For owners who no longer live here
Selling from out of state, and what Florida actually takes
Florida withholds nothing from an out-of-state seller's proceeds. There is no Florida income tax on individuals and no nonresident-seller withholding of any kind. FIRPTA's 15 percent reaches foreign persons, not a US citizen who happens to live in Ohio. What Florida does take is a stamp tax on the deed itself, and you do not have to fly down to sign it. This page is the mechanics of those four sentences, with the tax questions routed to a CPA and the legal ones to a Florida attorney.
Updated 2026-10-11
Will Florida withhold part of my sale proceeds?
No. Nobody at a Florida closing table deducts a state cut from a seller's proceeds, and the reason is worth getting right, because most pages answering this question get it wrong the same way. The usual explanation is that the Florida constitution forbids it. Read the provision and that is not quite what it says: Article VII, section 5(a) bars a tax on the income of natural persons who are residents or citizens of the state. On its face that is a shield for Floridians, not an obvious bar on taxing a nonresident's Florida-source gain. The real answer is simpler and stronger — the tax does not exist. Chapter 220, the Florida Income Tax Code, reaches corporations. The Department of Revenue's own index of Florida taxes and fees runs to twenty entries, from documentary stamp to lead-acid battery to rental car surcharge, and carries no individual income tax, no capital gains tax and no nonresident real estate withholding of any kind. There is nothing to withhold from.
Florida does take something at closing, and this is usually what the fear is groping for. It is documentary stamp tax on the deed — a tax on the document, not on you. The statewide rate under s. 201.02(1)(a) is 70 cents on each $100 of the consideration, and consideration is defined broadly enough to include the amount of any mortgage or other encumbrance whether or not the underlying debt is assumed. Miami-Dade is different: s. 201.0205 provides that a 10-cent increase does not apply in a county that implemented chapter 83-220, which is why the Department of Revenue publishes the Miami-Dade rate as 60 cents on each $100, or portion thereof, of the total consideration. The county also carries a 45-cent surtax, but s. 125.0167(1) says there is no surtax where the interest conveyed involves only a single-family residence, and the statute expressly counts a condominium unit as one — worth knowing, because the Department's shorthand is "single-family dwelling" and condo sellers are routinely and wrongly told they owe it. On the standard Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS contract these sit among the costs to be paid by the seller, though the Department's position is that all parties to the document are liable regardless of who agreed to pay. None of it turns on where you live.
One caveat to flag rather than resolve: all of the above is about natural persons. If the house is held in an entity treated as a corporation for federal purposes, Chapter 220 is in play, because s. 220.11(1) imposes a tax measured by net income for the privilege of conducting business, earning or receiving income in this state. The rate in s. 220.11(2)(a) is stated as 5.5 percent except as adjusted under s. 220.1105, and since that adjustment mechanism moves, this page deliberately quotes no current figure and names no entity forms. If title is in an LLC, a corporation or a trust, that is a question for your CPA before the listing rather than after the closing.
And here is the part almost no competing page writes at all: your home state is the tax nobody mentions. A resident of an income-tax state is generally taxed by that state on income wherever earned. Those states typically credit tax paid to another state, but a credit against a tax that was never levied is worth nothing, because Florida levies none. So "Florida has no income tax" does not mean you owe nothing on the gain. It can mean your exposure is your home state's full rate, undiluted by anything Florida does. Which state, which rate and which filing is a CPA's work, and it is the best reason to have that conversation before you sign a listing rather than in April.
Does FIRPTA apply if I live in another state?
No. "Out of state" and "foreign person" are unrelated categories, and conflating them is the most common error on this subject. FIRPTA lives in 26 U.S.C. s. 1445, and subsection (f)(3) defines its target in a line: the term foreign person means any person other than a United States person and, except as the Secretary provides otherwise, certain entities to which section 897 does not apply. A US citizen or resident alien is a United States person. Living in Ohio does not change that. Living in Lisbon does not change that. If you are a US person, s. 1445 does not reach your sale at all.
That does not mean you sign nothing, and it is worth knowing what arrives so it does not alarm you. Section 1445(b)(2) switches the withholding off where the seller furnishes an affidavit stating, under penalty of perjury, the seller's United States taxpayer identification number and that the seller is not a foreign person. The contract wires this in: the AS IS form requires a seller to inform the buyer in writing whether the seller is a foreign person, and lets a seller who is not one deliver a certification of non-foreign status under penalties of perjury telling the buyer and closing agent that no withholding is required. The form's title standard describes it in more detail — a written certification signed under penalties of perjury, stating that the seller is not a foreign person and containing the seller's name, US taxpayer identification number and home address, as provided for in 26 CFR 1.1445-2(b). In practice the buyer never holds it: s. 1445(b)(9) lets the affidavit go instead to a "qualified substitute," which is how every Florida closing does it, with the title company holding the document and giving the buyer a statement that it has it. So the one line in the entire file where living somewhere else actually shows up is a home address on a short certification, and it is harmless.
