Selling and buying without an agent in North Dakota

Who runs your closing

North Dakota is a title and closing company state, not an attorney state. No law requires you to hire a lawyer to sell your house. Most residential sales close at a title company, an abstract company, or a lender’s closing department, which prepares the settlement statement, disburses the money, and sends the deed to the county recorder.

There is a local wrinkle most escrow states do not have. Under section 26.1-20-05 of the North Dakota Century Code, a title insurance company cannot issue a policy, binder, or certificate until it has secured the record title evidence from a person or firm holding a certificate of authority under chapter 43-01, the abstracters’ chapter, and that evidence has been examined by someone admitted to the practice of law. So a lawyer does look at the title on an insured sale here. That lawyer is not your lawyer and does not attend your closing, but the rule explains why a North Dakota title file has two moving parts rather than one, and why title work can run longer than an out of state buyer expects.

The abstract of title is the other habit worth planning around. A lot of North Dakota property, especially outside the larger counties, still runs on a physical abstract: a bound history of the parcel brought current for each sale. If you have one from when you bought, find it before you list. If nobody can locate it, tell your closing agent early, because rebuilding an abstract takes real time and is a common reason a closing date slips. Who pays to continue it is a contract term, not a statute, so write it into the purchase agreement. Hiring your own attorney to read that contract is often money well spent in a private sale.

What you must disclose

The duty is statutory. Section 47-10-02.1 covers residential dwellings of no more than four units and works on two tracks. If a broker, broker associate, or salesperson associated with a brokerage firm represents or assists a party, the seller must prepare a written disclosure and make it available to the buyer before final acceptance of the purchase agreement, using the form the North Dakota Real Estate Commission establishes or one substantially similar. If no licensee touches the deal, you still owe the buyer a written disclosure of every material fact you are aware could adversely and significantly affect an ordinary buyer’s use and enjoyment of the property, but the specific form is optional.

That distinction is thinner than it looks, because a buyer with an agent pulls your sale onto the first track, and many unrepresented sellers end up dealing with one. The straightforward move is to complete the Commission form either way. It is the Seller’s Property Condition Disclosure, SFN 62358, dated 07/2025. Across eight pages it asks about structure and alterations, work that required building permits, the roof, water source and sewer type, drainage and flood zone, damage from fire, wind, or water, mold, methamphetamine manufacture or storage, and whether a homeowners’ association has authority over the property. The statute exempts a short list of transfers: court ordered and foreclosure related sales, sales by a fiduciary, transfers between co-owners or to close family, and newly constructed property with no previous occupancy.

Two other requirements sit next to the main form. Beginning August 1, 2025, section 47-10-02.2 requires a residential seller to disclose in writing any knowledge of radon concentrations before executing an agreement to sell, and to give the buyer the radon statement written into the statute, which the buyer signs to acknowledge receipt. If the property has been tested, you also hand over the results and any evidence of mitigation. That duty does not depend on an agent being involved, and a seller who complies is not liable for a claim based on the presence of radon. Separately, if your property sits in a homeowners’ association or condominium project, section 47-10-02.3 requires a detailed packet by a mutually agreed date or within ten days of executing the agreement: assessments and unpaid amounts, bylaws and rules, minutes from the last two association meetings, budgets and reserves, insurance, pending litigation, transfer fees, and leasing restrictions. The contract stays voidable by the buyer until those documents are delivered and for five days after receipt, or until conveyance.

Transfer taxes

North Dakota does not levy a real estate transfer tax. There is no state deed tax, no documentary stamp, and no county or municipal transfer or excise tax on a home sale. What you pay at the courthouse is the county recorder’s fee under section 11-18-05: twenty dollars for a document of one to six pages, sixty-five dollars for a document of more than six pages, plus three dollars for each page after the first twenty-five. A residential deed almost always lands in the twenty dollar tier.

Two recording formalities matter more than the fee. Under section 11-18-02.2, whoever presents the deed must certify on its face either the full consideration paid or one of the statutory exemptions, and the recorder may not record it otherwise. Willfully falsifying that figure is a class B misdemeanor, so the price is not a place to be creative. Under section 11-18-02, the recorder must also refuse a deed unless the county auditor has entered the transfer and certified that delinquent and current taxes and special assessments have been paid. That second gate is the one that trips up sellers. Assessments for paving, water, and sewer work are common in North Dakota cities and are usually billed with the annual property tax, so call your county treasurer or auditor early, get the balance in writing, and settle in the contract how it will be handled at closing.

The bottom line for doing it yourself

North Dakota is one of the easier states to sell in without an agent. No percentage of your price disappears at the courthouse, no statute forces you to hire a lawyer, and the closing agent carries the mechanics for both sides once a contract is signed. The work that is genuinely yours sits earlier: pricing the house, getting the disclosures right, and clearing the title and tax path so the deed can record.

Complete SFN 62358 honestly even when no agent is involved, answering from what you actually know and marking unknown where you do not know. Handle the radon disclosure separately, since it applies either way and rewards compliance with a liability shield. Then chase the paper the courthouse will want: locate the abstract, ask your closing agent what title evidence they need, and get a written figure on taxes and special assessments from the county. If your sale involves a contract for deed, severed mineral interests, or an inherited parcel, an hour with a North Dakota real estate attorney is a small expense against the commission you are keeping. Your closing agent or a licensed attorney is the right source for questions about your specific parcel.