Your seller settlement statement Georgia closings produce is the only document in the transaction that tells you what you actually made, and it is the one most sellers glance at for eleven seconds before signing. You are handed a page of debits and credits at a table where everyone is waiting on you, and the natural instinct is to look at the bottom number and reach for the pen.

Here is the reframe. That statement is a bill, and like every bill it can contain errors. A single mistake in a proration calculation, an unexplained fee, or a missing credit can cost thousands of dollars. Nobody is trying to cheat you. Files are assembled by people from information supplied by several parties, and the person with the strongest incentive to catch a mistake is the one whose money it is.

Nicole France has closed more than 600 transactions across Northwest Atlanta over 26 years and reads these statements before her sellers ever see them. Here are seven places money quietly leaks.

1. You Waited Until Closing Day to Look at It

This is the root cause of every other item on this list.

Ask your closing attorney for the estimated settlement statement as early as it exists, and review it days before closing rather than minutes before. Sellers should review estimated statements ahead of time specifically to understand expected net proceeds, and adjustments such as updated tax prorations or corrected payoff figures can still occur before the final version is issued.

Reviewing early gives you time to ask questions and get corrections made calmly. Reviewing at the table means either signing something you do not understand or delaying a closing with a room full of people waiting. One of those is a much better position.

2. The Property Tax Proration Is Wrong or Uses a Different Method

Prorations are the most common source of quiet errors, and the math is checkable in two minutes.

Taxes are divided so the seller covers the period up to closing and the buyer covers everything after. The mechanics matter: prorations are calculated using either a 365-day calendar year or a 360-day banking year depending on local custom and the item involved, and the method used appears on the statement.

Run the arithmetic yourself. If annual taxes are $2,400 and you close July 15 having paid the full year in advance, the daily rate is $6.58, the buyer owes you for 170 remaining days, and your credit is roughly $1,118. Georgia adds a wrinkle worth watching: bills are often not yet issued when you close, so prorations may run off the prior year’s figures, and if your assessment changed, that estimate may not match reality. Ask which year’s numbers were used.

3. The Mortgage Payoff Figure Is Stale or Wrong

An incorrect payoff directly reduces your net proceeds, and it is one of the larger numbers on the page.

Payoff statements are good through a specific date and include per diem interest, so a closing that slips by a week can change the figure. Confirm the payoff matches a current statement from your lender, and check that it includes only what it should.

Watch for second mortgages, home equity lines, and solar loans. A HELOC with a zero balance still needs to be closed and released, not just paid, or the lien remains on record. If you have a solar lease or a PPA rather than an owned system, the transfer or buyout terms should have been resolved well before this document was drafted.

4. Credits You Negotiated Are Missing

This is the error that costs the most and is the easiest to catch, because you already know what you agreed to.

Confirm that total credits match the seller concessions and any negotiated repair credits in your contract and amendments. Then confirm the direction is right. A repair credit is a debit to you, and it should appear once, at the agreed amount, not duplicated across two line items.

Also verify the earnest money is accounted for. It sits in escrow and should be applied to the buyer’s side of the ledger. It is not free money to anyone, and a statement that omits it produces a wrong bottom line for both parties.

5. Charges Appear That Should Not Be Yours

Line items land on the wrong side of the statement more often than sellers assume, and custom is not law.

In Georgia, transfer tax is the item most frequently misassigned. Georgia charges $1 for the first $1,000 of sale price plus 10 cents per additional $100, and under state law the seller is the party liable, with the standard contract assigning it accordingly. If it shows on the buyer’s side and your contract did not shift it, ask why. Conversely, if something appears on your side that your contract assigned to the buyer, that is the same error in the other direction.

Owner’s title insurance is customarily a seller cost in Georgia while the lender’s policy is customarily the buyer’s, and both are negotiable rather than legally fixed. Watch also for duplicate fees, which are a known category of settlement statement error, and for charges you never agreed to. Ask about anything you do not recognize. “That is standard” is not an explanation.

