Selling Your Miami Home

In a stable Miami market, the first 21 days on the MLS set the course for the whole listing. Miss the price by even 5% and showings pile up while offers stay away. Then the listing stalls. Every extra day on market chips away at your leverage. By day 60 you usually hold less than you did on day 1, and the final price often lands below what the right number would have brought at launch. The only price input you can rely on is a comparative market analysis from an agent working your market. It starts from homes that actually closed, then adjusts for finishes, condition, and the unit's line and floor. It also weighs whether the view will last and how healthy the HOA's finances are. Zillow and Redfin estimates are handy as a sanity check. They routinely miss what drives price inside a Miami building and from unit to unit. The county tax-roll value is something else again: a figure bent by the Save Our Homes cap, not a market number. Treat both as background, with a single exception. The gap between market value and assessed value is the Save Our Homes benefit you've built up, and you can carry it forward only if your next home is also a Florida homestead. Smart pricing sits just under the brackets buyers search by. At $1,995,000, your home shows up in every "under $2M" filter, and most people searching at $2.1M will see it too. List at $2,025,000 and anyone searching under $2M never sees it. The same logic holds at the $5M, $7.5M and $10M brackets. Luxury and ultra-luxury play by different rules. Above $3M, reaching contract takes far longer than in the broader market, and three months or more is common. At that level, quietly testing the price with HNW buyers and cooperating brokers before launch often beats relying on public exposure alone.

Miami has real seasons, just milder than markets up north. Buyers are most active from January to April. Snowbirds are spending their Florida months, foreign buyers time their trips, and fiscal year-end capital is looking for a place to go. A second window opens in May and runs into early summer, often with thinner competition, which helps a well-priced listing. August and September are the slowest stretch, between vacations and hurricane season. Listings launched then usually take longer to get noticed. Bigger forces sit on top of the calendar. Interest rates set the size of the financed-buyer pool, and that pool matters more in the under-$2M market than in luxury. Cash is common at the top: nationwide, 48% of foreign buyers close without a loan, and luxury buyers from within the U.S. come in at a similar share. Still, let rates fall even 50 basis points and Miami's financed activity picks up within weeks. Your own life usually outweighs both. A relocation, a new job, a life event or capital gains planning gives you a sell-by date, and that date beats any timing theory. Waiting for the perfect market often costs more than selling into this one. So do the honest math. Compare what the home realistically brings in 90 days with what six months of waiting will cost you. Most of the time, that math says to move once you've decided, not when theory says the market is ideal.

For most Miami resales, a pre-listing inspection ranks among the highest-leverage things a seller can do. The minimum set is a general home inspection, a roof check by a licensed roofer and a wind mitigation report. If the house is more than 25 years old, add a four-point inspection: roof, HVAC, plumbing, electrical. Selling a condo in a building near or past 30 years? Put its latest milestone inspection into your disclosures, along with the Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS) report. Miami buyers in 2026 are inspecting harder than at any point in a decade. A surprise that surfaces during their contingency almost always costs more than fixing it ahead of time. Why? You're negotiating against a clock. Meanwhile, the buyer's agent has every reason to ask for more than the repair actually costs. Before listing, fix anything that threatens insurability: a roof over 15 years old, signs of water intrusion, recalled electrical panels. Also fix what shows during a tour, like stucco cracks, dated GFCI outlets and water stains, plus any deferred upkeep a buyer's inspector would write up. Disclose rather than fix an older HVAC system that still works, hairline cosmetic cracks in the foundation, and items where the buyer may want to pick the finish. A good listing agent draws that line by price tier and target buyer. Disclosure isn't optional. Johnson v. Davis, a 1985 Florida Supreme Court decision, requires you to reveal any fact you're aware of that materially affects the home's value when a buyer couldn't readily see it, and an as-is contract leaves that duty in place. Statutes add specific written disclosures: flood under Florida Statute 689.302, radon under Florida Statute 404.056, and a property tax summary under Florida Statute 689.261. For most housing built before 1978, federal law adds a lead-based paint disclosure. Two more items belong on your pre-listing list. Search city records for open permits before the buyer's team does. Open or expired permits turn up in title and lien work and can stall a closing, so clear them first. Then order a CLUE report, which is your home's insurance claims history. Only the seller can order it, and the buyer's insurer will see it, so you want to read it first.

