How to Sell Your Florida Home.A Clear Path to Closing.

Selling a home in Florida comes with its own rules: specific disclosure duties, state transfer taxes, and buyers who will look closely at flood history, insurance, and association records. With a clear plan, you can avoid surprises and put your home in front of buyers at its best. Here’s how the process works, step by step.

Step 1: Start With a Realistic Price

Pricing is the most important decision you’ll make. A well-priced home gets attention when it’s new on the market, which is when buyer interest is usually strongest. An overpriced home can sit, and price cuts later can make buyers wonder what’s wrong.

• Look at recent comparable sales, not just active listings. Sold prices show what buyers actually paid.
• Adjust for what makes your home different: condition, updates, roof age, lot, view, and association fees.
• Factor in the Florida-specific questions buyers will ask, such as flood zone, insurance costs, and the age of major systems.

Want a starting point? Request a free home valuation and we’ll prepare a pricing review for your property.

Step 2: Understand Your Disclosure Duties

Florida sellers have real legal duties to disclose. Getting them right protects you as much as the buyer.

• Known material defects. In Johnson v. Davis (1985), the Florida Supreme Court held that a seller of residential property must disclose known facts that materially affect the property’s value and aren’t readily observable or known to the buyer. Selling “as is” doesn’t remove this duty.
• Flood disclosure. Florida law requires sellers of residential property to give the buyer a written flood disclosure at or before the time the contract is signed. As updated in 2025, it covers whether you know of flooding that damaged the property during your ownership, whether you filed a flood insurance claim (including with the National Flood Insurance Program), and whether you received assistance for flood damage, such as from FEMA.
• Coastal property. If the property is partially or totally seaward of the Coastal Construction Control Line, Florida law requires a written coastal disclosure to the buyer at or before contract.
• Contract disclosures. Florida sales contracts include a radon gas notification and a property tax disclosure summary. Standard forms already contain this language.
• Associations. If your home is in an HOA, buyers are entitled to a disclosure summary. Condo buyers are entitled, at the seller’s expense, to the association’s key documents, including the milestone inspection summary and structural integrity reserve study where they apply. Gather these early to avoid delays.

When in doubt, disclose, and talk to a Florida real estate attorney about anything unusual.

Step 3: Choose Your Representation

In Florida, a real estate licensee can work with you as a transaction broker or a single agent, or with no brokerage relationship. If nothing else is agreed in writing, the law presumes a transaction broker relationship. Each comes with different duties, explained on our Brokerage Relationship Disclosure page.

Your listing agreement should spell out the marketing plan, the listing period, and compensation. Commissions are negotiable and aren’t set by law.

Step 4: Prepare the Home

Buyers make decisions from photos first. A little preparation goes a long way:

• Handle visible repairs. Leaks, damaged screens, peeling paint, and tired fixtures raise questions during inspections.
• Gather your paperwork. Permits for past work, roof and system ages, warranties, and recent insurance inspection reports (such as a wind mitigation report) help buyers get insurance quotes quickly.
• Consider a pre-listing inspection. It can surface issues on your timeline instead of during the buyer’s inspection period. Remember that anything you learn becomes something you know and may need to disclose.
• Declutter, clean, and light it up. Neutral, bright spaces photograph best. Professional photography and floor plans are worth it.

Step 5: Launch and Show

Once your home is ready, we list it on the MLS so it reaches cooperating agents and major home search sites, and we market it on our own channels. Share your showing preferences, keep the home show-ready, and use feedback from the first couple of weeks to fine-tune your plan.

See how we market homes on our Sell page, and for high-end properties our Luxury page.

Step 6: Compare Offers on More Than Price

The highest price isn’t always the strongest offer. Compare:

• Financing. Cash, conventional, FHA, or VA, and the strength of the pre-approval.
• Escrow deposit. A larger deposit can signal commitment.
• Inspection period and contingencies. Shorter periods and fewer contingencies mean less uncertainty.
• Appraisal terms. What happens if the appraisal comes in below the price.
• Closing date and costs. Who pays for what, including the owner’s title insurance, which the contract assigns.

Step 7: From Contract to Closing

After you accept an offer, the buyer’s inspection period begins. Be ready to negotiate repairs or credits, cooperate with the appraisal, and respond quickly to title, lender, and association requests.

Common Seller Costs in Florida

• Documentary stamp tax on the deed: 70 cents per $100 of the sale price in every county except Miami-Dade, where it’s 60 cents per $100, plus a 45-cent surtax unless the property is a single-family dwelling. Under the widely used Florida Realtors/Florida Bar contract, the seller pays this tax unless the parties agree otherwise. On a $400,000 sale outside Miami-Dade, it comes to $2,800.
• Your mortgage payoff and any other liens.
• Brokerage compensation, as set in your agreements.
• Prorated property taxes. Florida property taxes are paid in arrears, so sellers typically credit the buyer for the part of the year they owned the home.
• Association items, such as estoppel certificate fees, and the owner’s title policy if your contract assigns it to you.

For a full breakdown, see our guide to Florida closing costs.

Taxes on the Sale

If the home was your main residence, federal tax law may let you exclude up to $250,000 of gain ($500,000 for most married couples filing jointly) if you owned and lived in it for at least two of the five years before the sale. If you’re a foreign seller, FIRPTA generally requires the buyer to withhold 15% of the amount realized unless an exception applies. A CPA can tell you how these rules apply to you.

Buying Your Next Florida Home?

If you have a homestead exemption now, Florida’s portability rule may let you transfer up to $500,000 of your Save Our Homes benefit to a new Florida homestead, if you had a homestead exemption as of January 1 in any of the three years before you establish the new homestead. Apply with your new county’s property appraiser.

Let’s Talk About Your Home

Every sale is different. We’ll walk you through pricing, disclosures, and preparation for your home specifically, with no pressure and no obligation.