Because wrong figures circulate constantly, here is when FIRPTA does apply and at what rate. The general rule in s. 1445(a) is 15 percent of the amount realized, not 10. The 10 percent figure so often quoted as the rate is s. 1445(c)(4), which applies only where the buyer acquires the property for use as a residence and the amount realized does not exceed $1,000,000. There is a full exemption in s. 1445(b)(5) where the buyer acquires it as a residence and the amount realized does not exceed $300,000 — and note that this is a FIRPTA provision, so it does nothing for a US seller who was never inside FIRPTA to begin with. The IRS adds that the buyer must intend to live there at least 50 percent of the days the property is used during each of the first two 12-month periods after transfer, that the $300,000 test is measured on the total amount realized rather than each seller's share, and that on co-owned property withholding reaches only the foreign seller's share. A foreign seller whose actual tax will come to less than the withholding applies for a withholding certificate on Form 8288-B, which the instructions say the IRS normally acts on within 90 days. Figures checked against the statute text and the IRS FIRPTA withholding page, last updated 21 July 2026.
Do I have to fly to Florida to close?
No, and you do not have to negotiate for the privilege, because the standard Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS contract already provides for it. Its closing-location standard puts closing in the county where the property sits, at the closing agent's office or another agreed location, and then adds the clause that answers the whole question: closing may be conducted by mail, overnight courier, or electronic means. A mail-away closing is not a favor and not a workaround. It is the form's own stated alternative.
The seller's package is shorter than people imagine. The contract's closing-documents standard lists what the seller executes and delivers, as applicable: the deed, a bill of sale, certificates of title or other documents necessary to transfer title, construction lien affidavits, owner's possession and no lien affidavits, and assignments of leases. Add the non-foreign certification above, a W-9 or taxpayer identification number certification, the closing statement, and an authorization letting the closing agent obtain your mortgage payoff. Of all of it, only the deed carries a real signing ceremony. The rest is signed and, where the closing agent asks, notarized.
One Miami-Dade specific catches out-of-state sellers harder than anything else here, because the assumption it breaks is correct almost everywhere else. Most sellers expect to designate the closing agent and pay for the owner's title policy. The AS IS form carries a regional provision for Miami-Dade and Broward under which the buyer designates the closing agent and pays the premiums for the owner's policy and any lender's policy and endorsements, while the seller pays actual costs for a title search or continuation acceptable to the buyer's underwriter (a blank that defaults to $200), a tax search and a municipal lien search. Which of the form's three options is checked decides who holds your signing package, whose closing instructions govern, and which company your proceeds wire leaves from. Settle it when the contract is written, not in closing week. The same part of the form asks a seller who already holds an owner's title policy or other title evidence to furnish a copy early — a genuine friction point when the policy is in a box in another state from a purchase years ago, so start looking when you list.
Then the question every remote seller actually asks: when does the money move? The contract defines "Collected" to mean funds tendered have become actually and finally collected and deposited in the closing agent's account, and lets the closing agent delay closing, disbursement and delivery of documents until that has happened. The procedure standard then says the deed is recorded upon collection of all closing funds, and that where the title commitment insures against adverse matters under s. 627.7841 the escrow closing procedure is waived and the closing agent disburses brokerage fees and the net sale proceeds to the seller at closing. Section 627.7841 is the mechanism: a title insurer that disburses settlement or closing funds shall insure against the possible existence of adverse matters or defects in the title recorded between the effective date of the commitment and the date of recording, except as to matters the insured knows about. That gap coverage is the whole reason a Florida closing agent can wire a seller on the day rather than waiting for the deed to surface in the Official Records. One honest caveat: Florida has no "good funds" statute of the kind some states have, so the discipline comes from that contract definition plus the underwriter's closing instructions. Practice, not law.
Which brings up the real risk in a remote closing, and it is not the paperwork. It is the wire. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center 2025 annual report puts business email compromise losses at $568,048,472, up from $385,001,099 in 2024, with 86 percent of BEC transactions moving by wire transfer or ACH. Note which number that is, because this is the statistic competing pages consistently cite wrongly: IC3's separate "Real Estate" line, $275,110,419 in 2025, is defined in IC3's own appendix as loss of funds from a real estate investment or fraud involving rental or timeshare property. Closing-wire diversion is not in it; it sits in BEC. The defense is unglamorous and it works — get the wire instructions by calling a number you obtained independently, never a number or an attachment from an email, and confirm them again before anything moves. If it goes wrong, IC3's guidance is that time is of the essence: contact your financial institution immediately, request a recall of the funds along with any necessary indemnification documents, and file at ic3.gov regardless of the amount. IC3's Recovery Asset Team froze $679,013,183 of $1,163,919,846 in attempted theft across 3,900 incidents in 2025, a 58 percent success rate. That is a real chance, and it is a function of how fast the call is made.
Use the list below to find the open items on your own file before a closing date gets set.
Does my notary have to be a Florida notary?
No, and this is the single most common misconception on the subject. Start with the deed, because it carries the formality, and the formality is small. Section 689.01(1) is the operative rule: no estate or interest in land for a term of more than one year is created or conveyed except by an instrument in writing signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses by the party conveying, or by that party's lawfully authorized agent. No seal is required, and leases and instruments pertaining to leases are expressly outside the witness requirement. Then, so the deed can be recorded, the execution has to be acknowledged. That is where the notary comes in.
