Jacksonville and Northeast Florida Real Estate

Plan for the deed tax (documentary stamps) of 70 cents per $100 of the price, the agent compensation you negotiate, title and closing fees, and your share of the year's property taxes. On a $350,000 sale the deed tax alone is $2,450.

Yes. Florida sellers must give buyers a written flood disclosure at or before signing the contract. Since October 1, 2025 it covers flooding you know damaged the home while you owned it, flood insurance claims, and flood assistance from any source.

In most cases, yes. Since August 17, 2024, agents who are MLS participants must have a written agreement with a buyer before touring a home, in person or by live video. It states what the agent will be paid, and that amount is negotiable.

Own the home and live in it as your permanent residence on January 1, then apply with your county property appraiser by March 1 (the next business day when March 1 falls on a weekend). Homestead exemption reduces taxable value and qualifies an eligible home for the Save Our Homes assessment limitation.

Florida Housing, the state's housing finance agency, pairs a 30-year fixed first mortgage with down payment and closing cost help: Florida Assist (up to $10,000 at 0 percent, deferred until you sell or refinance, not forgivable), the HFA Preferred and Advantage PLUS second mortgages (3, 4 or 5 percent of the loan, forgivable), the Homeownership Loan Program (a 3 percent second mortgage with a monthly payment) and Hometown Heroes for eligible full-time workers. You reach all of them through a participating lender, take a homebuyer education course, stay under your county's income and purchase price limits, and must not have owned and lived in a home of your own in the last three years.

Lender fees, the appraisal, title work and the lender's title policy, prepaid property taxes and insurance, and two Florida taxes tied to the mortgage: documentary stamps on the note at 35 cents per $100 borrowed and a one-time intangible tax of 2 mills, which is 0.2 percent of the loan. On a $300,000 mortgage that is $1,050 plus $600. Who pays for the owner's title policy is a box in the contract, negotiated with the price.