Free BayNest estimator

Your down payment is not your cash to close.

Bay Area offers get stressful when the lender, escrow, tax, and reserve numbers arrive late. Use this to pressure-test the total cash stack before a listing becomes urgent.

Offer basics Purchase price City Down payment % Estimated interest rate Buyer transfer-tax share

Closing fees Lender + title cost % Escrow/title flat fees Inspection + appraisal Recording / notary / misc

Prepaids and buffers Property tax months prepaid Annual property-tax seed % Annual insurance Insurance months prepaid Reserve months after close HOA estimate / month Monthly debts / obligations Appraisal gap buffer Verified cash available

Total cash to close

Down payment

Transfer-tax exposure

Lender/title/escrow fees

Prepaids + impounds

Reserve buffer

Appraisal gap buffer

Cash surplus / gap

Estimated PITI + HOA

Loan amount

Use Buyer Readiness Pro for the full offer model Check buying power first

Source notes

Transfer tax is local, negotiable, and easy to misread.

Many Bay Area transfer taxes are technically owed at recording, but purchase contracts can allocate who pays. This estimator lets you model 0%, 50%, or 100% buyer exposure so you can see the cash impact of a negotiation before you sign anything.

California county documentary transfer tax seed: $0.55 per $500 of value, based on California Revenue and Taxation Code Section 11911.
San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Jose use city-specific tiers; this tool seeds those tiers from official pages and exposes your assumed buyer share.
Always verify final transfer tax, title fees, escrow fees, impounds, insurance, HOA reserves, and lender credits with your lender, agent, escrow officer, CPA, and attorney.

SF transfer tax Oakland transfer tax Berkeley transfer tax San Jose Measure E CA documentary transfer tax