Section 695.03 settles whose notary. It opens by providing that to entitle an instrument concerning real property to be recorded, the execution must be acknowledged by the party executing it, proved by a subscribing witness, or legalized or authenticated in one of the forms it lists. Subsection (2), for an acknowledgment taken outside Florida but within the United States, accepts it by or before "any notary public, justice of the peace, master in chancery, or registrar or recorder of deeds of any state, territory, or district having a seal," with the certificate under that officer's seal — and where the notary affixes no seal the statute supplies a substitute, letting the notary type, print or write by hand on the instrument that they are a notary public of their state and when the commission expires. Subsection (3) covers signing outside the United States: a commissioner of deeds appointed by Florida's Secretary of State for that country, a notary public or civil-law notary of that foreign country who has an official seal, a US ambassador, minister, consul general, consul, vice consul, consular agent or other diplomatic or consular officer, or a military or naval officer authorized by 10 U.S.C. s. 1044a. The section was amended as recently as chapter 2024-259, so cite it by date.
The witnesses can be remote. Section 689.01(2) allows the two subscribing witnesses to sign electronically through audio-video communication technology as defined in s. 117.201, and provides that the requirement is satisfied where the witness is either physically present or present by audio-video at the time the principal signs and hears the principal acknowledge signing. Subsection (3) validates instruments executed that way and protects the constructive notice recording gives them.
On the recording end, the Miami-Dade Clerk's requirements are worth knowing before the envelope goes out, because a returned document costs a week. All documents must be original or court certified, and signed and notarized. For a deed the Clerk wants two witnesses not related to the transaction, with names and post office addresses printed beneath their signatures, and a statement naming the individual and address who prepared it. Recording charges are published at $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, which reconciles exactly to the statutory build-up in s. 28.24(13). Documents can also be eRecorded through one of the Clerk's approved vendors with fees paid by ACH, though the Clerk's stated processing is approximately one to three business days before a document is publicly viewable and it says same-day recording is not guaranteed — a good reason to keep a recording date off the critical path. Section 695.27, Florida's Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act, provides that a requirement for an original, paper or written document is satisfied by an electronic document, and that an image of a stamp or seal need not accompany an electronic signature; note that a county recorder "may" receive electronic documents rather than must.
A calming fact to end on, since an out-of-state notary certificate often looks nothing like the Florida ones on somebody's checklist. Section 695.26 sets out the recording formalities — printed names and addresses of the parties, witnesses and notary, the preparer block, blank space for the clerk — and then s. 695.26(3)(c) provides that the section does not apply to an instrument executed, acknowledged or proved outside of this state, while s. 695.26(4) adds that a clerk's failure to comply does not impair the validity of the recordation or the constructive notice it imparts. So the imperfect-looking certificate your hometown notary produced is usually not the problem it appears to be. Whether it is accepted on your file still runs through your closing agent and their underwriter, which is why the list above is a set of things to ask them rather than a set of conclusions.
Can a Florida notary notarize for me if I am out of the country?
Yes. Florida's remote online notarization law puts the location requirement on the notary rather than on you, and it says so in terms. Section 117.209(3): an online notary public "physically located in this state may perform an online notarization as authorized under this part, regardless of whether the principal or any witnesses are physically located in this state at the time of the online notarization." Section 117.209(4) adds that validity is determined by Florida law regardless of the physical location of the principal or any witnesses, and s. 117.265(1) provides that an online notarization performed under the chapter is deemed to have been performed within Florida and governed by Florida law. There is no restriction in the statute on the signer being outside the United States.
Two requirements in that chapter exist specifically for someone in your position. The first is a consent step most people have never heard of: s. 117.265(3) provides that in performing an online notarization of a principal not located within this state, the notary must confirm, verbally or through the principal's written consent, that the principal wants the notarial act performed by a Florida notary public and under the general law of Florida. The second is the one that actually stops closings. Section 117.265(4) requires the notary to confirm identity either by personal knowledge or by all three of remote presentation of a government-issued identification credential, credential analysis of that credential, and identity proofing by knowledge-based authentication or another conforming method. Then the sentence with no discretion in it: if the notary cannot satisfy those steps, or if the databases consulted for identity proofing do not contain sufficient information to permit authentication, the notary may not perform the online notarization. For an owner who has been out of the country for years, or who has a thin US credit file, failing knowledge-based authentication is a realistic outcome and no reflection on anybody. The fallback is the paper route in the section above — a local notary plus two witnesses, or a US consular officer under s. 695.03(3) — and knowing that in advance is the difference between a rescheduled signing and a missed closing date.
