How Do I List My House for Sale in Florida?

With a full-service listing, you hire a licensed broker or sales associate to price the house with you, put it on the MLS, market it, handle showings, negotiate offers and follow the contract through to closing. You pay a fee you agree on in advance. It suits sellers who want someone else to run the sale.

A flat-fee listing puts you on the MLS for a fixed price, in exchange for more of the work. Unless you buy more services, you usually handle pricing, showings and negotiating yourself. It suits sellers who know their market and are comfortable dealing with buyers’ agents.

Selling by owner means no listing broker. You pay no listing fee, but you do the marketing, showings, negotiating and paperwork, and the house does not go on the MLS. It suits sellers who already have a buyer, such as a tenant or relative, or who will put in the time and pay an attorney.

Whichever you choose, judge it by what you keep after every cost, not by the fee you avoid. A route that saves a commission but sells for less, or takes longer, may save nothing.

Talk to more than one licensed person before you choose. Ask each one what list price they suggest, which recent nearby sales support it, how they would market the house and what they charge. A sales associate works under a broker, so find out which brokerage you would be signing with.

Then check the license. The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) has a license search at myfloridalicense.com, by name, license number, city or county, or license type. Look for a current, active license: section 475.42 of the Florida Statutes makes operating as a broker or sales associate without one a third-degree felony. DBPR takes complaints against licensees, but it says contract and commission disputes are civil matters for a court.

The listing agreement is your contract with the brokerage, so get it in writing and read all of it. Under section 475.25, a licensee can be disciplined for a written listing agreement that leaves out a definite expiration date, a description of the property, the price and terms, the fee or commission, or the owner’s proper signature. You must receive a signed copy within 24 hours, and the agreement cannot require you to give notice that you intend to cancel after the expiration date.

Ask how long the term is, whether you can end it early, and whether you would owe a fee if you find the buyer yourself. Get the answers into the agreement itself.

Section 475.278 allows two brokerage relationships, transaction broker and single agent, and bars dual agency. Unless a single agent or no brokerage relationship is set up in writing, Florida law presumes the licensee is a transaction broker.

A transaction broker gives limited representation to the buyer, the seller or both, and is not your fiduciary. The duties include honest and fair dealing, accounting for all funds, skill, care and diligence, timely offers and counteroffers, and limited confidentiality, which covers things like your willingness to take less than the asking price.

A single agent owes you more: loyalty, confidentiality, obedience and full disclosure. Those duties must be given to you in writing no later than the listing agreement or the first showing, whichever comes first. A single agent can change to a transaction broker only with your written consent first.

In both relationships the licensee must disclose known facts that materially affect the value of residential property and are not readily observable, so an agent cannot agree to keep a hidden defect quiet for you. Ask which relationship you are getting and what happens if the same firm also works with the buyer.

Yes. Part I of chapter 475, the brokerage law, sets no commission rate. A written listing agreement states the fee or commission you and the brokerage agree on. Every percentage point on a $400,000 sale is $4,000, so compare what each fee includes rather than the rate alone.

The rules on paying buyers’ agents changed after a national antitrust case, Burnett v. National Association of Realtors (NAR). A federal court gave final approval to the settlement in November 2024, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed it on August 19, 2026. According to that opinion, sellers are no longer obligated to offer compensation to buyer brokers in MLS listings, and any offer must be disclosed to and approved by the seller in advance.

The same opinion says buyer brokers must enter into a written agreement with the buyer before touring homes and can no longer steer buyers toward listings based on commission level, and that brokers must tell clients that commissions are negotiable. The U.S. Department of Justice told the court that the settlement prohibits offers of compensation on the MLS itself but lets them continue elsewhere, including publicly.

For a seller, this makes paying a buyer’s agent a decision, not a default. You can offer it, decline to offer it, or respond when a buyer asks for it in an offer. These changes come from the settlement, not from a Florida statute, so ask your broker how they work on the local MLS and how declining could affect the offers you get.

The Eighth Circuit describes a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as a centralized database that lets brokers and agents identify homes for sale in a region. A 2007 report by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice says consumers are not permitted by MLS rules to list their homes on their own. So you contract with a broker who belongs to the local MLS, and that broker enters your house.

The report calls these fee-for-service, flat-fee or limited-service brokers, and says the broker typically keeps the flat fee whether or not the house sells. It predates the NAR settlement, so use it for the idea, not for today’s prices or compensation rules.

A flat-fee broker is still a licensed broker. Check the license the same way, and expect the same written listing agreement terms. Unless the paperwork sets up something else, the broker is presumed to be a transaction broker, who presents offers unless directed otherwise in writing. Find out whether your agreement sends offers straight to you.

