It Costs Money to Sell a Home in Florida?

If you plan on moving anytime soon, you might be shocked to find out that it will cost you to sell your home in Florida. While you would think that the only money that gets put out during the buying/selling of a home is the money from the buyer, that is not the case; the seller pays too. There are certain fees the seller is responsible for and will come from the proceeds of the sale of the home. In some cases, although rare, the seller may pay all of the costs, including the buyers, if they are anxious to get their house sold.

The Seller’s Closing Costs

The seller has some pretty typical costs that he/she must cover in order to get the home sold. They include:

–          Search for outstanding liens from the municipality as well as taxes – These costs cover the work necessary to search the property for any outstanding liens within the municipality of the home or taxes that were never paid on the property

–          Document preparation fees – In order to transfer the property from one party to another, certain documents, such as the Warranty Deed and Bill of Sale need to be prepared

–          Recording fees – These are the fees the county charges to record the new documents and clear the old documents from the property

–          Stamps for the deed – These stamps make the documents official

–          Title search – This is the work necessary to determine if the title is free and clear of any type of lien

–          Taxes – The seller will need to pay the property taxes for the period of time he lived in the home

–          Fees from condo associations – Any homeowner’s association dues that will become due that were from the time period the seller lived in the home as well as any outstanding association fees

In general, the seller will pay all of these closing costs on their own. In some cases, especially as occurs with wealthy international borrowers, sometimes buyers come in and pay all of the closing costs for the home, including the sellers because they want the home and don’t want to get into a bidding war. The exact nature of who pays which closing costs can be worked out with the sales contract and can be worked out with a quality real estate attorney that can help you navigate the world of real estate negotiation.