Now the trap nobody writes about, and it is the most useful thing on this page for a seller living abroad. You may appear before a Florida online notary from anywhere. Your remote witnesses may not. Section 117.285(4) is explicit: a witness remote from the principal and appearing through audio-video communication technology "must verbally confirm that he or she is a resident of and physically located within the United States or a territory of the United States at the time of witnessing." Since the deed needs two subscribing witnesses, a seller in Lisbon has exactly two workable configurations: two witnesses physically in the room there, or two remote witnesses who are US residents physically in the United States at the time. A neighbor in Lisbon joining by video satisfies neither. From the same section: a physically present witness must confirm identity by stating their name and current address on the audio-video recording, the act of witnessing requires the witness to hear the principal state that they have signed the electronic record, and under s. 117.265(2) a principal may not act as a witness to their own signature.
One clarification, because readers who have heard about Florida's remote-notarization questionnaire sometimes expect it. The extra questions in s. 117.285(5), about medication, physical or mental condition, who else is in the room and who assisted, apply to wills, certain revocable trusts, health care advance directives, waivers of spousal rights under ss. 732.701 and 732.702, and powers of attorney authorizing s. 709.2208 transactions, and only where fewer than two witnesses are physically present. None of that reaches a deed. A deed signing is a short, ordinary session.
Finally, how to check the notary is real, which is fair when the whole transaction is happening on a screen. Section 117.225 requires a Florida online notary to be registered with the Department of State, to hold a current commission and submit its number, to certify completion of a remote notarization course, to identify the service providers they intend to use, to file a $25,000 bond payable to any individual harmed, and to carry errors and omissions insurance of at least $25,000 from an insurer authorized in Florida. Under s. 117.265(5)(a) it is the notary, not you, who selects the service provider. And the honest limit on all of it: Florida law permits a remotely notarized deed and permits electronic recording, but whether your title underwriter and the Clerk will take one on your specific file is private policy that varies, so put that question to your closing agent before you schedule anything.
Can I just send a power of attorney?
Sometimes, and it is worth knowing in advance what it will and will not do, because the usual assumption is wrong in a specific and expensive way. The headline first. Section 709.2201(3)(b) provides that an agent may not make any affidavit as to the personal knowledge of the principal. Now read that against the contract's own list of seller closing documents: construction lien affidavits, and owner's possession and no lien affidavits. Those are personal-knowledge affidavits. So is the FIRPTA certification, signed under penalty of perjury. So is the taxpayer identification number certification. A power of attorney gets you out of signing the deed. It does not get you out of signing and notarizing documents. Anyone telling you a POA means you sign nothing has not read that subsection.
The execution requirements surprise people too. A Florida power of attorney under s. 709.2105(2) "must be signed by the principal and by two subscribing witnesses and be acknowledged by the principal before a notary public or as otherwise provided in s. 695.03." Notarization alone is not enough. It is the same two-witnesses-plus-notary pattern as the deed.
Then the provision that quietly voids more out-of-state powers of attorney than anything else. Section 709.2201(1): an agent may only exercise authority specifically granted in the instrument, plus authority reasonably necessary to give effect to that express grant, and "general provisions in a power of attorney which do not identify the specific authority granted, such as provisions purporting to give the agent authority to do all acts that the principal can do, are not express grants of specific authority and do not grant any authority to the agent." That is precisely the shape of the statutory short-form power of attorney used in most other states — a box ticked beside "real property transactions," incorporating that state's statute by reference. Such an instrument can be entirely valid where it was signed and still confer nothing usable at a Florida closing. Whether a particular document works is a reading only a Florida real estate attorney should do, before the contract rather than in closing week.
Three more mechanisms worth knowing. If the principal is married and the property is homestead, s. 709.2201(2)(b) permits authority to convey or mortgage homestead property but provides that the agent may not mortgage or convey it without joinder of the principal's spouse or the spouse's guardian, joinder that can itself be accomplished through a power of attorney executed by the joining spouse. Next, a break-glass-if-I-cannot-make-it power of attorney does not exist here: s. 709.2108(1) says a power of attorney is exercisable when executed, and s. 709.2108(3) makes an instrument ineffective if it states it becomes effective at a future date or on a future event or contingency, outside two narrow exceptions for certain pre-October-2011 incapacity instruments and military deployment-contingent powers. And courier the original: s. 709.2106(5) says a copy generally has the same effect as the original, then provides that an original power of attorney relied upon to affect title to real property may be required for recording in the official records.
If you want to know why title companies scrutinize these documents so hard, the answer is in the statute rather than in anybody's house policy. Section 709.2106(3) makes an out-of-state power of attorney that does not meet Florida's execution requirements valid here if it complied with the law of the state where it was executed — and then says a third person asked to accept such an instrument "may in good faith request, and rely upon, without further investigation, an opinion of counsel as to any matter of law concerning the power of attorney," that the opinion must be provided at the principal's expense, and that the third person may reject the document, with no liability for doing so, if the agent does not provide it. Section 709.2119 adds what else can be demanded: an agent's affidavit stating where the principal is domiciled, that the principal is not deceased, and that there has been no revocation, suspension or termination; a certified English translation; and, where the power of attorney was witnessed or notarized remotely, the notary's electronic journal or record. The not-deceased clause exists because s. 709.2109(1)(a) terminates a power of attorney when the principal dies.
