Selling and buying without an agent in New Hampshire

Who runs your closing

New Hampshire sits between the two common closing models. No state statute requires a lawyer to be present when you sell your home. The general prohibition on unauthorized practice, RSA 311:7, is written narrowly around practicing as an attorney in court, so it is not the barrier people sometimes imagine. In everyday practice, though, residential closings here are usually run by an attorney or by a settlement company working under attorney supervision. Drafting the deed that conveys your title is the piece most sellers hand to a lawyer, and that habit is what keeps New Hampshire looking like an attorney state even though nothing forces it.

What that means for you is less dramatic than it sounds. If your buyer is financing, the lender will normally designate the closing agent, and that agent handles the title search, your mortgage payoff, the settlement statement, the transfer tax stamps, and recording the deed at your county Registry of Deeds. Closings here tend to be a sit down signing rather than a long escrow period, so the money moves through the closing agent’s trust account on the day itself. Keep one thing straight: that attorney is engaged by the lender and, by arrangement, often the buyer. Not by you.

For a seller without an agent, the sensible spend is a few hundred dollars to have a lawyer draft your deed and read the purchase and sale agreement before you sign it. In a cash deal with no lender involved, nobody defaults into choosing the closing agent, so settle that in the contract rather than discovering it a week out.

What you must disclose

New Hampshire does not hand private sellers one comprehensive property condition form the way many states do. The legislature built a set of specific written notices instead, spread across three sections of RSA chapter 477, and each one has its own timing.

Before the purchase and sale contract is executed, RSA 477:4-a requires the seller or the seller’s agent to give the buyer a written notification covering radon, arsenic, lead, PFAS, and flood, with the buyer signing a copy to acknowledge receipt. The statute prints the exact language of each paragraph, so this is a notice you copy rather than compose. Worth knowing, and rarely mentioned: paragraph II of that section says the requirement creates no liability for a seller who fails to give the notification, and does not affect the validity of the title you transfer. Give it anyway. It costs nothing and it heads off an argument later.

Also before the contract is executed, RSA 477:4-c requires written disclosure of the private water supply system (type, location, malfunctions, installation date, most recent water test, and any unsatisfactory result) and the sewage disposal system (tank size, type, location, malfunctions, age, most recent service date, and the servicing contractor). RSA 477:4-d covers similar ground on a different clock: for a one to 4 family dwelling, prior to or during preparation of an offer, the seller discloses the private water supply system, the private sewage disposal system, the insulation type and location, and whether the property sits in a federally designated flood hazard zone. If the information is unknown, both sections say you state that in writing, and both have the buyer sign a copy. Keep the signed copies.

RSA 477:4-e adds that you need not disclose that the property was the site of a homicide, another felony, or a suicide unless the buyer asks and you know, and it lets the parties negotiate their own terms on that subject. The absence of a mandatory condition form is not permission to hide a known defect: actively concealing or misstating something material about the house remains a real exposure, whatever the notice statutes say about their own penalties. If the house is on a well and septic, pull your water test results and pumping records early. If it was built before 1978, the federal lead paint disclosure applies on top of state law.

Transfer taxes

New Hampshire has a real transfer tax and it is not small. Under RSA 78-B:1, the rate is $.75 per $100 of the price, or any fractional part of $100, and RSA 78-B:4 applies that rate to the buyer and to the seller separately. Combined, that is $1.50 per $100, with your half coming to 0.75 percent of the price. On a $500,000 sale the state collects $7,500, of which $3,750 is yours. Where the price is $4,000 or less, the minimum is $20 from each side.

Because the statute names both parties, the split is not the negotiating point it is in states where custom decides who pays. The mechanics are straightforward: each side buys stamps from the register of deeds in the county where the property sits, and the registry affixes them to the deed before recording. Within 30 days after recording, the seller files a Declaration of Consideration on Form CD-57-S and the buyer files one on Form CD-57-P with the Department of Revenue Administration, along with an Inventory of Property Transfer on Form PA-34. Your closing agent normally prepares and files these, but the obligation sits with you, so confirm it was done.

Recording costs are separate from the tax, and RSA 478:17-g sets them statewide rather than leaving them to county custom: $10 for the first recorded page plus $4 for each additional page. That section also adds a $25 surcharge on the recording of a deed, which funds the land and community heritage investment program. Read the payer language carefully, because it is easy to get backwards. The statute puts that $25 on the grantee, meaning your buyer, not you.

The bottom line for doing it yourself

Selling on your own in New Hampshire is realistic, with two honest caveats. The transfer tax is a genuine line item, so build 0.75 percent of your price into your net sheet from the first day rather than meeting it at the closing table. And the disclosure regime rewards preparation. Having no single form sounds simpler than filling one out, but the requirements live in three separate statutes with two different trigger points, and between them they reach well water, septic, insulation, flood zone, radon, arsenic, lead, and PFAS. Build the packet once, early, and reuse it with every buyer.

The closing itself is the part you can hand off. An attorney or an attorney supervised settlement company will carry the title work, the stamps, and the recording for both sides, which removes most of the mechanical risk of going without an agent. That leaves you the work that sets your price: photographs, pricing, showings, an accurate set of disclosures, and one attorney review of the contract and the deed before you sign. If something about your property is unusual, a well that has tested badly, an aging septic system, a shoreline lot, a New Hampshire real estate attorney is the right person to ask.