Palm Beach County Closing Costs: Doc Stamps, Title, and Local Custom

This page explains the closing-cost framework for Palm Beach County residential transactions — statute-set fees, title-insurance choice, and buyer/seller allocation by local custom. Specific dollar figures depend on your contract, your lender, and the sale price. Confirm with your closing agent and attorney.

The statute-set piece: documentary stamp tax

Under Florida Statutes § 201.02, documentary stamp tax on deed transfers is 70 cents per $100 of consideration — that is, 0.70% of the sale price. This is the standard rate that applies statewide, though § 201.02 treats Miami-Dade County separately in some situations.

On a $1,500,000 Jupiter sale, that's $10,500 in documentary stamps on the deed itself. On a $5,000,000 sale, it's $35,000. This is not a fee that gets negotiated away — it is a state tax that has to be paid at closing on a residential deed transfer, and by long-standing custom in Palm Beach County it is paid by the seller. That custom, however, is contractual — see the next section.

What the Florida Bar says about custom

The Florida Bar's consumer pamphlet Buying a Home (revised September 2022) puts the framework very clearly:

"There are usually local customs as to which costs are paid by the buyer or the seller, but it is better to make this explicit in the contract."

Source: The Florida Bar — Buying a Home.

Two implications. First, the "buyer pays this, seller pays that" allocations you see on a title-company cost sheet are contractual, not statutory. If your Florida Realtors purchase contract sets a different allocation, that contract governs. Second, when someone is quoting you "typical Palm Beach County closing costs," they are describing custom, not law. Read your contract.

Title insurance: who picks the closing agent?

The Florida Bar pamphlet also frames the title-insurance question with a rule of thumb that maps to Palm Beach County practice:

"As a general matter, the party paying is the party choosing" the closing agent / title insurance, "but it's important to confirm as each contract is different."

Source: Florida Bar.

In Palm Beach County residential transactions, by custom the seller pays for the owner's title insurance policy and chooses the closing agent. This is different from the custom in Miami-Dade and Broward, where the buyer typically pays and chooses. Since PBC lies right next door to those counties, you'll occasionally see contracts written under the "wrong" custom — this is exactly the situation the Florida Bar's language above is warning you about.

For related mechanics, see the Jupiter title insurance and closing process overview.

FHA / VA buyer-cost limits

Per the Florida Bar pamphlet, FHA and VA lenders "may have restrictions on which party pays which expenses." For a VA-loan buyer, several fees that would otherwise be buyer-side under Florida custom must be paid by the seller because the VA does not allow the buyer to pay them. This is a lender-driven allocation, not a market-driven one. If you're negotiating with a VA buyer in Jupiter, expect the seller's net proceeds to be lower than a non-VA equivalent offer at the same headline price.

Wire fraud — a real closing risk in 2026

The Florida Bar pamphlet is explicit: wiring instructions "must be independently and personally verified, as wire fraud is rampant in real estate transactions." Palm Beach County has been an active target market. Verify wire instructions by phone using a number you looked up independently — not the number in the email. Do this every time. Do not rely on the last confirmation. Wire fraud losses are almost never recovered.

The typical Palm Beach County seller-side items (custom)

By long-standing PBC custom — again, contractual and confirmable in your specific contract — a residential seller usually pays:

Documentary stamp tax on the deed — 70¢ per $100 of consideration (F.S. 201.02).
Owner's title insurance policy for the buyer.
Closing/settlement agent fees — because the seller by custom chooses the closing agent, the seller usually pays those fees.
Estoppel fees to the HOA and/or condominium association for the pre-closing status letter (governed by Chapter 720, F.S. Part II for HOAs).
Prorated property taxes through the day before closing.
Commission per the listing agreement.

For sellers, Kyle's page on what you'll actually keep at closing works through this in a practical dollars-out-of-pocket format.

The typical Palm Beach County buyer-side items (custom)

By PBC custom, a residential buyer usually pays:

Documentary stamps on the note (35¢ per $100 of the mortgage amount, F.S. 201.08) and intangible tax (0.2% of the mortgage amount, F.S. 199.133) — both on the financing, not the deed.
Lender's title insurance policy if the buyer is financing.
Survey, if ordered.
Home inspection — buyer's choice; see Jupiter luxury home inspection.
Prepaid insurance and escrow per the lender.
Municipal lien search, per lender or agent practice.

How the contract actually sets the split

Florida residential purchase-and-sale contracts (the Florida Realtors / Florida Bar form, or the "AS IS" variant) have express boxes for closing-cost allocation. Do not assume; read the contract. If a section is left blank, the form's default may not match what a party expected. Kyle asks buyers and sellers to read Sections 9 and 18 before signing — that is where the allocations, escrow terms, and closing-agent selections live.

The bigger picture: net vs. gross

Buyers focus on price. Sellers focus on net. In Palm Beach County the gap between a headline sale price and a seller's net proceeds is a real number — closing costs, title, doc stamps, prorations, estoppels, and commission add up. Any conversation about pricing a home for market needs to include that gap. See Kyle's $50k pricing mistake for how this plays out when it is ignored.