Selling a home in St. Augustine or Jacksonville involves several cost categories beyond agent compensation, including Florida Documentary Stamp Tax, title-related charges, mortgage payoff, prorated property taxes, and any negotiated buyer concessions. The exact total depends on your contract terms, property, and closing date.
What does it cost to sell a house in St. Augustine or Jacksonville, Florida?
Selling a home in St. Augustine or Jacksonville involves more than agent compensation. Florida sellers typically face Documentary Stamp Tax on the deed, title-related charges, mortgage payoff, prorated property taxes, and any concessions negotiated in the contract. Because several of these line items are negotiable or date-sensitive, your actual net proceeds require a personalized settlement estimate from your title company, not a generic percentage from a blog.
Key Takeaways
- Florida Documentary Stamp Tax on deeds is set by statute at $0.70 per $100 (or fraction thereof) of consideration, and the same rate applies in both Duval County (Jacksonville) and St. Johns County (St. Augustine).
- Real-estate compensation is fully negotiable in Florida, no rate is set by law, and the listing-side fee and any buyer-agent compensation are separate, independently negotiated items.
- Several seller costs, including title-related charges and who pays them, vary by county custom and contract, what’s common in Duval County may differ from St. Johns County practice.
- Your mortgage payoff is not the same as the balance on your monthly statement; the title company requests an official payoff figure that includes accrued interest and any satisfaction fees.
- According to a September 2026 report from Realtor.com, Jacksonville homes sat at a median 65 days on market in August 2026, a useful context point when timing your sale.
What are the main cost categories for Florida home sellers?
Every seller’s settlement statement is different, but the categories that show up most often in St. Augustine and Jacksonville transactions fall into a predictable set. Knowing what each one is, and whether it’s fixed or negotiable, is the first step toward understanding what you’ll walk away with.
Agent compensation
This is almost always the largest single line item on a seller’s settlement statement, and it’s also the most misunderstood after the 2024 changes to how broker compensation works. Here’s what matters: real-estate compensation is fully negotiable in Florida. According to the National Association of Realtors, no government body sets a standard or required rate. The amount you agree to pay is established in your written listing agreement with your brokerage, nothing more, nothing less.
Equally important: the listing-side fee and any compensation a seller chooses to offer a buyer’s agent are two separate, independently negotiated items. A seller is not automatically required to cover a buyer’s agent’s fee, and offers of compensation are no longer shared on the MLS. If you want to know what my fee structure looks like and what it covers, that’s a conversation we have directly, not something I’d publish as a number on a page.
Florida Documentary Stamp Tax on the deed
Florida’s Documentary Stamp Tax on deeds is a fixed statutory rate: $0.70 per $100, or fraction thereof, of consideration, per the Florida Department of Revenue. This rate applies in both Duval County and St. Johns County, neither is Miami-Dade, which has its own rate.
The tax is calculated on the taxable consideration stated in the deed. Who pays it is a different question. Florida law imposes the tax on the taxable instrument, but the purchase contract commonly allocates it to the seller. That said, it’s negotiable, your contract and closing statement, not a universal rule, control who actually pays. I’ll walk you through what’s typical in your specific contract when we get there.
Title-related charges
Title work in the Jacksonville and St. Augustine areas is handled by a title company, which coordinates the title examination, payoff requests, settlement figures, signing, recording, and disbursement. Which party pays for owner’s title insurance and related title charges varies by county custom and by what the contract says, it is not uniform across Duval and St. Johns Counties. Don’t assume what a friend paid in one county applies to your sale in the other. Your contract is the governing document, and your title company will lay out every line item before closing day.
Mortgage payoff
If you’re carrying a mortgage, the payoff amount that hits your settlement statement is not the same as the principal balance shown on last month’s statement. The title company requests an official payoff figure from your lender that accounts for accrued interest, any prepayment provisions, and any other amounts required to fully satisfy the loan. The difference between your statement balance and the actual payoff can be meaningful, especially if you’re closing mid-month. This is one of the reasons I tell sellers not to estimate their net proceeds from a mortgage statement alone.
Prorated property taxes and association-related charges
Florida property taxes are paid in arrears, which means at closing the seller typically credits the buyer for the portion of the year the seller owned the home. The exact proration depends on your closing date and the applicable tax records. If your property is in an HOA or CDD community, estoppel-related charges may also appear, these are fees the association charges to certify the current balance of dues, assessments, and violations. Both of these are transaction-specific adjustments, not flat charges you can predict without a closing date and an actual payoff or estoppel certificate.
For buyers trying to understand the other side of this equation, I break down upfront cash requirements in detail in my post on how much cash you need to buy in St. Augustine.