The leverage runs both ways, which is the part no competing page mentions. Section 709.2120 requires a third person to accept or reject a power of attorney within a reasonable time; provides that a third person may not require an additional or different form of power of attorney for authority granted in the power of attorney presented; requires a written statement of the reason for most rejections; and makes a third person who rejects in violation of the section subject to a court order mandating acceptance and to liability for damages, including reasonable attorney fees and costs. That is the answer to a closing agent insisting on its own in-house form for authority your document already grants, though whether to raise it is your attorney's call rather than your agent's. All of this section is mechanism, not advice: a power of attorney is a legal document, its validity is a legal question, and on a Florida sale those questions belong to a Florida real estate attorney engaged early enough to matter.
Does the $250,000 exclusion still apply if I moved out years ago?
Possibly not, and this is the deadline most readers of this page have already passed without being told. Internal Revenue Code section 121, as the IRS describes it in Tax Topic 701, excludes up to $250,000 of gain on the sale of a main home, or $500,000 on a joint return. It runs on two tests. The ownership test asks that you owned the home at least 24 months of the last 5 years. The use test asks that you used it as a residence at least 24 months of the previous 5 years. Both must be met within the 5-year period ending on the date of sale, and the two 24-month periods need not be the same months. For joint filers only one spouse need meet ownership, but both must meet use individually. The exclusion is generally unavailable if you claimed it on another home sale in the prior two years.
Put those tests together with a move and the consequence is arithmetic rather than opinion: if 24 months of use have to fit inside the 60 months ending on your closing date, the window closes roughly three years after you stop living in the house. An owner who left four or five years ago and kept the property has usually lost the exclusion already and has no idea. That deadline is reportable fact, which is why it is here. What to do about it — whether a partial exclusion applies, how a period of renting and its depreciation are treated, what nonqualified use does to the calculation, and how your home state taxes the gain — is a CPA's work, and worth paying for before you list rather than after you close.
There is a quieter consequence of the same rule, and it is why that CPA conversation is not optional. The settlement agent files the 1099-S, and under the IRS instructions the person responsible for closing is generally the filer, which on a Closing Disclosure means the settlement agent. There is one practical way out: Exception 1, for the sale of a residence for $250,000 or less where the closing agent receives acceptable written assurance from the seller that the residence is the seller's principal residence within the meaning of section 121 and that the full amount of the gain is excludable under section 121, with $500,000 substituted where the certification includes an assurance that the seller is married. The seller must also certify there has been no period of nonqualified use after 31 December 2008, and each seller signs under penalties of perjury. So an owner selling a rental, a second home, or a former home they left more than three years ago cannot make that certification, and therefore gets a 1099-S. The IRS has the gross proceeds figure whether or not the sale reaches a return. You will separately be asked to certify your taxpayer identification number, in words along the lines of "under penalties of perjury, I certify that I am a U.S. person or U.S. resident alien and the number shown on this statement is my correct taxpayer identification number." That is ordinary, and you furnish the complete number rather than a truncated one.
The check below is a reading aid on one date, not a determination about your facts.
Why is my tax bill so much higher than my neighbor's?
Because the house is not your homestead, so the Save Our Homes cap holding your neighbor's assessment down for fifteen years has never applied to yours. The cap that does apply is narrower than most owners realize. Section 193.1554(1) defines nonhomestead residential property as residential real property containing nine or fewer dwelling units that does not receive the s. 196.031 exemption. Section 193.1554(2) then applies the regime "for all levies other than school district levies," and s. 193.1554(3) caps any change on the annual January 1 reassessment at 10 percent of the prior year's assessed value. Two things follow that surprise people: the school portion of your bill is reassessed at just value every year with no cap at all, and the protection resets entirely on a change of ownership or control. The mechanics of the reset after a sale are on why Miami-Dade property tax resets after buying, and what happens to an exemption when an owner moves out or rents the house is on renting out a house with a homestead exemption. No point repeating either here.
The genuinely actionable out-of-state problem is duller and costs more: your bill goes to whatever address the Property Appraiser has. TRIM notices of proposed property taxes mail each August under s. 200.069. The tax collector publishes on November 1 that the roll is open and, within 20 working days of receiving the certified roll, sends a notice to each taxpayer "whose address is known to him or her." Then the sentence that catches absentee owners: s. 197.322(3) provides that a discount period may not be extended due to a tax bill being returned as undeliverable electronically or by postal mail. Those discounts, under s. 197.162(1), are 4 percent in November, 3 percent in December, 2 percent in January, 1 percent in February and nothing in March. Taxes are due November 1 and become delinquent April 1 or 60 days after the mailing of the original notice, whichever is later, under s. 197.333; after that s. 197.432(1) has the tax collector begin selling tax certificates on the unpaid parcels. Fixing it is a form: the Property Appraiser's mailing address change form, brought in person with the owner's driver license or state-issued ID to a Property Appraiser office, or mailed with a photocopy of the ID to 111 NW 1st Street, Suite 710, Miami, FL 33128-1984. A company can instead send a letter on company letterhead giving the folio number, signed by an officer. It takes ten minutes, and it is the first thing worth checking for an owner living out of state.
