Selling a Florida House From Another State

Every person on the current deed. Moving to another state does not take a name off the title. If you and a spouse, a former co-owner, or a trustee are all in the vesting, each of those people signs, wherever they live. A title search reads that vesting. We do not drop a signer because they are hard to schedule.

Homestead is separate from vesting. If the house is still the permanent residence, a married owner generally cannot deed it without the spouse, even when the spouse is not on the deed. Read why both spouses sign. A house that is no longer anyone's permanent residence is not that joinder rule. Tell us which it is when you send the contract. A buyer who lives out of state has their own signing path. Yours is the deed that conveys.

The same three ways a buyer can. You can sign at 3087 Anderson Snow Road in Spring Hill. You can sign where you live, before a notary allowed by § 695.03, with two witnesses. Or a Florida online notary who is physically in Florida can notarize you while you are somewhere else, under § 117.265. Section 689.01 lets those two witnesses sign electronically by audio-video. You cannot witness your own signature. The clerk needs each witness's name and address printed on the deed.

A power of attorney is allowed when it meets § 709.2105: you sign it, two witnesses sign it, and it is acknowledged. We record it with the deed. Under § 695.01, an unrecorded power of attorney does not protect that deed against later creditors and purchasers. If the house is homestead, § 689.111 still requires the spouse to join. The joinder can be through a power of attorney. It cannot be skipped. On the buyer's loan, the lender can refuse a remote signing or a power of attorney. We follow that instruction.

After the buyer's funds are in and the deed can be recorded. Signing from your kitchen is not the disbursement. If the buyer signs before the money arrives, that can be a dry closing. You do not receive proceeds until it is funded. We wire them to instructions confirmed when you call (352) 792-1214. Read wire fraud at a Florida closing. A seller who is not in Florida is as exposed as the buyer.

The payoff, a judgment, a municipal charge, and an HOA estoppel come out of those proceeds when they are owed. Send the loan information and the association contact with the contract. Documentary stamp tax is owed by the parties to the deed. The contract says who brings it to the table. We do not invent that split, and we do not publish a seller net sheet in this article. Ask for the figures in writing on your file.

Keys and possession follow the contract, after funding. We do not release the house because the remote deed package came back. If a realtor or a lockbox is holding the keys, that is the contract's plan, not a recording step.

A certification of whether you are a foreign seller. A U.S. citizen or resident alien living in another state is a U.S. person. That certification is not Florida income tax. Florida does not withhold state income tax on the sale. If the seller is a foreign person, federal withholding under the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act can apply. We follow the certification, or the withholding figure the closing requires. We do not calculate it in a blog post.

The closing agent generally reports the gross proceeds to the IRS on Form 1099-S. Federal law may let you exclude gain on a principal residence you owned and used for at least two of the five years before the sale. That exclusion is up to $250,000, or up to $500,000 if you qualify jointly. A house you have not lived in, or have rented out, may not qualify. We collect the certification. We do not decide whether you owe tax. Your home state may tax the gain even when Florida does not. That return is yours, not the closing statement.