By Eric Berman, REALTOR® | The Eric Berman Team at Compass
TL;DR:
Sellers on Long Island typically pay between 6% and 9% of the sale price in closing costs, with the biggest line items being agent compensation, the real estate attorney, and New York's transfer tax. Knowing the full breakdown before listing — not at the closing table — is what separates a smooth sale from a stressful one.
The Real Question Sellers Are Asking
When a seller asks about closing costs, the question underneath the question is almost always the same: how much will actually land in the bank account when this is over? That's the number that matters. The sale price on the listing sheet is not the seller's number. The net proceeds — after the attorney, the transfer tax, the agent compensation, the mortgage payoff, and the municipal cleanup items — are.
On Long Island, the gap between sale price and net proceeds typically runs between 6% and 9% of the contract price, sometimes more depending on the mortgage situation and what the home needs to clear inspection. For a $1.2M Manhasset sale, that's a swing of $36,000 between an optimistic projection and a realistic one. Sellers who plan around the high end of that range almost never feel shortchanged at closing. Sellers who plan around the low end frequently do.
The goal of this guide is to walk through every line item a Long Island seller should expect, with the New York-specific context that generic national closing-cost articles miss. New York is an attorney state, and the math here looks different than it does in New Jersey, Connecticut, or anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Agent Compensation — What Actually Changed
The single largest closing cost for most sellers is real estate agent compensation. Historically, total commission on Long Island ran between 5% and 6% of the sale price, with the listing brokerage and buyer's brokerage splitting the total. That arrangement is still common, but the post-NAR-settlement rules that took effect in August 2024 changed how it gets negotiated and disclosed.
Under the new rules, buyer-broker compensation is no longer offered through the MLS as a take-it-or-leave-it field. It's negotiated separately — sometimes between the buyer and their agent, sometimes between the seller and the buyer as part of the offer terms, sometimes still through the listing brokerage. What this means in practice is that sellers now have more visibility into what's being offered to the buyer's side and more leverage to negotiate the structure. It also means that a listing agent who explains the compensation conversation clearly — what's customary in the local market, what's negotiable, what affects showing activity — is more valuable than they were two years ago.
For most Long Island single-family sales today, total compensation typically still lands in the 5% to 5.5% range, though it varies by price band, property type, and how the deal comes together. The Compass marketing approach for Long Island listings walks through how that conversation tends to play out in a competitive North Shore market.
The Real Estate Attorney — Why New York Is Different
New York is one of a handful of states that requires a real estate attorney on both sides of every residential transaction. There is no title company handling the closing, no neutral escrow officer running the process. The attorneys negotiate the contract, hold the earnest money in escrow, manage title issues, and sit at the closing table. For a standard Long Island residential sale, attorney fees run between $1,800 and $3,500 depending on the complexity of the deal and the attorney's billing structure. Most attorneys charge a flat fee for a clean sale and bill hourly for complications — estate issues, lien clearances, contested boundary lines, anything that requires extra work.
Sellers sometimes try to economize here by hiring the cheapest attorney they can find. This usually costs more than it saves. A weak attorney on a contract dispute or a title issue can stall a closing for weeks or kill a deal entirely. The right reference point isn't the hourly rate — it's whether the attorney closes consistently and communicates clearly when something goes sideways. The standard advice is to ask the listing agent for two or three referrals and interview them briefly before signing the engagement letter.
Earnest money on Long Island is typically 10% of the contract price, held in the seller's attorney's escrow account. That's significantly higher than the national norm of 1% to 3%, and it's one of the reasons New York deals tend to hold together — buyers have real money at risk and rarely walk away frivolously.
NY State Transfer Tax and the Mansion Tax
The New York State Transfer Tax is calculated at $4 per $1,000 of the sale price — 0.4% — and is paid by the seller at closing. On a $1,000,000 sale, that's $4,000. On a $2,500,000 sale, $10,000. Straightforward, predictable, and built into every seller's net sheet from the start.
The Mansion Tax is where the math gets more interesting. The Mansion Tax is a 1% tax on residential sales of $1,000,000 or more in New York State, with additional progressive tiers added for sales above $2M in New York City (which includes the Queens portion of this market). It's technically paid by the buyer, not the seller — but every experienced Long Island seller understands that the Mansion Tax affects buyer affordability and therefore affects pricing strategy. A home listed at $999,000 versus $1,025,000 isn't just a $26,000 difference for the buyer; it's a $26,000 difference plus a $10,250 tax bill. Sellers in the Manhasset, Port Washington, Garden City, Roslyn, and Old Westbury price bands need to understand how the Mansion Tax cliff shapes buyer behavior on either side of the $1M threshold.
For Queens sellers — Bayside, Fresh Meadows, Jamaica Estates, Whitestone, Douglaston — there's also the NYC Real Property Transfer Tax (RPTT), which is 1% to 1.425% of the sale price depending on the band, and a NY State equalization fee. The NYC piece is paid by the seller and meaningfully changes the closing-cost math for Queens homes versus Nassau homes at the same price point.
The Property Condition Disclosure Statement
For decades, New York sellers had the option to either complete the NY Property Condition Disclosure Statement (PCDS) — a multi-page form covering known defects, environmental conditions, and structural issues — or pay the buyer a $500 credit at closing in lieu of completing it. The standard practice on Long Island was the $500 credit, because attorneys generally preferred limiting seller liability over disclosing specific conditions that could later be litigated.