One dated change to know before you list. Section 689.261(3), added by s. 39 of chapter 2026-239, provides that beginning 1 February 2027 any property visible on a listing platform must include the estimated ad valorem taxes for that property, and that where the estimate comes from a tax estimator or calculator the current owner's assessment or taxes may not be used to produce it: the platform must use either the taxes due on the listing price at current millage rates under the Department of Revenue's published formula, or the countywide aggregate average millage rate, with a link to the county property appraiser's estimator. The current owner's taxes, and prior years', may be displayed only as historical tax information, and from the same date may not appear in printed listing materials. For a long-non-homesteaded absentee owner this is mild news rather than bad — your current bill already sits close to what a buyer's reset bill will look like, which is not true of your homesteaded neighbor — but it changes what a buyer sees. One further dated item: Amendment 3 on the 3 November 2026 ballot would revise the limitation on annual assessment increases for specified real property effective 1 January 2027 if approved by 60 percent of voters, and as at the date on this page it is not law.
What do I still have to disclose about a house I have not seen in years?
Everything you know, and the uncomfortable half of that sentence is what counts as knowing. The Florida Supreme Court held in Johnson v. Davis, 480 So. 2d 625 (Fla. 1985), that a seller of a home who knows of facts materially affecting the value of the property that are not readily observable and are not known to the buyer has a duty to disclose them. That duty attaches to the seller personally and it does not relax because the seller moved away. Your licensee carries a separate duty: s. 475.278(2)(d) obliges a transaction broker to disclose all known facts that materially affect the value of residential real property and are not readily observable to the buyer, and s. 475.278(1)(b) presumes all licensees operate as transaction brokers unless a single agent or no brokerage relationship is established in writing. How Johnson v. Davis applies to any particular fact on any particular house is a question for a Florida real estate attorney.
The out-of-state angle is the one worth sitting with. The duty runs on knowledge, and an owner who has not stood in the house in four years may genuinely know very little — which is not a defense so much as a reason to go and find out before the listing goes live. And if a tenant or a property manager has been reporting problems to you, you know. Water intrusion after a storm, a roof leak that got patched, an air handler replaced, work somebody did in the garage: those reports are knowledge. If a tenant is in place, the lease and the deposit travel with the sale and that has its own mechanics, set out on selling a rental with tenants. If any of the work you know about was done without a permit, unpermitted work in Miami-Dade covers what that does to a closing.
Two statutory forms you complete personally, however little you have seen the house. The first is recent and often missed: s. 689.302 requires a seller to complete and provide a flood disclosure to a purchaser of residential property at or before the time the sales contract is executed. The statutory form asks whether the seller has knowledge of any flooding that has damaged the property during the seller's ownership, whether the seller has filed a claim with an insurance provider relating to flood damage including the National Flood Insurance Program, and whether the seller has received assistance for flood damage including from FEMA, with flooding defined to include overflow of inland or tidal waters, rapid runoff accumulation, and sustained periods of standing water from rainfall. It was enacted by chapter 2024-215 and amended by chapter 2025-166. Note how precisely it lands on an absentee owner: it turns on your ownership period and your knowledge, so checking your own claim history and asking your manager or tenant directly is work to do before a contract rather than after. What the designations themselves mean is on Miami-Dade flood zones. The second is older: s. 689.261(1) requires a prospective purchaser of residential property to be presented a property tax disclosure summary at or before execution of the contract, the one warning a buyer not to rely on the seller's current property taxes, and s. 689.261(2) provides that unless it is included in the contract the disclosure summary must be provided by the seller.
One insurance mechanic, kept to mechanics because premiums and coverage belong to a licensed insurance agent rather than to me. A house standing empty while it is listed can run into the vacancy or unoccupancy provisions in the policy's own wording, and any nonrenewal or cancellation notice goes to the address of record — the same failure mode as the tax bill above, with a worse ending. The policy language and the statutory notice periods are already set out on selling an inherited house, which covers an empty Florida house in detail, and the roof question a remote owner cannot see for themselves is on Florida insurance and roof age. Read your own policy's terms, and put coverage questions to a licensed Florida insurance agent before the house sits empty rather than after.
Coming at this from the other direction, buying here while living somewhere else, the carrying-cost side is on buying in Florida from out of state.
Common questions
Does Florida withhold taxes when a nonresident sells a house?
No. Florida has no individual income tax and no nonresident-seller withholding, so there is nothing for a closing agent to deduct from your proceeds on the state's behalf. The reason is not the often-cited constitutional provision, which is written against taxing residents or citizens of the state; it is that the tax simply does not exist. Florida does collect documentary stamp tax on the deed, customarily a seller's cost on the standard contract, at 60 cents per $100 of consideration in Miami-Dade, with the county's 45-cent surtax not applying where the document conveys only a single-family residence. That is a tax on the document, not on your residency. Your own home state may well tax the gain, and that question belongs to a CPA.
Does FIRPTA apply to me if I am a US citizen living in another state?
