The Miami-Dade doc-stamp rule, precisely
Statewide, deeds carry $0.70 per $100 in documentary stamps. Miami-Dade replaces that with $0.60 per $100 — then adds a $0.45 per $100 surtax on transfers of property OTHER than a single-family residence, and § 201.031(1) says that residence may be a condominium unit. Net effect: the house and the residential condo pay $0.60; the duplex, apartment building, or commercial parcel pays $1.05. On a $600,000 fourplex that's a $2,700 difference sellers deserve to see coming — and on a $600,000 condo it's $2,700 that an out-of-county estimate may wrongly add. Our calculators encode the distinction; most generic ones don't.
County customs & mechanics
- Buyer customarily selects the title company and pays the owner's premium (negotiable)
- Recording with the Miami-Dade Clerk; electronic and prompt
- Condo-heavy inventory makes estoppels, approvals, and building-finance diligence the county's core discipline
- International parties are the norm: FIRPTA identification, verified international wires, multilingual service, remote signings
Clerk & courthouse logistics
Recording runs through the Miami-Dade Clerk — electronic and prompt, and rarely the bottleneck. When a Miami-Dade file's pace differs from a Broward file's, the difference comes from association layers and municipal search queues in particular cities, which day-one ordering neutralizes.
- Recording timing: e-recorded promptly after funding, with the deed's stamps computed under the county's own rule — $0.60 per $100 for a single-family residence, condo units included; $1.05 with the surtax for multifamily, commercial, and vacant land
- Municipal lien timing: results typically return within one to two weeks, so searches are ordered at file opening — City of Miami and county checks on Miami proper, permit-history depth in the Gables and the Grove, the full municipal layer on Miami Beach
- Estoppel timing: the county's condo-heavy inventory makes the estoppel the critical path — ordered immediately at file opening, because layered master/sub-association buildings can mean two certificates and approval steps often gate the closing date
City-by-city texture
Aventura and Sunny Isles run pure-condo and international; Miami proper mixes every pattern that exists; the Gables and the Grove add historic-home permitting depth; NMB and the inland corridors bring estate sales and first-time buyers. Our municipal search packages and diligence checklists adjust city by city — the county guide pages for each go deeper.