The seller guide

1. Pricing

Pricing is the whole game. Marketing can bring buyers to a home; only price gets them to write.

A home priced correctly attracts its strongest activity in the first two weeks, because that is when it is new to every buyer already searching in the area. After that, showings taper and the conversation quietly shifts from "is this the one?" to "what is wrong with it?".

Overpricing does not leave room to negotiate — it removes you from the search results of the buyers who would have paid your real number. A home listed at $749,000 that is worth $699,000 is invisible to everyone whose maximum filter is $700,000. When it eventually reduces, it arrives with weeks of days-on-market attached, and buyers read that as leverage.

How the analysis is built

• Closed sales in the last 90 days, tightly comparable in size, age, condition and location, adjusted for genuine differences
• Active listings — what a buyer sees instead of you, right now
• Pending sales — the freshest signal of where the market actually is
• Expired and withdrawn listings — where the ceiling sits
• Absorption rate for your price band and property type — how much inventory there is relative to demand

Automated portal estimates are a starting point, but they cannot see condition, permit history, a renovated kitchen, a new roof, a view line in a building, or an assessment that is about to hit.

2. Preparing the home

Do the work that returns more than it costs, and skip the rest.

Nearly always worth it

• Paint — the highest return per dollar in real estate, consistently
• Declutter and depersonalise — free, and it makes every room read larger
• Deep clean, including grout, windows and AC vents
• Landscaping and pressure washing — the first photo a buyer sees
• Small visible repairs — a running toilet or a cracked switch plate signals deferred maintenance everywhere else
• Lighting — brighter bulbs, consistent colour temperature, every fixture working

Rarely worth it

• Full kitchen or bathroom remodels — you will not recover the cost
• Adding a pool
• Anything strongly personal in taste
• High-end finishes above the standard for your price band

The South Florida exception

A failing roof is a different category. It is not a cosmetic issue — it directly determines whether a buyer can get homeowners insurance, and therefore whether they can get a mortgage at all. If your roof is at the end of its life, the choice is to replace it, price for it openly, or accept a much smaller buyer pool paying cash. The same logic applies to older electrical panels and polybutylene plumbing.

3. Documents to gather

• Survey
• Roof permit and any roof warranty
• Wind mitigation certificate
• Four-point inspection, if you have a recent one
• Permits for any work done during your ownership
• Appliance and system warranties, and AC service records
• Recent utility bills
• HOA or condo documents: budget, rules, reserve study, recent minutes
• Your existing title policy — it can reduce the cost of the new one

4. Open permits

This deserves its own section because it delays more South Florida closings than anything except insurance.

An open or expired permit is one that was pulled but never finalled — a water heater swap in 2014, a fence, a re-roof, a previous owner's addition. It sits on the property record until somebody closes it out, and it surfaces during the title search, typically about three weeks before your closing date.

Resolving one can require re-inspection, corrective work, or an after-the-fact permit, and it can take weeks. Check with your local building department before you list, not during escrow. If there is something open, you then have time to deal with it calmly.

5. Marketing

Nearly every buyer sees your home as a thumbnail on a phone before they see it in person, and that thumbnail decides whether they book a showing. Everything else is downstream of the photos.

• Professional photography, shot at the right time of day for the light
• Floor plan — buyers spend longer on listings that have one
• Video walkthrough — essential for out-of-state and international buyers, who are a real share of this market
• Drone where the lot, the water or the setting genuinely adds something
• MLS listing written properly, with the details that answer a buyer's first three questions
• Syndication to the major portals
• Direct agent outreach to agents with matching active buyers — often how a home actually sells
• Open house in the first weekend, while the listing is new

6. Evaluating offers

The highest number is not always the best offer. What matters is which one closes.

7. Inspection and repairs

Expect a repair request. Almost every buyer makes one. The usual South Florida sticking points are roof age and condition, AC age, electrical panel type, plumbing material, permit history and any evidence of moisture.

You have four responses: do the repairs, offer a credit instead (often cleaner, and buyers frequently prefer it), reduce the price, or decline. Which is right depends on how the home is priced, how strong the offer is, and how many other buyers are waiting.

A pre-listing inspection is worth considering if the home is older. It costs a few hundred dollars, removes surprises, and lets you price with the condition known rather than negotiate against it under time pressure.

8. Appraisal

If the buyer is financing, the lender orders an appraisal. If it comes in below the contract price, the lender lends against the lower figure, and there are four ways forward: the buyer brings the difference in cash, you reduce the price, you split it, or the deal ends.

The best protection is pricing supportably in the first place. Beyond that, providing the appraiser with a list of upgrades with dates and costs, the wind mitigation report, and any comparables they may not have weighted properly is legitimate and often useful.

9. What sellers pay

Typical Florida seller-side costs, before your mortgage payoff:

Model your own figure in the net proceeds calculator, which handles the county differences.

10. Tax questions

These are the three that come up most. None of this is tax advice — talk to a CPA about your specific situation, ideally before you list.

Capital gains exclusion

Federal rules generally allow you to exclude a substantial amount of gain on the sale of a primary residence if you owned and lived in it for at least two of the previous five years — more if married filing jointly. The ownership and use tests have exceptions, and the numbers are set federally, so confirm the current figures with a CPA.

Homestead portability

If you are buying another Florida home as your primary residence, you may be able to transfer up to $500,000 of accumulated Save Our Homes assessment savings to the new property. This can substantially reduce the tax bill on the next home and is often worth several hundred dollars a month. It requires a separate filing with the county property appraiser and has a deadline — raise it early, not after you close.

1031 exchange

If the property is an investment rather than a primary residence, a 1031 exchange may allow you to defer capital gains by reinvesting in another investment property. The timelines are strict and unforgiving — you must identify replacement property within 45 days and close within 180 — and you must engage a qualified intermediary before the sale closes. This one cannot be fixed after the fact.

11. Closing

Title runs the lien and judgment search, orders the estoppel letter from any association, and prepares the settlement statement. Review it carefully — check the payoff figure, the tax proration date and every fee.

In Florida you can usually sign in advance or remotely. Once documents are recorded, funds are disbursed, typically the same day.

Before you hand over the keys: cancel your homeowners policy effective on the closing date (not before), transfer utilities, forward mail, and leave the manuals, warranties, garage remotes, gate fobs and any spare keys.

12. Costly mistakes

• Pricing on hope. The market does not care what you paid, what you owe, or what you need.
• Not fixing the roof question. In South Florida this determines whether financed buyers can buy at all.
• Ignoring open permits until title finds them. Weeks of delay, entirely avoidable.
• Amateur photos. The cheapest possible way to lose thousands.
• Being present at showings. Buyers do not speak freely, and they leave faster.
• Rejecting a first offer on principle. The first offer is often the best one, because it comes from the buyer who was already looking and ready.
• Taking the highest number without reading the terms. A high offer with a weak lender and a sale contingency is not a high offer.
• Not planning where you are going. Sort your next move before you accept, or negotiate post-closing occupancy up front.

This guide is general information for South Florida sellers, not legal, tax or financial advice. Tax rules, statutory fee caps and county customs change — verify with a CPA, an attorney and your closing agent before relying on any figure here.