No. FIRPTA, at 26 U.S.C. s. 1445, applies to a disposition by a foreign person, and s. 1445(f)(3) defines a foreign person as any person other than a United States person. A US citizen or resident alien is a United States person wherever they live, including abroad. You will still be asked to sign a certification of non-foreign status under penalty of perjury giving your name, taxpayer identification number and home address, which is what formally switches the withholding off under s. 1445(b)(2); the title company normally holds it as a qualified substitute rather than the buyer. Where FIRPTA does apply, the general rate is 15 percent of the amount realized, not 10 percent. The 10 percent rate is a narrower case under s. 1445(c)(4) and there is a full exemption under s. 1445(b)(5), both of which require the buyer to be acquiring the property for use as a residence.
Can I sell my Florida house without flying down to close?
Yes. The standard Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS contract provides that closing may be conducted by mail, overnight courier or electronic means, so a remote closing is the form's own alternative rather than a special arrangement. Your package is the deed plus affidavits, the certification of non-foreign status, a taxpayer identification number certification, the closing statement and a payoff authorization. Only the deed carries a real ceremony: two subscribing witnesses, then an acknowledgment so it can be recorded. As for the money, the contract lets the closing agent wait until funds are collected, and where the title commitment carries the gap coverage described in s. 627.7841 the closing agent disburses the net proceeds to the seller at closing rather than after the deed records. Confirm wire instructions by calling a number you obtained independently, never one from an email.
Does my notary have to be a Florida notary?
For a paper closing, no. Section 695.03(2) accepts an acknowledgment taken outside Florida but within the United States by or before any notary public, justice of the peace, master in chancery or registrar or recorder of deeds of any state, territory or district having a seal; where the notary affixes no seal, the statute lets the notary instead type, print or write on the instrument that they are a notary public of their state and when the commission expires. Outside the United States, s. 695.03(3) accepts a notary public or civil-law notary of that country with an official seal, a US ambassador, consul general, consul, vice consul or other diplomatic or consular officer, a Florida-appointed commissioner of deeds, or a military officer authorized by 10 U.S.C. s. 1044a. Separately, a Florida remote online notary may notarize for you wherever you are, because the statute puts the location requirement on the notary rather than on the signer.
Can I use a power of attorney so I do not have to sign anything?
A power of attorney can cover the deed. It cannot cover the affidavits, and that is the part people get wrong. Section 709.2201(3)(b) says an agent may not make any affidavit as to the personal knowledge of the principal, which reaches the owner's possession and no lien affidavit, the construction lien affidavit and the FIRPTA certification signed under penalty of perjury. Three more mechanics: a Florida power of attorney must be signed by the principal and by two subscribing witnesses and acknowledged before a notary, so notarization alone is not enough; only specifically granted authority counts, and general catch-all language purporting to let the agent do everything the principal can do grants nothing at all; and a power of attorney that says it springs into effect on a future event is ineffective here outside two narrow exceptions. Whether a particular document works on a particular sale is a question for a Florida real estate attorney, before the contract rather than during closing week.
I moved out four years ago. Do I still get the capital gains exclusion?
Probably not, and this is the deadline absentee owners most often miss. Internal Revenue Code section 121 excludes up to $250,000 of gain on a main home, or $500,000 on a joint return, but it requires both that you owned the home at least 24 months of the last 5 years and that you used it as a residence at least 24 months of the previous 5 years, measured within the 5-year period ending on the date of sale. Because 24 months of use has to fit inside the trailing 60, the window generally closes about three years after you stop living there. Four years out, it has usually gone. There can be more to the calculation than that one test, including partial exclusions for certain job, health or unforeseen-circumstance moves and the treatment of a period of renting, so take the actual dates to a CPA before you list rather than assuming either way. Expect a 1099-S from the settlement agent in any case.
Who picks the title company when I sell in Miami-Dade?
Often the buyer, which surprises sellers from other states and from other parts of Florida. The standard AS IS contract offers three choices, and one is a regional provision for Miami-Dade and Broward under which the buyer designates the closing agent and pays the owner's and lender's title policy premiums, while the seller pays actual costs for a title search acceptable to the buyer's underwriter, a tax search and a municipal lien search. Which box is checked decides who holds your signing package, whose closing instructions govern the file and which company your proceeds wire comes from, so it is worth settling when the contract is written rather than discovering later. The same part of the form also asks a seller who already holds an owner's title policy to furnish a copy early, which is worth starting on when you list if your policy is in storage in another state.
Selling a house you no longer live in?
Send me the address. You will get back what the county record and the permit history show, what genuinely comparable homes have actually closed at in a comparative market analysis, an honest read on condition and on what getting the house market-ready from a distance would involve, and a plain note of which questions on your file belong to a CPA or a Florida real estate attorney rather than to me. That includes whether your closing can run entirely by courier and remote notary or whether something in the file needs a wet signature, and whether the mailing address the Property Appraiser has for you is the one you actually use. If the honest answer is that you should talk to a CPA about the section 121 dates before you list anything, that is what I will tell you. Zachary Tranten, P.A., REALTOR(R), licensed Florida real estate sales associate, license SL3576483, with Keys Gate Realty, 10 NE 3rd Street, Florida City, FL 33034. Call or text (305) 905-9938.