Before you pay, get these answers in writing: which MLS and for how long, whether any of the fee comes back if you cancel or the house does not sell, who answers calls from buyers’ agents, who prepares the contract and disclosures, and whether more is due at closing.

Yes. Section 475.011 exempts any person or entity that sells its own real property from the licensing part of chapter 475, so you do not need a license to sell your own home.

The exemption is for the owner, not for helpers you pay. Under section 475.01, a person who, for pay, helps find a buyer for someone else’s property or helps negotiate the sale is acting as a broker, and doing that without a license is a third-degree felony under section 475.42. If you want to pay someone to bring a buyer, use a licensee.

You run your own marketing, and fair housing law applies. Section 760.23 makes it unlawful to publish a notice or ad for the sale of a dwelling that shows a preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, familial status or religion. The limited owner exemption in section 760.29 does not cover that kind of ad. Describe the house, not the buyer you have in mind.

Expect calls from buyers’ agents. An agent with no brokerage relationship with you still owes you honest and fair dealing, disclosure of known material facts and an accounting of funds entrusted to the agent, and must give you those duties in writing before showing the house. Any fee the agent wants from you is yours to negotiate in writing.

Some help is still worth paying for. A Florida real estate attorney can draft or review the contract, a title company or attorney can handle the closing, and an appraisal can help you set the price.

With a full-service agent or a flat-fee broker, you sign a listing agreement, and a single agent must also give you a written notice of duties. By owner, you sign neither, though a buyer’s agent may give you a no brokerage relationship notice or ask for a fee agreement. Everything below applies on every route.

A residential seller must give the buyer a completed flood disclosure at or before signing the contract (section 689.302), and the buyer must get a property tax disclosure summary by that point too (section 689.261). A radon notice must appear on at least one document at or before the contract (section 404.056), and the buyer must be told about the option for an energy-efficiency rating (section 553.996). For a home built before 1978, the federal rule adds a lead paint disclosure, a pamphlet, a warning statement and a 10-day period for the buyer to inspect, which the buyer can waive.

In a community with a mandatory HOA, the buyer needs a disclosure summary before signing the contract (section 720.401). A condo buyer who has signed a contract is entitled to current association documents at the seller’s expense (section 718.503). The Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v. Davis also requires a home seller to disclose known facts that materially affect value and are not readily observable or known to the buyer. Our Florida seller disclosure checklist covers each of these.

A contract to sell real estate must be in writing and signed by the party being held to it, or a court will not enforce it (section 725.01). Our guide to the Florida AS IS contract explains one contract form. The deed must be signed in the presence of two witnesses (section 689.01) and acknowledged, usually before a notary, so it can be recorded (section 695.03). If the house is your homestead and you are married, the Florida Constitution requires your spouse to join in the sale.

Documentary stamp tax is due on the deed: 70 cents per $100 of the price in most of Florida (section 201.02). On a $400,000 sale that is $2,800. The contract says who pays, but the Florida Department of Revenue says all parties to the document are liable for the tax regardless of which party agrees to pay it.

From February 1, 2027, section 689.261 requires homes on public online listing services, other than social media, to show estimated property taxes, and printed listing materials cannot include the current owner’s property taxes. If you make your own flyers, leave that figure off.

Documentary stamps differ in Miami-Dade County. The Department of Revenue and the Miami-Dade Clerk list a rate of 60 cents per $100, plus a 45-cent surtax unless the deed transfers only a single-family dwelling. Section 201.031 counts a condo unit as a single-family residence for this purpose. On a $400,000 single-family home, the tax is $2,400, compared with $2,800 in Broward or Palm Beach.

In Miami-Dade, the Clerk of the Circuit Court is the official recorder. In Broward or Palm Beach, ask your title company or attorney which office records the deed and what it requires.

Some cities add a step. North Miami says a Certificate of Re-Occupancy must be obtained from the city when selling a home, and its code provides for a fine if title transfers without one. Hialeah says one is required for all applicable real estate closings on residential units in the city. Rules vary by city, so call your building department before you list.

If your condo association has approval or first-refusal rights, read our guide to condo association approval before you promise a buyer a closing date.

There is a fourth option: skip the listing and sell directly to a cash buyer. Florida Cash For Home is one of those buyers. It is not a brokerage and it does not list houses. It lets you sell your house as-is, gives a written offer within 24 hours of the walkthrough, charges no seller commissions or closing costs, and can close in about 10 days when title is clear, or later if you prefer.

A direct cash sale is not the right answer for every house. If yours is in good condition and you have time, a listing may well net you more, because a direct cash offer usually comes in below what a retail buyer would pay. A cash sale is worth pricing when the house needs repairs, when a deadline or a move makes speed matter more than price, or when you want to avoid showings. Our cash offer vs. realtor comparison covers the two side by side. We also have local pages for Broward County and Miami-Dade County.