Selling and buying without an agent in Virginia

Who runs your closing

Virginia runs closings through a settlement agent. Under the Real Estate Settlement Agents Act (Va. Code Title 55.1, Chapter 10), that agent can be a licensed attorney, a title insurance company or its agent, a real estate broker, or a qualified financial institution registered for the role. Most residential closings are handled by a title or settlement company without an attorney conducting them, though attorneys serve as settlement agents too, and you have the legal right to pick your own. The agent runs the title search, issues title insurance, holds the funds in escrow, prepares the settlement statement, and records the deed. You can hire a lawyer to draft or review your contract, but nothing requires it.

What you must disclose

Virginia is a caveat emptor, or buyer-beware, state, and its disclosure law shows it. Under the Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act (Va. Code 55.1-703), a seller must deliver a Residential Property Disclosure Statement, the form published by the Virginia Real Estate Board through DPOR. The catch is that the statement makes no representations about the home. Rather than listing defects, it tells the buyer to investigate independently, pointing to items such as defective drywall, marine-clay soils, dam-break inundation zones, and the sex-offender registry. You deliver the form; the buyer does the digging. You still cannot actively conceal or misrepresent a known defect, so do not try.

Transfer taxes

Virginia’s transfer tax is the grantor tax, and the seller pays it. Under Va. Code 58.1-802 the rate is 50 cents for each $500 of the sale price, which comes to $1 per $1,000. If your property sits in a city or county that belongs to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, a regional fee under Va. Code 58.1-802.3 adds 10 cents per $100, another $1 per $1,000, on top of the state grantor tax. The buyer pays a separate recordation tax, but that is the grantee’s cost, not yours. Confirm whether the regional fee applies where you are before you estimate net proceeds.

The bottom line for doing it yourself

Selling without an agent in Virginia is workable. The settlement agent carries the closing mechanics for both sides, so your real jobs are pricing, handing over the disclosure statement, and budgeting the grantor tax plus any regional add-on. This is general information, not legal advice. If a clause in your contract gives you pause, an hour with a Virginia attorney is money well spent.