The Miami seller net sheet in 2026: what you actually walk away with

Last updated: July 2026

A Miami seller net sheet is the line by line estimate of what you actually walk away with after a sale: contract price, minus your mortgage payoff, minus transfer taxes, minus prorated property taxes, minus title and closing items, minus whatever brokerage compensation you negotiated. In Miami-Dade the biggest fixed line is usually the documentary stamp tax on the deed, which runs $0.60 per $100 of the sale price for a single-family home, and $1.05 per $100 for condos and most other property types once the county surtax is added [1]. Title insurance works differently here than in much of Florida: in Miami-Dade the buyer customarily selects the title company and pays the owner's policy premium, though everything is negotiable in the contract. Property taxes are paid in arrears in Florida, so you will credit the buyer for the portion of the year you owned the home. And since the 2024 industry settlement, there is no standard commission; compensation is whatever you negotiate in writing. The rest of this post walks each line, then runs a clearly hypothetical $700,000 example.

What a seller net sheet actually is

A net sheet is not a closing disclosure and it is not an appraisal. It is a working estimate, prepared before you list or when an offer comes in, that starts with a sale price and subtracts every cost you are responsible for at closing. Treat it like a pro forma on any other asset: the value is in the assumptions, so every line should be traceable to a rate schedule, a payoff statement, or a signed agreement.

The lines fall into five buckets: transfer taxes, title and closing services, tax prorations, debt payoff and lien clearance, and brokerage compensation. Miami-Dade has specific rules or customs in every one, which is why generic Florida calculators often miss.

Documentary stamp tax on the deed

Florida charges a documentary stamp tax on deeds based on the consideration paid. In every county except Miami-Dade the rate is $0.70 per $100. Miami-Dade is the exception: the base rate here is $0.60 per $100 of the sale price [1].

The seller customarily pays the doc stamps on the deed in Florida, and the tax is collected by the Clerk when the deed is recorded. The tax applies to each $100 or portion thereof, so the price is effectively rounded up to the next $100 before the rate applies.

The Miami-Dade surtax nuance

Miami-Dade also levies a discretionary surtax of $0.45 per $100 on deeds, but the surtax does not apply to a transfer of a single-family dwelling [2]. In practice that creates two rates in this county:

Single-family home: $0.60 per $100
Condo, townhome that does not qualify as a single-family dwelling, commercial, or vacant land: $1.05 per $100 combined

This matters in a condo-heavy market. On the same contract price, a condo seller in Miami-Dade pays 75 percent more in transfer tax than a single-family seller. If you are underwriting a future exit on a condo in a building in Brickell or on Miami Beach, model the $1.05 rate, not the $0.60 rate. How your specific property is classified is a question for the closing agent, not a guess.

Title insurance: who pays in Miami-Dade

Florida owner's title insurance premiums are promulgated, meaning the rate schedule is set by state regulation rather than by each title company. The schedule runs $5.75 per $1,000 of coverage on the first $100,000 and $5.00 per $1,000 from there up to $1 million, with lower marginal rates above that [3].

Who pays is a matter of local custom and contract, not law. In Miami-Dade the custom is that the buyer selects the title or closing agent and pays the owner's policy premium, the opposite of Broward and Palm Beach, where the seller typically pays and picks. Because it is custom rather than statute, the contract controls: a buyer can ask the seller to cover title, and in a slower market that request shows up more often. Read that checkbox before you sign, because it moves a four-figure line from one side of the ledger to the other.

Even when the buyer pays for title insurance, the seller still typically pays for the items needed to deliver clear title: preparing the deed, obtaining estoppel letters from any association, and recording whatever releases are needed to clear existing liens.

Prorated property taxes

Florida property taxes are paid in arrears. The bill for the current tax year is issued in the fall, which means at almost any closing date you will not yet have paid taxes for the portion of the year you owned the home. The standard mechanism is a credit from seller to buyer at closing for your ownership period, calculated per the contract's proration language.

Two Miami-Dade specific points. First, if you have homestead exemption and Save Our Homes caps, your current bill can be far below what the buyer will pay after the assessment resets, so do not let anyone use your tax bill to model the buyer's carrying cost, or vice versa. Second, close early in the year and the proration credit is small; close in the fourth quarter after bills are issued and the closing agent may pay the full bill from your proceeds and credit you the buyer's share. Ask your closing agent to show the math either way.