Staging isn't interior decorating. The goal is for a buyer to picture living there within ten seconds of walking in. The space should feel light, roomy and aspirational rather than like somebody else's life. Light staging typically costs $2,000–$8,000 in Miami. That covers vignettes and linens. Plants, art and accent pieces finish it. Full furniture rental for a vacant home or a dated owner-occupied home runs $8,000–$25,000+, depending on size and tier. In luxury, the case for it is a faster sale and a stronger final price. Still, it's a judgment made home by home, with no promised return. Strip out what's personal and leave the warmth. Family photos, religious symbols and the things you collect go into storage, while clear surfaces, deliberate lighting and a few lifestyle cues stay. Florida adds its own moves. Raise every blind: natural light is the amenity Miami listings cite more than any other. Dress the lanai or pool deck as a living space. Does the house flow from indoors to outdoors? Then set the table for dinner outside. Small fixes pay off out of proportion to their size. Think neutral paint over tired walls, new cabinet hardware and modern bath faucets. Outside, pressure-wash the driveway, walks and pool deck. Trim the landscaping, lay fresh mulch and clean the pool tile. None of it costs much, and none of it comes back in full at closing. Skip it, though, and that's what buyers who never made an offer remember.

More than 90% of Miami buyers look online before they ever walk through a door. The first six MLS thumbnails decide whether they ask for a showing. On a $1M+ listing, cheap photos aren't savings. They cost 1-3% of the final price. For any Miami listing at $750K or above, here's the baseline. A professional photographer costs $500–$2,500, depending on shoot length and tier. Interiors are shot wide-angle, and exteriors are timed to the way the property faces. The sequence opens with the strongest single image, not the front facade. Twilight shots add $500–$1,500 and earn it when there's lit landscaping, a pool or a water view. Drone footage is a must for waterfront homes, large lots and homes that sell on context, such as building amenities, the neighborhood or nearby water. Past $1M, video has become mandatory. A full listing reel runs $2,000–$8,000. Out-of-market buyers, international ones above all, use it to decide before they ever book a flight. Cut the same clips vertically for Instagram and TikTok and they reach people scrolling, not searching. Buyers now expect a 3D walkthrough or virtual tour; leave it out and they read it as a hint you'll take a discount. At $3M+, give the home its own website, with the media, the floor plans and the story of the area. It persuades serious buyers, and it wows the agents bringing them.

Not every repair earns its cost back by closing. Miami buyers will pay for some fixes and shrug at others. In 2026, their attention is on insurance, condo finances and condition. Start with the high-ROI list. Repaint the interior and front door in neutral tones, swap out dated lights and bath fixtures, and update cabinet hardware. Pressure-wash every exterior surface, put down new mulch, and clean the pool tile and surface. Repair the screens and replace weather seals that have clearly failed. Each job comes in under $2,000, and each changes a buyer's first impression in a way they notice. Medium-ROI items cost more, and they usually come back about dollar for dollar in price. They also kill objections that would cost you more once negotiation starts. Replacing a roof of 20+ years fits here, if your competition is updated comparables. Replacing an HVAC system older than 12 years is another; insurers flag it, and so do inspectors. New screens and window seals belong here too. Patch small stucco cracks where the elevation is in plain view. At the low end of ROI: redoing the whole kitchen or bath just before you list, pricey built-ins, and resurfacing a pool that only needs a cleaning. Taste-driven choices land here too, such as loud colors, custom tiling and high-end finishes that have dated. They seldom pay for themselves. Give the buyer a closing credit instead, and let them choose. An older roof doesn't have to sink your buyer's insurance. Under Florida law, an insurer can't turn a policy down on roof age alone when a report from an authorized inspector puts the roof's remaining life at five years or more. That report keeps your buyer off a Citizens policy. Can't replace the roof? Then price in the cost the buyer will absorb.

