What it costs to sell

The costs that are actually fixed

• Documentary stamp tax on the deed at $0.70 per $100^†, customarily the seller’s cost outside Miami-Dade.
• The owner’s title policy, promulgated at $5.75 per $1,000^† and $5.00 per $1,000^† above the first tier — identical from every agent, so the only variable is who pays.
• Recording fees for the deed and any satisfaction of mortgage.
• Prorated property tax to the closing date. Florida bills in arrears, so you are settling the part of the year you owned it.

The commission, which is now two conversations

What you agree with your listing broker and what, if anything, you contribute toward the buyer’s broker are now separate negotiations. Since August 2024, offers of compensation to buyer brokers may no longer be published on the MLS^†, and the agreement must state the amount or rate of compensation, and that broker fees are fully negotiable and not set by law^†.

The practical effect for a seller is that the number is no longer assumed. You decide separately whether contributing to the buyer’s side broadens your pool of buyers enough to be worth it — a marketing judgment about your particular property and market rather than a fixed cost of selling.

The costs people forget until the settlement statement

• Association estoppel, capped at $299^†, plus whatever the certificate reveals you owe.
• Repairs agreed after inspection, which on a Florida house are most often roof, plumbing or electrical panel items surfaced by the buyer’s insurance rather than by the inspector.
• Closing agent, courier, wire and lien search fees — not fixed, and worth asking for itemised before you appoint.
• Buyer concessions, which in a slow market frequently exceed everything else on this list combined.
• Municipal lien searches and any open permits. An open permit found late is a delay first and a cost second.
• Survey, if you agree to provide one.

If you are not a US person for tax purposes

FIRPTA withholding applies at 15% of the amount realised^† of the sale price — not of the gain — and it is withheld at closing. Reduced rates and withholding certificates exist, but the application must be made before or on the closing date. Discovering it a week beforehand is how sellers end up with a large sum held for months.

What is worth spending money on before listing

1. Closing open permits. This is the highest-yield pre-listing spend in Florida, because it removes a delay rather than improving an impression.
2. A wind mitigation inspection. It does not help your costs, it helps your buyer’s insurance quote — and an uninsurable house does not close.
3. Anything a four-point inspection would fail. The panel, the polybutylene, the water heater. Buyers do not walk away over these; their insurers do it for them.
4. Cleaning and light repair, in that order and no further. Large pre-sale renovation rarely returns its cost.

Notice what is not on that list: kitchens, bathrooms, landscaping packages. In Florida the things that stop a sale are almost always insurability and paperwork rather than presentation, and the money follows the thing that stops sales.

Documentary stamp and intangible taxes are administered by the Department of Revenue; title rates are promulgated by the Office of Insurance Regulation; the estoppel fee cap sits in §720.30851 and §718.116. Commission arrangements follow the 2024 settlement practice changes. Your contract governs who pays what.