Is Florida a Title Company or Attorney Closing State?
Florida is both — and neither exclusively. Florida law allows either a licensed title company or a real estate attorney to close your transaction; no statute requires an attorney at the closing table. Many buyers and sellers still choose an attorney, because an attorney does everything a title company does and can also give legal advice.
Florida Isn’t an “Attorney State” — Here’s What That Means
Roughly twenty states — including Georgia, South Carolina, and Massachusetts — require a licensed attorney to conduct or supervise real estate closings. Florida is not one of them. Here, closings are routinely handled by title companies, by title insurance agencies, and by real estate attorneys who also act as title agents. All three are legal, and lenders in Florida work with all of them every day.
That flexibility is convenient, but it puts the decision on you: who should sit at the center of the largest transaction most people ever make?
What a Title Company Does (and Can’t Do)
A title company searches the public records, clears routine title requirements, issues the title insurance policies, holds the deposit in escrow, prepares the standard closing documents, and disburses the funds. For a clean, straightforward sale, that’s often all a closing needs.
What a title company cannot do is practice law. If a lien surfaces that the seller disputes, if the property is coming out of an estate or a divorce, if there’s an open permit or a boundary problem, or if you simply want someone to explain what a document means for you — a title company must stay neutral and cannot advise either side.
What a Closing Attorney Does
A Florida real estate attorney acting as your closing agent performs every function a title company performs — title search, title insurance, escrow, document preparation, disbursement — and adds the one thing a title company can’t: legal representation. Your attorney can review and negotiate the contract before you sign, resolve title defects rather than just report them, handle estates, trusts, LLCs, and foreign-seller withholding (FIRPTA), and advise you when something in the deal isn’t in your interest.
The Cost Is Closer Than Most People Expect
Title insurance premiums in Florida are promulgated — set by state regulators — so the policy costs the same no matter who issues it: $5.75 per $1,000 of the purchase price up to $100,000, and $5.00 per $1,000 above that (up to $1 million). A lender’s policy issued at the same closing is typically just $25 more.
The difference comes down to the settlement or closing fee, and attorney closing fees are generally comparable to title company fees — often within a few hundred dollars on a typical residential deal. Hiring an attorney to close usually does not mean paying hourly attorney rates on top of a title company; it means getting legal counsel built into a similar closing fee.
Who Chooses the Closing Agent in Florida?
There’s no statewide rule — it follows county custom and what the contract says. In most Florida counties, the seller pays for the owner’s title policy and picks the closing agent. In Miami-Dade and Broward (along with a few other counties), the custom flips: the buyer typically pays for the owner’s policy and chooses who closes. Either way, the choice is negotiable in the purchase contract.
Closings in Miami-Dade County
If you’re buying or selling in Miami-Dade, local custom means the buyer usually pays for title insurance and selects the closing agent — which means you likely get to decide between a title company and an attorney. Miami transactions also see more than their share of complications: foreign sellers subject to FIRPTA withholding, condo association estoppels, open permits, and properties held in LLCs or inherited through probate. Arturo R. Alfonso P.A. has closed real estate transactions for Miami-Dade families in English and Spanish for over 35 years, from Brickell to Kendall to Cutler Bay. If you’ve been searching for a real estate closing attorney near me in Miami, we can handle your closing and protect your interests at the same time — for a fee comparable to what a title company would charge.
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