Repair credits and buyer concessions
Any concessions you agree to in the contract, a repair credit, a closing-cost contribution, a price reduction after inspection, show up as debits on your side of the settlement statement. These are entirely negotiable and depend on what the inspection surfaces, how motivated each party is, and what the market supports at the time you’re selling. In a market where Jacksonville homes were sitting at a median 65 days on market in August 2026, buyers have had more room to ask, and sellers need to be prepared for that conversation.
How do Duval County and St. Johns County compare for sellers?
The Documentary Stamp Tax rate is identical in both counties, per the Florida Department of Revenue. What differs is local market practice around title-related cost allocation, typical contract terms, and the pace of the market itself. St. Johns County has consistently been one of the fastest-growing counties in Florida, while Jacksonville’s Duval County market has shown more days-on-market movement in recent months. If you’re selling and buying at the same time across county lines, which I see often with clients moving between St. Augustine and Jacksonville, the coordination involved is real. I cover that in depth in my post on selling and buying at the same time in Northeast Florida.
| Cost Category | Fixed or Negotiable? | Notes for FL Sellers |
|---|---|---|
| Agent compensation (listing side) | Negotiable | Set in your listing agreement; no standard rate exists |
| Buyer-agent compensation | Negotiable | Optional; separately negotiated from listing-side fee |
| Documentary Stamp Tax on deed | Statutory rate (fixed); allocation negotiable | $0.70 per $100 of consideration in Duval and St. Johns Counties |
| Title-related charges | Negotiable by contract | Varies by county custom and contract terms |
| Mortgage payoff | Set by lender | Official payoff differs from statement balance; title company requests it |
| Prorated property taxes | Date-sensitive calculation | Depends on closing date and tax records |
| HOA / CDD estoppel charges | Set by association | Applies only to properties in governed communities |
| Repair credits / buyer concessions | Fully negotiable | Determined by inspection results and contract negotiation |
| Recording charges | Set by county | Covers deed and satisfaction of mortgage recording |
How do you find out what you’ll actually net?
The honest answer is: you need a real net sheet, not a blog post. Every figure above interacts with the others, and your actual proceeds depend on your sale price, your loan payoff, your closing date, your contract terms, and the property-specific charges your title company identifies during the title examination.
What I do for every seller I work with is walk through a preliminary net sheet before we ever set a list price. That means you know, going in, what the realistic range of outcomes looks like, not a surprise on closing day. Understanding your complete cost of ownership going out is just as important as understanding it going in, and it shapes decisions about pricing, timing, and what concessions make sense to accept.
If you want to understand what’s driving prices in this market right now, my post on what’s really driving home prices in Northeast Florida gives useful context for setting expectations before you list.
Read what past clients have said about working with me on Google and Zillow.
Frequently Asked Questions
What costs does a seller pay when selling a house in Jacksonville, Florida?
Jacksonville sellers commonly see agent compensation, Documentary Stamp Tax on the deed, title-related charges (allocation depends on the contract), mortgage payoff, prorated property taxes, and any concessions negotiated during the transaction on their settlement statement. Which party pays specific title charges varies by contract and local practice in Duval County, so reviewing your purchase agreement with your title company is the clearest path to an accurate picture.
How much is Documentary Stamp Tax on a Florida home sale?
The Florida Documentary Stamp Tax on deeds is $0.70 per $100, or fraction thereof, of the consideration stated in the deed, per the Florida Department of Revenue. This rate applies in both Duval County (Jacksonville) and St. Johns County (St. Augustine). The tax is calculated on the taxable consideration, and the contract determines which party is responsible for paying it, it’s commonly allocated to the seller but is negotiable.
Does the seller or buyer pay the title company in Jacksonville?
Who pays for owner’s title insurance and related title charges in Jacksonville is determined by the purchase contract and local custom, not a fixed statewide rule. Practice can differ between Duval County and St. Johns County, so the only reliable answer comes from your specific contract. Your title company will itemize every charge on the settlement statement before closing so there are no surprises.
Are real-estate agent fees negotiable in Florida?
Yes, fully. Real-estate compensation in Florida is not set by law or by any government body, the amount is established in the written agreement between the seller and their brokerage. The listing-side fee and any compensation offered to a buyer’s agent are also two separate, independently negotiated items. If you want to know what my fee covers and how it’s structured, that conversation happens directly, not through a published rate.
What seller closing costs are fixed versus negotiable in Florida?
The Documentary Stamp Tax rate on deeds is set by Florida statute, and recording charges are set by the county, those aren’t negotiable. Agent compensation, title-related charge allocation, repair credits, buyer concessions, and who covers certain closing costs are all negotiable between the parties and governed by the purchase contract. Your mortgage payoff is set by your lender, and prorated property taxes are calculated based on your closing date.
Does the seller pay the buyer’s closing costs in St. Augustine?
Only if they agree to in the contract. A seller contributing to a buyer’s closing costs is a negotiated concession, not a default requirement. In a market where buyers have had more time to negotiate, concession requests have become more common, but the amount, if any, is always a function of what you agree to in writing.