Related
Written for owners of Miami-Dade residential property who live somewhere else, across Homestead, Florida City, Cutler Bay, Palmetto Bay, the Kendall corridor, West Kendall, Country Walk, the Redland and the wider county. It is general information about how the statutes and forms read, not legal, tax or insurance advice, not a substitute for counsel, and nothing in it tells any reader what their own rights or obligations are. Zac Tranten is a licensed Florida real estate sales associate, license SL3576483, with Keys Gate Realty, 10 NE 3rd Street, Florida City, FL 33034; he is not an attorney, an accountant, an appraiser or an insurance agent, and any opinion of price he gives is a comparative market analysis rather than an appraisal. Everything here was verified against primary sources on 11 October 2026. Florida's lack of an individual income tax is a statutory absence rather than a constitutional bar: Art. VII, s. 5(a), Fla. Const. is written against taxing residents or citizens of the state, Chapter 220 reaches corporations, and the Department of Revenue's index of Florida taxes and fees lists no individual income tax, no capital gains tax and no nonresident real estate withholding. Documentary stamp tax is ss. 201.02(1)(a), 201.0205, 201.031 and 125.0167(1); the 60-cent Miami-Dade rate and the 45-cent surtax were confirmed against the Department of Revenue's documentary stamp tax page, which carries no revision date, so the statutory chain is the safer citation. FIRPTA is 26 U.S.C. s. 1445, read in full, with the IRS FIRPTA withholding page last reviewed or updated 21 July 2026 and the instructions for Form 8288-B revised December 2025. The section 121 tests and dollar figures come from IRS Tax Topic 701, last reviewed 24 September 2026, and the reporting rules from the Instructions for Form 1099-S revised December 2026, including the Exception 1 certification whose sample format is Rev. Proc. 2007-12. Deed execution is s. 689.01; acknowledgments taken outside Florida or abroad are s. 695.03, amended by ch. 2024-259; recording formalities and the out-of-state exception are s. 695.26, electronic recording s. 695.27, and recording charges s. 28.24(13), which reconciles to the Miami-Dade Clerk's published $10.00 and $8.50 figures. Remote online notarization is ch. 117, part II, principally ss. 117.209, 117.225, 117.265 and 117.285; powers of attorney are ch. 709, part II, principally ss. 709.2105, 709.2106, 709.2108, 709.2109, 709.2119, 709.2120 and 709.2201. Also cited: ss. 627.7841 and 627.7711 on closing and title, s. 193.1554 on the assessment cap, ss. 200.069, 197.162, 197.322, 197.333 and 197.432 on the tax calendar and notices, and ss. 689.302 (ch. 2024-215, as amended by ch. 2025-166), 689.261 and 475.278 on disclosure. Wire fraud figures come from the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center 2025 Annual Report; the business email compromise figure of $568,048,472 is the relevant one, because IC3 defines its separate Real Estate category as investment, rental and timeshare fraud rather than closing-wire diversion. Several limits are worth stating plainly. Contract language is quoted by substance and not by paragraph or standard number: the text was read from the Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase, and which revision is current on any given date is a question for the brokerage's forms library rather than for this page; the FIRPTA, closing-location, closing-documents, collection and cost-allocation provisions described here are long-standing, but confirm the live form before relying on any clause. Johnson v. Davis, 480 So. 2d 625 (Fla. 1985), is cited and paraphrased rather than quoted, because the opinion text was not independently retrieved. Federal beneficial-ownership reporting by closing agents has been in and out of effect during 2026 and is in active litigation, so this page makes no claim about it; a seller may be asked for information on that account, and the closing agent is the one who can say what currently applies. Whether a title underwriter or the Clerk will accept a remotely notarized deed on a given file is private underwriting policy and varies. Whether a Florida notary may also serve as one of the two subscribing witnesses is common practice but is not asserted here. Department of State rules under s. 117.295 were not reviewed, so the statement that the statute places no restriction on a signer's foreign location rests on the statute alone. Amendment 3 on the 3 November 2026 ballot is described from the Florida Senate's bill record for CS/HJR 1-F, 2026 Special Session F, filed with the Secretary of State on 16 June 2026; the ballot number and the percentage changes reported elsewhere come from secondary coverage and are deliberately not stated. A tangible personal property return may apply to an owner who rented the house furnished, under s. 196.183, and that is a question for the Property Appraiser. Property tax discounts, millage rates and the Department of Revenue's listing-platform millage figures reset annually, so re-check any dated figure at the source. Nothing here is lending advice or an offer to originate a mortgage loan: questions about qualifying, credit, rates, payoff terms or borrowing capacity must go to a licensed mortgage loan originator, because mortgage origination is licensed activity under the federal SAFE Act and Chapter 494, Florida Statutes. Tax questions, including the section 121 dates, the 1099-S, entity-held title and your home state's treatment of the gain, belong to a qualified tax professional; power of attorney validity, disclosure exposure and anything else legal belongs to a Florida real estate attorney. Verify anything specific with that professional, with your closing agent, or with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser or Clerk of the Court. Equal Housing Opportunity.