Payoff, recording, and the smaller lines

The largest single deduction for most sellers is not a fee at all, it is the mortgage payoff: principal balance, accrued interest through the disbursement date, and any lender processing charges on the payoff statement. Order the payoff statement early. If you have a HELOC, the closing agent will also require it to be paid and the line frozen and closed, even at a zero balance, so the lien can be released.

Recording costs in Miami-Dade run through the Clerk of the Court at $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page of a recorded document [4]. The buyer typically records the deed; the seller typically pays to record instruments that clear title, such as a satisfaction of mortgage.

Other lines that commonly appear on a Miami seller net sheet: association estoppel fees, unpaid association assessments or their negotiated allocation, municipal lien search charges, courier and wire fees, and any negotiated seller credits toward the buyer's costs. None of these are large individually, but together they are worth listing rather than lumping.

Brokerage compensation after the 2024 settlement

Since the industry settlement changes took effect in August 2024, offers of compensation can no longer be published on the MLS, buyers sign written agreements with their own agents, and every element of compensation is negotiated directly between the parties [5]. There is no standard rate and there never legally was one.

For a seller net sheet, that means three separate decisions, each in writing: what you pay your listing brokerage, whether you offer anything toward the buyer's brokerage compensation or respond to that request when it arrives in an offer, and whether any concession is structured as compensation or as a general credit. Model these as their own lines. If you want to pressure-test how the numbers interact with pricing strategy, that is exactly what a listing consultation is for.

A hypothetical $700,000 sale, line by line

Everything below is hypothetical and illustrative only. The assumed inputs are invented for the example; the tax and recording math applies the published rates cited above.

Assumptions: single-family home, contract price $700,000, mortgage payoff $310,000, closing mid-year with an assumed $9,000 annual tax bill prorated roughly in half, buyer pays title per Miami-Dade custom, and brokerage compensation is left as the negotiated figure from your own listing agreement.

| Line | Amount | |---|---| | Contract price | $700,000 | | Mortgage payoff (assumed) | ($310,000) | | Doc stamps on deed, $0.60 per $100 single-family [1] | ($4,200) | | Property tax proration credit to buyer (assumed) | (about $4,500) | | Estoppel, lien search, releases, recording, misc (assumed) | (about $1,000) | | Owner's title policy | Buyer pays per custom | | Brokerage compensation | Your negotiated amount | | Estimated net before brokerage compensation | about $380,300 |

Two things to notice. If this same $700,000 property were a condo, the transfer tax line would be $7,350 at the combined $1.05 rate instead of $4,200, a $3,150 swing on classification alone. And the single biggest unknown on the sheet is the line you negotiate yourself: brokerage compensation. That is the correct place to spend your attention.

If you want a version of this built on your actual property, with the recorded basis and real comparable sales instead of assumptions, start with a property valuation.

Frequently asked questions

Who pays the documentary stamp tax in Miami-Dade?

By custom the seller pays the doc stamps on the deed. Like most closing costs in Florida it can be shifted by contract, but seller-paid is the default assumption in the standard contract forms.

Is the transfer tax really lower in Miami-Dade than the rest of Florida?

For single-family homes, yes: $0.60 per $100 here versus $0.70 per $100 elsewhere in the state. For condos and other property the Miami-Dade surtax brings the combined rate to $1.05 per $100, which is higher than the statewide rate [1][2].

Do I have to pay for the buyer's title insurance?

Not by default in Miami-Dade, where the buyer customarily selects the closing agent and pays the owner's premium. It is negotiable, and the contract checkbox controls, so confirm it before signing.

How accurate is a net sheet?

As accurate as its inputs. Rate-based lines like doc stamps and recording are precise. The payoff figure is precise once you have a payoff statement. Prorations depend on the closing date, and compensation depends on what you negotiated. A good net sheet flags which lines are locked and which are still estimates.

Will capital gains tax show up on my net sheet?

No. A net sheet covers closing-table items only. Any income tax consequence of the sale is between you and your tax professional, and it depends on your basis, your use of the property, and your filing situation.

Gabriel

Sources

Gabriel A. Moyers, PA. eXp Realty. Florida License #3407280. Equal Housing Opportunity. This article is general information as of July 2026 and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Verify current figures against authoritative sources before acting.