share some real numbers to give you an idea of what we really "made" off this house.

Of course, these expenses are paid and essentially a "sunk cost," and our mortgage is partially (very very partially, haha) paid off.

We aren't rolling in cash from this sale - all of the $$$ is rolling into our down payment on our next home.

But still, it is interesting.

Selling our house: the numbers

Selling price (August 2020)	$415,000
Buyer's closing costs & selling fees we paid	$5,796
Realtor's fees	$22,825
Net proceeds	$386,379
Purchase price (July 2016)	$335,000
Profit on sale of house	$51,379
Cost of solar panels**	$13,100
Cost of wall removal + ceiling drywall work	$10,000
Cost of new kitchen countertops	$5,000
Cost of new kitchen flooring	$3,000
Cost of new HVAC system	$5,000
Total costs paid to contractors	$36,100
Net profit on sale of home	$15,279

** This is roughly what we paid for the solar panels. Total cost was $29,120, which was financed at 2.99%.

We received 55% of this amount back as state and federal solar tax credits over three years, and paid the loan off in about 2.5 years.

The amount above is 45% of the total cost, ignoring interest costs for simplicity's sake. Read about our solar regrets here.

Note that the "net profit" number at the end is not how much we are walking away with, because we also get money for the investment we've made into the mortgage. This number shows just the house itself and what has gone into it.

What does this not include? All of the DIY projects that we have done. We included the "hired out" major contractor projects, but everything else we decided to leave out.

That's paint, molding, materials, light fixtures, hardware, sinks and faucets, knobs, landscaping, plants, and tons and tons of time.

We would estimate at least $5,000-7,000 in supplies and materials for projects that we did ourselves over the years - not including things like furniture that we will take with us.

These projects probably didn't add actual value to our home, but they did make it look more beautiful and appealing and therefore sell quicker.

We also didn't include costs of repairs to the roof, HVAC, and other systems that we needed over the years, considering them more of a cost of living and not an investment in the home, though they were costs that we would not have had had we been renters.

So, even though our house went up in value a lot, we didn't really make much money as far as true profit goes.

Plus, we will never know how much of that value was due to the work that we put into it and how much was just due to the market value increasing.

Regardless, we have no regrets. It is an important reminder not to invest too much money into a home you don't plan to stay in long term - unless you just really want to!

Any questions?