Flat-fee MLS in Florida
What it actually costs to sell a house in Florida without paying a listing commission, using Florida’s real transfer tax and title customs rather than a national average.
Documentary stamp tax
0.70%
$3,150 on $450,000
Seller pays title?
Usually
About $2,588 on $450,000
Listing commission saved
$10,800
vs. a 2.5% listing fee, after a $450 package
What you save, and what you take on
On a $450,000 sale in Florida, a 2.5% listing commission is $11,250. A flat-fee Multiple Listing Service (MLS) package typically runs a few hundred dollars. That difference, $10,800, is the entire financial case for selling this way.
In exchange you inherit the listing agent’s job. Pricing it right, getting decent photographs, writing the thing, answering the phone, standing in the kitchen every Saturday, and then negotiating a contract with someone who may do this for a living.
Whether that is a good trade depends on what your time is worth and whether haggling over a six-figure number sounds tolerable or awful. Both answers are legitimate.
What Florida charges no matter who sells the house
Florida charges $0.70 per $100 of sale price statewide, which the seller customarily pays. Miami-Dade is the exception at $0.60 per $100 for single-family homes, plus a $0.45 per $100 surtax on other property types.
Who pays the owner's policy is set by county custom in Florida rather than statewide rule. Seller pays in most of the state; buyer pays in Broward, Sarasota, Miami-Dade and a few others.
Where in Florida matters
Local transfer taxes can dwarf the state rate. These are the ones worth knowing about before you price the house:
- Miami-Dade County: about 0.60% for the seller. Miami-Dade charges $0.60 per $100 on single-family homes. Other property types add a $0.45 per $100 surtax that this figure does not include.
Flat-fee MLS services in Florida
We are still checking these ourselves
Run your own numbers
The figures above use a $450,000 example. Put in your own sale price, mortgage balance and commission assumptions to see what Florida leaves you with.
Open the calculatorCommon questions
Does Florida require a real estate agent to sell a house?
What transfer tax will I pay in Florida?
Will my house still show up on Zillow?
Do I still have to offer the buyer’s agent a commission?
Where these numbers come from