The MLS is the floor, not the plan. An MLS-and-syndication listing in Miami that just waits for calls gives away exposure and money. A full plan stacks four channels. Start with the MLS and the big portals: Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and Trulia. Here, a tuned photo sequence, the right amenity tags and a polished description make the difference. Next comes paid advertising on Meta and Google, run under housing-ad rules. Housing is a restricted category, so ads can't target by age, gender, ZIP or detailed interests. You reach buyers through what they search and broad placement instead of by picking an audience. Then comes the network. That means a broker-only preview, agents with active buyers who match, and a pre-launch coming-soon stretch that pulls in relationship buyers. For $3M+ homes, add luxury portals such as Robb Report, Mansion Global and JamesEdition. LuxuryEstate and Properstar are gaining ground there for worldwide reach. On any listing at $1M and up, a dedicated property website earns its place. One URL holds the media, the floor plans, the area's story and a contact CTA. The site signals the listing's price tier. Leads reach you directly instead of being routed through a portal. It also gives agents a clean link to pass to one another, and gives you one for your own outreach. Write the exposure plan before launch, then check it at day 14 and again at day 30. Shift budget away from channels that underperform. What if the feedback says people see the home but don't act? Exposure is seldom the problem then. Look at the price, the presentation, or both.

No state has drawn more foreign buyers than Florida for more than 15 straight years, and the state accounts for 20% of all foreign-buyer activity in the U.S., with Miami at its center. Of Florida's international buyers, about 60% pay all cash. For you as the seller, that means faster closings, fewer financing contingencies, and competition that works differently from a market where buyers rely on a mortgage. Your listing has to be found, and has to turn interest into action, in more than one language. This is where the agent's languages count: you're represented in {languages}, which opens conversations that English-only marketing can't start. Translating the listing copy for the major international portals (JamesEdition, LuxuryEstate, Properstar) pushes its reach further. Conversations with international buyers happen on WhatsApp, Telegram and WeChat. A professional listing stands apart from an amateur one in how quickly emails get answered and how well time zones are handled. Buyers abroad need virtual walkthroughs booked in their own time zone, and they need the documents in hand before they plan a trip. Then, when a buyer comes for a 48-hour visit to weigh three or four candidates, your home is already one of them. Spell out what to expect on FIRPTA and SB 264 at the outset so nobody's time is wasted. If the marketing works, buyers from abroad usually show up ready to buy. The way it goes wrong: the home looks great online, and the buyer's trip ends up wasted.

Showings in Miami run on tighter logistics than they did a few years ago. Most listings book through ShowingTime. In luxury and ultra-luxury, an agent attends the showing as a rule. A lockbox goes only where there's a trusted agent relationship. Pick a clear window and give fair notice, and you get the most traffic without upending your days. Every showing needs a ready home. Lights on in every room. Blinds open, letting the daylight in. Set the thermostat at a comfortable level, since Miami visitors notice an AC cranked too high the second they walk in. Pets stay out of sight. Fresh flowers or a subtle scent and quiet background music finish the picture. Pets and personal items keep buyers from mentally moving in. Doing this daily is exhausting. It's also the main thing you contribute while the home is listed. Here's the two-week rule: by day 14, the feedback should show a clear pattern. Lots of showings and no offers usually point to price or condition. Few showings point to exposure or the price bracket. Either way, hold a frank review of the listing at the two-week mark. Cover what the feedback means, how the competing comparables have moved and what a 2-3% price change would do. That review keeps the listing from going stale. Repeat it at day 30, day 45 and day 60 if you need to.