6. Liens and HOA Payoffs Land Larger Than Expected

Anything owed against the property comes out of your proceeds before you see a dollar.

Outstanding liens and judgments must be satisfied from the seller’s proceeds before the transaction can close. That includes items you may not have known about, such as a judgment against a prior owner or a contractor’s lien from work you thought was fully paid.

HOA accounts are the routine version. Dues get prorated, and any delinquency, fine, or approved special assessment can appear as a payoff. Management companies also charge fees for producing closing documents. Request the association’s written ledger during the listing period rather than discovering the number at closing, and confirm the proration matches your billing cycle.

7. Nobody Verified the Wire Instructions

This one does not reduce your proceeds. It takes them entirely.

Sellers focus on wire fraud as a buyer problem because buyers send money. Sellers receive it, which means an intercepted email can redirect your entire net proceeds to a criminal account. The scheme is the same: someone compromises an email account in the transaction, watches, then sends altered instructions that look legitimate.

Call the closing attorney’s office at a number you obtained independently, never one from an email, and verbally confirm where your funds are going and how. Do this even if the instructions look identical to what you received earlier. Once money leaves the domestic banking system, recovery is far from guaranteed.

What Sellers Need to Know

Review the statement against three documents: your purchase agreement including every amendment, your listing agreement for the commission terms, and your current mortgage payoff. Cross-check the net proceeds against your own arithmetic of sale price minus commissions, payoffs, prorations, and agreed credits. If the bottom line differs from your expectation by more than a few hundred dollars, something upstream is wrong.

Then keep it permanently. The settlement statement is the document your CPA needs to calculate capital gains, because selling costs including commission and transfer tax factor into that calculation. Sellers who have owned a home a long time need it even more, since it works alongside your improvement receipts to establish your adjusted basis.

Most errors are correctable without drama. A fee adjustment, a changed closing date, or a corrected proration can generally be fixed without restarting any waiting period. Ask early, ask specifically, and ask in writing. Sellers across Acworth, Kennesaw, Dallas, Cartersville, and Woodstock who review the estimated statement three days out almost never have a problem at the table.

Frequently Asked Questions

When do I get my settlement statement?

Ask for the estimated version as soon as the closing attorney can produce it, often several days before closing, and expect the final figures to be confirmed closer to the date. Buyers receive a Closing Disclosure with a federally required three-business-day review window; sellers should request their statement proactively rather than assuming it will arrive early on its own.

What if I find an error at the closing table?

Say so before you sign, not after. Most corrections including fee adjustments and proration fixes can be made without restarting any waiting period, though they may cause a short delay while documents are revised. Signing a statement you believe is wrong makes it considerably harder to resolve afterward, so raise it in the room.

How do I know what my net proceeds will actually be?

Ask your agent for a net sheet before you accept an offer, not after. It estimates sale price minus commission, payoff, prorations, transfer tax, attorney costs, and any negotiated credits. That estimate is what you should be comparing the settlement statement against, and a meaningful gap between the two is worth a conversation.

Selling in Northwest Atlanta?

Knowing your net before you accept an offer, and reviewing the statement before closing day, is where sellers protect real money. If you want an agent who runs those numbers up front, reach out.

(404) 867-3869 | nicolefrance-realestate.com/contact/

Start with a home value estimate, read what past clients say, or learn more about Nicole’s background.

Sources: a guide to settlement statement errors and correction procedures, an explanation of proration methods and net proceeds calculations, and legal guidance on reviewing a closing statement.

This post is general information, not legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nicole France is a REALTOR®, not an attorney or CPA. Settlement statement line items, customary cost allocation, and proration methods vary by contract and by county. Direct specific questions to your closing attorney and your tax professional.

Nicole France is a REALTOR® with RE/MAX Center serving buyers and sellers across Acworth, Kennesaw, Dallas, Cartersville, and Woodstock. Client Focused · Results Driven.