That option no longer exists. Effective March 2024, the legislature eliminated the $500 credit entirely and expanded the PCDS itself. Sellers are now required to complete the form, and the new version added a series of questions covering flood risk, flood insurance history, FEMA-designated flood zones, and prior flood damage to the property. For Long Island sellers — especially anyone on the North Shore waterfront, the Manhasset Bay corridor, parts of Port Washington, or low-lying sections of Queens — the flood disclosure questions are a meaningful part of the conversation now. A clean, accurate PCDS, completed early in the listing process with the seller's attorney's guidance, is the new standard, not the exception.
Municipal Fees, Compliance, and the Small Stuff That Adds Up
Every Long Island municipality has its own set of compliance items the seller has to clear before closing. Smoke and carbon monoxide detector certifications, certificates of occupancy for any work done during ownership, oil tank certifications, sewer or septic inspections, and village-specific permits or final inspections all show up here. The cost of clearing these items is rarely catastrophic on its own — typically $300 to $1,500 total — but the time required can stall a closing if the seller waits until the last minute.
A common surprise: any unpermitted work the seller (or a prior owner) did on the home will surface here. A finished basement without a permit, a deck added without a CO, a converted garage — these all need to be addressed before closing, either by pulling retroactive permits, removing the work, or negotiating a credit with the buyer. The cleanest version of this conversation happens before the home hits the market, not three weeks before the scheduled closing. For sellers thinking through a clean pre-listing process, the home valuation tool is a useful first step to understand where the math lands before any compliance items are touched.
Recording fees, the final water bill, and any prorated property taxes due through the closing date round out the municipal line. For Nassau County sellers, the property tax piece is worth a closer look — the county's reassessment cycle has created some unusual situations where the assessed value, the school tax, and the general tax bill don't all line up cleanly. A good attorney catches this. A rushed one misses it.
What a Real Net Sheet Looks Like
Putting all the pieces together, here's how the math runs for a representative Nassau County sale at $1,400,000 with a $600,000 mortgage balance:
A total agent compensation of 5%, or $70,000. Real estate attorney at $2,500. NY State Transfer Tax of $5,600 (0.4% of $1.4M). Municipal compliance and fees of roughly $1,000. Recording, payoff processing, and miscellaneous fees of approximately $750. That's $79,850 in transaction costs — about 5.7% of the sale price — before the mortgage payoff. After the $600,000 mortgage payoff and any prorated property tax adjustment, the seller's net proceeds land around $720,000.
If the same seller is also buying a home, that net proceeds figure becomes the down payment math for the next purchase. The order of operations — sell first, buy first, or simultaneous closings — affects timing, financing, and cash flow more than most sellers realize at the start of the process. Planning both sides of the move at the same time, with the same attorney and the same agent, prevents most of the cash-flow surprises that show up between contracts.
Closing Costs Are Predictable When Planned For
The sellers who feel good at the closing table are the ones who saw the numbers in writing weeks before they signed the contract. Closing costs on Long Island are not mysterious, and they're not negotiable in most line items — the transfer tax is the transfer tax, the attorney is the attorney, and the agent compensation conversation happens before the listing goes live. What's negotiable is the timeline, the order, and the quality of the people on the seller's side of the table. Net sheets, run early and updated as the deal develops, are the tool that keeps everyone aligned.
For sellers ready to look at the math for their specific situation, the home valuation starting point is a quiet way to see where the numbers land before any commitments are made. The full Local Insights archive covers the rest of the seller process — pricing, marketing, contract-to-close — for sellers who want to understand the full picture before listing.
FAQs
Q: What percentage of the sale price do Long Island sellers typically pay in closing costs?
A: Most Long Island sellers pay between 6% and 9% of the sale price in total closing costs, with the largest line items being agent compensation (around 5% to 5.5%), the real estate attorney ($1,800 to $3,500), and the NY State Transfer Tax (0.4% of the sale price). Queens sellers also pay the NYC Real Property Transfer Tax, which adds another 1% to 1.425% to the total.
Q: Does the seller pay the Mansion Tax on a Long Island home sale?
A: The Mansion Tax is technically paid by the buyer, not the seller. However, sellers of homes priced at or above $1,000,000 need to understand the Mansion Tax because it affects buyer affordability and behavior. Strategic pricing around the $1M threshold — and the additional tiers above $2M in the Queens portion of the market — is part of how an experienced listing agent approaches the conversation.
Q: Is a real estate attorney really required to sell a home in New York?
A: Yes. New York is an attorney state, which means both the buyer and the seller are represented by a real estate attorney throughout the transaction. There is no title company handling the closing. The seller's attorney negotiates the contract, holds the earnest money in escrow, manages title clearance, and represents the seller at the closing table. Attorney fees for a standard Long Island residential sale typically run between $1,800 and $3,500.
Q: Can a Long Island seller still avoid completing the Property Condition Disclosure Statement by paying a $500 credit?
A: No. The $500 credit option was eliminated in March 2024. Sellers are now required to complete the PCDS, which has also been expanded to include flood-related disclosure questions. The form is completed early in the listing process with the seller's attorney's guidance, and an experienced listing agent helps coordinate the process so the disclosure is accurate and consistent with the marketing materials.
Q: What surprises Long Island sellers most often at the closing table?
A: The most common surprise is the cost of clearing unpermitted work — finished basements, additions, decks, or converted garages that were built without permits or certificates of occupancy. These items have to be resolved before closing, either by pulling retroactive permits, removing the work, or negotiating a credit with the buyer. Sellers who address compliance items before listing rarely encounter this surprise. Sellers who wait until the inspection report comes back almost always do.
By Eric Berman, REALTOR® | The Eric Berman Team at Compass
Eric Berman | Long Island & Queens REALTOR® | Compass 1468 Northern Blvd, Manhasset, NY 11030 (917) 225-8596 | eric@ericbermanteam.com | theericbermanteam.com