Price is the headline of any offer. Still, it's one of seven variables that decide which offer is truly the best. Here are the seven. (1) Price. (2) The earnest money deposit: 5–10% is standard in Miami, and more signals stronger commitment. (3) Financing: cash, conventional or foreign-national, plus the lender's reputation if there's a loan. (4) Contingencies, such as inspection, financing and appraisal, and how they're structured. (5) The closing date, and whether it fits your need to move quickly or stay put longer. (6) What happens after closing: a rent-back, belongings you leave in the house, any furnishings that convey. (7) Seriousness, judged by how solid the proof of funds is, how deep the lender's pre-approval goes, how tight the contingencies are and the tone of the offer. Here's how that plays out. A cash offer at $1,950,000 with a 14-day inspection period and a 21-day close often beats a financed $2,000,000 offer carrying a 30-day financing contingency, an appraisal contingency and a 45-day close. Certainty is worth real money, especially when financing falls apart between contract and closing. For every offer, model the net proceeds, how long you're exposed and the risk that it won't close. Backup offers keep your leverage. If an accepted deal wobbles, a backup on record saves you from starting a new marketing cycle. With multiple offers, handle them with discipline and disclose the process to every party. You want competitive tension, not buyers who walk away feeling played.

A good counteroffer is a tool, not an opening shot in a war. Its job is to reach terms both sides can accept while protecting your price floor and your timeline. In Florida, keep every negotiation in the hands of the agents. Texting the buyer directly almost always creates problems and seldom solves any. Most Miami deals get renegotiated at inspection. The buyer's inspector writes up findings, and the buyer's agent turns them into a request for repairs, a credit or a lower price. Your options: fix it, credit the buyer at closing, refuse and let the contingency expire, or meet in the middle. Which one fits? Compare what's being asked with the buyers you'd have left if this one walked. On a $700,000 sale, a $5,000 credit that saves the contract almost always beats remarketing. A $50,000 credit on the same $700,000 sale calls for an honest analysis. Appraisals can derail financed deals. If the appraisal comes in below the contract price, the buyer may be able to walk under the appraisal contingency. Then you cut the price, the buyer brings more cash, or you split the gap. Ordering an appraisal before listing isn't standard practice. In soft submarkets, though, it can help anchor the price. If you're a foreign seller, FIRPTA holds back 15% of the gross sale price; only on a sale of $1M or less, with a buyer who will live in the home, does that rate drop. The holdback is built into how the closing funds are wired. Plan it with a CPA from the start. Money the IRS holds pending a refund can take months to get back.

Budget about 6.5–7.5% of the price for a Florida sale, commissions counted. Take a typical $1M Miami sale: commission comes to about 5.5%, often split ~2.7% for the listing side and ~2.8% for the buyer's side. Since the August 2024 NAR settlement, either share is open to negotiation. In Miami-Dade, the deed stamps run $0.60 per $100. The county adds a $0.45 per $100 surtax only on property that isn't a single-family residence, and that rule puts a condo unit in the single-family group, so condos skip it. On a house or a condo, the stamps come to 0.6% of the price, while vacant land or a multifamily building pays 1.05%. Then come settlement fees, recording and the HOA estoppel. With tax prorations and smaller charges, those add ~0.5–1%. Title insurance is about 0.5% of the price. Local custom decides who pays. In Miami-Dade and Broward that's the buyer, and in Palm Beach it's the seller. The NAR settlement changed how buyer-side commission gets presented and negotiated. In 2026, most Miami sellers still choose to pay the buyer's side, as a marketing decision. Skip it, and expect fewer showings and a slower path to contract. The shift is this: the offer is now spelled out, open to negotiation and disclosed, where it used to sit inside the deal by default. If you sell from abroad, FIRPTA holds back 15% of the gross price. A lower rate needs a buyer who is a person rather than a company and who commits in writing that they or members of their family will live in the home for at least half of the days it's used, in each of the first two years. With that commitment, a sale of $1,000,000 or less is withheld at 10%. Pass the same test at $300,000 or less, and nothing is withheld. Sell to a company and the rate stays at 15%. No exceptions. The holdback isn't a surcharge: it prepays your final U.S. tax, and you claim back any excess on a U.S. return. Map out your approach with a CPA who works on foreign-seller sales. On closing day, wire fraud is the biggest danger. Before your proceeds go out, call to confirm the wire instructions at a number you've verified on your own, every time. To see your net before you list, run the numbers in the Home Sale Proceeds Calculator and the FL Seller Closing Cost Calculator on this site.