How to sell your home yourself in Miami

By Miami-Dade custom the seller pays the doc stamps on the deed, but it is negotiable and must be spelled out in the contract. Miami-Dade's rate is 60 cents per $100 of purchase price for a single-family home, which is lower than the 70-cent rate charged in every other Florida county. For other property types in Miami-Dade, a 45-cent surtax applies on top. On a $685,000 single-family sale the doc stamps come to $4,110. The Florida Department of Revenue collects the tax and its documentary stamp page shows the current rates. The deed must be recorded with the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts before closing is complete.

An estoppel certificate is a written statement from your homeowners or condo association that lists the current balance of dues, special assessments, and any violations tied to your unit. It is legally required in a Florida condo or HOA sale so the buyer knows what they are taking on. Florida law requires the association to deliver it within 10 business days of a written request. The preparation fee is capped by state law, currently $299 for a non-delinquent account, with up to $179 more for a delinquent account and up to $119 more for expedited delivery. Request it the same day you accept an offer, because that 10-business-day clock eats into your contract period and missed delivery is one of the most common reasons condo closings get delayed.

Florida has no single mandatory state form, but the Florida Supreme Court's Johnson v. Davis ruling (1985) requires you to disclose any known defect that materially affects value and is not readily visible to a buyer. In practice you complete a written Seller's Property Disclosure form to document this. On top of that you must give separate disclosures for radon gas risk (required statewide), lead-based paint if the home was built before 1978, and flood zone status, which matters in Miami because large parts of the city sit in FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas. For a condo you also owe the buyer the declaration, bylaws, rules, latest budget, current financial statement, and an FAQ sheet at your expense. Skipping any of these disclosures exposes you to rescission claims and litigation after closing.

Florida closings are handled by a licensed title company or a real estate attorney, not a notary as in civil-law countries. Miami-Dade is one of the few Florida counties (along with Broward, Sarasota and Collier) where the buyer customarily pays for and selects the owner's title insurance policy, the reverse of most other Florida counties where the seller pays. The title company or attorney also prepares the deed, pays off your mortgage, collects prorations, and disburses funds. Owner's title insurance premiums are regulated in Florida and are based on a percentage of the purchase price, so get a quote on any specific price. No Florida law dictates who pays, so write the allocation clearly into the contract. If you have a foreign buyer, also confirm with the title company how FIRPTA withholding will be handled at the table.

Florida has no state income tax, so there is no state capital gains tax on your sale proceeds. Federal rules still apply: if you owned and lived in the home as your primary residence for at least two of the last five years, you can exclude up to $250,000 of gain ($500,000 for a married couple filing jointly) from federal income tax. If you are a foreign seller, FIRPTA requires the buyer to withhold a percentage of the gross sale price at closing and remit it to the IRS; the standard withholding rate is 15 percent. You can apply for an IRS withholding certificate before closing to reduce or eliminate the withholding if your actual tax will be less. Miami's high price points mean FIRPTA trips up many international sellers who do not plan for it in advance.

Miami is the top US market for foreign buyers, with heavy demand from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Canada. Those buyers and their agents search the MLS first, so getting your listing on the MLS via a flat-fee service is the essential starting point. Beyond that, bilingual marketing in English and Spanish in the listing description and photos matters because many foreign buyers form their shortlist online before arriving in Miami. For sellers comfortable handling negotiations themselves, Anyone.com operates across multiple countries and draws from Miami's global buyer pipeline at no cost to you; the platform is especially valuable in this market where international and remote cash buyers are structural to demand. Pricing to a cash buyer is also practical here because close to half of Miami sales close in cash, meaning no lender appraisal contingency to worry about.

Two regimes apply. Miami-Dade County's local recertification program requires older buildings (historically at 40 years, now also covering 30-year buildings) to undergo a structural and electrical safety inspection through the local building department, repeated every 10 years. Separately, after the 2021 Surfside collapse Florida passed SB 4D, which requires condominium and co-op buildings of three or more stories to complete a milestone structural inspection, due first at 30 years from the certificate of occupancy or 25 years in designated coastal areas and then every 10 years, plus a Structural Integrity Reserve Study; the SIRS deadline of December 31, 2025 has passed and no SIRS may be completed after December 31, 2026. Buyers and their lenders scrutinize these reports closely. Before listing, ask your association for the most recent inspection report, reserve study, and any outstanding citations. A building that has not completed its required inspection or that carries large unfunded reserves will scare off financed buyers, and some lenders will not finance units in non-compliant buildings at all.

Miami-Dade is one of the few Florida counties (along with Broward, Sarasota and Collier) where the buyer customarily pays for and chooses the owner's title insurance policy. This is the reverse of most Florida counties, where the seller customarily pays. No Florida law dictates who pays, so it is negotiable and should be written clearly into the purchase and sale contract. The seller, by separate Miami-Dade custom, usually pays the documentary stamp tax on the deed. Always confirm both in your contract and get a current premium quote, since premiums are regulated and based on the purchase price.

In February 2026 the median time from listing to contract was about 55 days for single-family homes and about 83 days for condos, per the MIAMI Association of Realtors. Condos take meaningfully longer, so price and presentation matter more there. Because roughly 54 percent of condo sales and a third of single-family sales close in cash, a well-priced cash deal can move from contract to closing in about 2 to 3 weeks, versus 4 to 6 weeks for a financed sale set by the lender. Note that some reports quote a longer listing-to-sale median (around 96 days for houses) that includes the closing period.

FIRPTA is a federal rule, so it applies in Miami even though Florida has no state income tax. The buyer generally withholds 15 percent of the gross sale price and remits it to the IRS. There are residential tiers: no withholding if the buyer takes it as a residence and the price is $300,000 or less, a reduced 10 percent on a residence priced over $300,000 up to $1,000,000, and 15 percent above that. You can apply to the IRS for a withholding certificate before closing to reduce or eliminate the amount if your actual tax is lower. At Miami's high price points this trips up many international sellers who do not plan for it, so raise it with the title company early.

You can sell on your own, but the local MLS is the catch. The Miami MLS accepts listings only through a licensed broker, so to appear there (and on the Zillow and Realtor.com feeds it syndicates to) an owner typically pays a flat-fee MLS service a one-time fee rather than a percentage commission. You are not limited to the MLS, though. Anyone.com is an alternative direct-to-buyer platform that operates globally and lets you manage the entire transaction yourself; it is particularly useful in Miami given the city's world-class international buyer pool. You set your price; the platform does not appraise it. Many Miami sellers keep a flat-fee MLS listing for local traffic while also using Anyone.com to reach out-of-state and overseas prospects simultaneously.