What Happens at Closing When You Sell Your House in Florida?

The closing agent is usually a title company or a real estate attorney. Which one, and who chooses it, depends on your contract. Our guide to seller closing costs in Florida explains how the Florida Realtors/Florida Bar AS IS form handles that choice, including the option written for Miami-Dade and Broward.

The closing agent works from the signed contract. It orders the title search, requests payoff figures, prepares the settlement statement, holds the money in escrow, and records the deed afterward. If anything in the contract is unclear, ask the agent early rather than at the signing.

Title search. The closing agent searches the public records for mortgages, judgments, code liens, unpaid taxes and anyone else with a claim to the house. Under the AS IS form, the title evidence the contract calls for can include a municipal lien search, which matters in South Florida cities that record code fines as liens. Anything found has to be paid, released or otherwise resolved before or at closing.

Mortgage payoff. The agent asks your lender for a payoff statement. Under the federal Truth in Lending rule, 12 CFR 1026.36(c)(3), the servicer must send an accurate payoff statement within a reasonable time, and no more than seven business days after a written request. A loan in foreclosure or bankruptcy, a reverse mortgage and a few other cases only get the “reasonable time” standard. Our guide to selling a house with a mortgage in Florida covers how the payoff works.

Estoppel certificate. For a condo or HOA home, the agent requests an estoppel certificate showing what you owe the association. For condos, section 718.116(8) gives the association 10 business days after the request to issue it, and a certificate delivered by hand or electronically is valid for 30 days. Our estoppel certificate guide covers HOA rules and fees.

Settlement statement. The agent then prepares the settlement statement, a line-by-line list of the price, every payoff and charge, prorations and your net proceeds. Ask for it a day or two before you sign and compare it with your contract.

A current photo ID. The deed must be notarized, and section 117.05 lists what a Florida notary may rely on. It includes a Florida driver license or ID card, a U.S. passport, a driver license from another state, a U.S. territory, Canada or Mexico, a foreign passport stamped by U.S. immigration authorities, and a U.S. military ID. The ID must be current or issued within the past 5 years and carry a serial or other identifying number. Every person signing needs their own.

Your Social Security or taxpayer number. The closing agent usually has to report the sale to the IRS on Form 1099-S. The IRS instructions say the seller must provide a taxpayer identification number and certify it, often on Form W-9. If the house was your main home and the price is $250,000 or less ($500,000 if you are married), the sale is not reportable if you sign the written certification the IRS describes. Each seller signs it under penalties of perjury.

Account and contact details. Bring or send in advance your mortgage account numbers, your HOA or condo manager’s contact information, and your bank details for the wire or the address for a check.

Things the buyer will need. Keys, garage door openers, gate and mailbox keys, alarm codes and pool or amenity passes. If you have a survey or owner’s title policy from when you bought, give a copy to the closing agent; it can save time on title work.

Everyone on the deed. Every owner must sign. If the house is your homestead and you are married, the Florida Constitution requires your spouse to join in the deed even if only your name is on title.

The deed. Section 689.01 requires a deed to be signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, and it is acknowledged before a notary so it can be recorded. Section 695.26 also requires the printed name and post-office address of each person who signs, of each witness and of the person who prepared the deed, the notary’s printed name, and blank space in the top right corner for the clerk. The closing agent or attorney prepares the deed to meet these rules.

Other papers. Expect the settlement statement, an owner’s or seller’s affidavit about liens, possession and other title matters, tax and 1099-S forms, and any documents needed to pay off loans or liens. Read each one and ask what it means before you sign.

Documentary stamp tax. Florida taxes the deed. The Department of Revenue lists 70 cents per $100 of the price in most counties. Your contract says who pays it, but the Department says all parties to the document are liable for the tax regardless of which party agrees to pay it.

Yes, in most cases. In a mail-away closing, the agent sends you the documents and you sign the deed in front of a notary and two witnesses where you live, then send the originals back. Ask the agent exactly how the documents must be signed and returned.

Florida also allows remote online notarization under part II of chapter 117. Under section 117.265, the online notary must be physically in Florida, must confirm your identity during the video session, either by personal knowledge or through a remote ID check plus identity questions, and must record the audio-video session. If you are outside Florida, the notary must confirm that you want a Florida notary and Florida law to govern the notarization. Section 689.01 lets the deed’s witnesses take part by audio-video technology too.

Not every title company or lender accepts every signing method, so confirm with the closing agent before you plan around one. If the seller lives outside the United States, see our page for out-of-state owners; a buyer from a foreign person generally has to withhold 15% of the amount realized under the IRS FIRPTA rules unless an exception applies.

After the documents are signed and the buyer’s funds are in, the closing agent pays off the mortgage and liens, pays the charges on the settlement statement and sends you the rest by wire or check. Confirm in advance when the agent will disburse and how.

Closing is a common target for wire fraud. The CFPB warns never to follow wiring instructions contained in an email and to confirm instructions with your trusted representatives using the phone number you agreed on earlier. The same applies when you send your own bank details: give them by phone or through the agent’s secure portal, not in a reply to an email. If money goes to the wrong account, the CFPB says to contact your bank or wire company immediately to try to stop or reverse the transfer, and to file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

Under section 197.333, Florida property taxes are due on November 1 and become delinquent on April 1 of the following year, or 60 days after the tax notice is mailed if that is later. So a sale before November usually happens before that year’s bill exists, and the contract sets how the year’s taxes are split between you and the buyer. Ask the closing agent which figure and method it used.

Association dues, special assessments and rents from a tenant are split the same way, as the contract provides. The settlement statement shows each proration as a credit or a charge.

Recording. In Miami-Dade, the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller is the official recorder, and lists a recording fee for most documents, including deeds, of $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page. In Broward, deeds are recorded by the county government’s Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, not the Clerk of Court. The closing agent records the deed for you after closing.

Documentary stamps. Miami-Dade has its own rate: 60 cents per $100, plus a 45-cent surtax that does not apply when the deed transfers only a single-family dwelling. Broward uses the statewide 70 cents.

City certificates. Some cities add a step before closing. Hialeah says a Certificate of Re-Occupancy is required for all applicable real estate closings and other transactions on residential units in the city, and North Miami has a re-occupancy inspection as well. If you are selling a house in Hialeah, apply early, because an inspection can turn up items to fix. Elsewhere, ask your city’s building department whether anything is required.

Code liens. Broward and Miami-Dade cities can record code fines as liens on the house, and they surface in the title or municipal lien search. Our guides to code liens in Broward County and code liens in Miami explain how to find and resolve them before closing.

When you sell to Florida Cash For Home, the closing runs through an independent Florida title company. There is no lender on the buyer’s side, so no appraisal or loan approval to wait for. We give a written offer within 24 hours of the walkthrough, pay the closing costs stated in the written offer, and can close in about 10 days when title is clear, or on the date you choose. If you live out of state, ask about signing by mail or online. We also have pages for selling a house in Broward County and in Miami-Dade County.