What You Actually Pay at Closing in Texas, Georgia, Florida and California

"Who pays closing costs" is one of the most searched real estate questions in the country, and the honest answer annoys people: mostly, whoever the contract says.

Very little of what you will hear described as "the rule in this state" is actually a law. Most of it is local custom — what the standard contract form assumes, what the title companies in that market are used to seeing, what the other side will find normal if you ask for something different. Custom is negotiable. Taxes are not, though who writes the check for a tax is often still custom.

Here is how the four states this site serves actually differ.

The State-by-State Comparison

	Texas	Georgia	Florida	California
Who closes the transaction	Title company	Attorney — Georgia is an attorney closing state	Title company or attorney	Escrow company
Owner's title policy, customary payer	Commonly the seller	Commonly the buyer	Varies by county	Varies by region and county
Real estate transfer tax	None	Yes — a state real estate transfer tax applies	Documentary stamp tax on the deed, plus a separate documentary stamp tax on the note	Documentary transfer tax at the county level, and in some cities an additional city transfer tax
Customary payer of the transfer tax	n/a	Customarily the seller	Deed tax customarily the seller; note tax customarily the buyer	Customarily the seller, but city-level taxes are frequently negotiated
Survey	Often negotiated; the buyer's lender may require a new one	Commonly the buyer	Commonly the buyer	Rarely required
Recording fees	Buyer, on the loan documents	Buyer, on the loan documents	Buyer, on the loan documents	Buyer, on the loan documents

Read every row that says "customarily" as a starting position in a negotiation, not as a rule. In a slow market, buyers ask sellers to cover things that custom says the buyer pays, and sellers agree. In a market where a Frisco listing gets eleven offers in a weekend, the customs hold because nobody wants to be the difficult offer.

Three rows deserve expansion.

Texas has no real estate transfer tax. That is a genuine structural difference, not a custom, and it removes a line item that buyers coming from other states expect to see. Texas funds itself elsewhere — no state income tax, and comparatively high property taxes. Pull your specific rate from your county appraisal district rather than any figure you find online.

Georgia closes through an attorney. In Georgia the closing is conducted by a licensed attorney, and the attorney's role is not optional or ceremonial. For buyers used to an Indian transaction, where a lawyer's involvement is standard, this feels more familiar than the Texas or California model. Georgia also imposes a state real estate transfer tax, customarily paid by the seller.

Florida taxes the deed and the note separately. Florida's documentary stamp tax applies to the deed transferring the property, and there is a separate documentary stamp tax on the promissory note — the loan instrument itself. Two different taxes, two different bases, and by custom two different payers. This is why a Florida Loan Estimate can look heavier in the government charges section than a Texas one at the same price.

Do not use a percentage you read on a national real estate site to budget a state's transfer taxes. The rates, the bases and the local add-ons vary too much. Get the numbers off your Loan Estimate and your settlement statement.

The Part That Is the Same Everywhere

State customs move a few thousand dollars around. The lender side of the sheet is broadly consistent across all four states and is where most of the money is.

• Lender fees. Origination, underwriting, processing. These appear in Section A of your Loan Estimate and are the part you can genuinely shop.

• Appraisal. Ordered by the lender, paid by you. On larger loans some investors require a second appraisal.

• Credit report and verification fees. Small, unavoidable.

• Title and settlement charges. The lender's policy is required; the owner's policy is where state custom decides the payer.

• Prepaids. Your first year of homeowner's insurance, generally paid in full at closing, plus prepaid interest.

• The initial escrow deposit. Several months of property taxes and insurance collected up front to fund the account.

The initial escrow deposit is the line that makes people think they are being overcharged. It is not a fee. It is your own money moving into an account that will pay your own tax bill. It is still cash you must have on closing day, which is the only reason it matters to your planning. What that account does in year two is a separate problem — see your Texas escrow payment will jump in year two.

Prepaid Interest: The Line That Moves With Your Calendar

Interest is paid in arrears in the US. Your first mortgage payment covers the previous month. To bridge the gap between your closing date and the start of that first full period, you prepay interest from the closing date through the end of the closing month.

That makes it a per-day charge, and the day you close changes it.

Take a $475,000 loan. Using 6.95%, the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey 30-year average for the week of September 17, 2026, purely to make the arithmetic concrete and not as a rate available to you:

$475,000 × 6.95% ÷ 365 = $90.45 per day.

• Close on September 27: four days of prepaid interest, about $361.80.

• Close on September 3: twenty-eight days, about $2,532.60.

A difference of roughly $2,170 in cash at the table, for the same loan at the same price. You have not saved any money by closing late — you simply have not prepaid as much, and your first payment arrives sooner. But if your cash to close is tight, the calendar is a lever most buyers never touch.

This is also why comparing two lenders on the "Estimated Cash to Close" figure is a mistake. Prepaids and escrow deposits move with the date and the property, not with the lender. Compare Section A origination charges and the rate, and let the calendar-driven lines fall where they fall.

If you are choosing a closing date for reasons beyond arithmetic — a muhurat, a date your family considers auspicious, a Tuesday your priest recommended — that is entirely workable, and the prepaid interest math above is one of the practical considerations to weigh alongside it. We go through the scheduling mechanics in can you schedule your closing on an auspicious date.

What to Do Instead of Guessing

Get a Loan Estimate. It is a standardized three-page federal form, it is free, it arrives within three business days of your application, and it is directly comparable between lenders because the format is fixed. It is the only document that tells you what your closing costs are, in your state, on your property, at your loan amount.

Do not budget from a national average. Do not budget from a percentage. Do not budget from what your cousin paid in New Jersey in 2023.

If terminology on that form is unfamiliar, our glossary of US home-buying terms explains what each item is and who holds the money. And if your loan amount is near the line that separates conforming from jumbo, the fee structure can shift as well — see 2026 conforming loan limits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who pays closing costs, the buyer or the seller?
A: Both pay their own categories, and the split is set by local custom and then negotiated in the contract. Buyers generally pay lender fees, the appraisal, recording on the loan documents, prepaids and the escrow deposit. Sellers generally pay the commission and, depending on the state, the owner's title policy and transfer taxes.

Q: Does Texas have a real estate transfer tax?
A: No. Texas does not impose a real estate transfer tax, which removes a line item buyers from other states expect to see. Texas has no state income tax and comparatively high property taxes instead. Get your specific property tax rate from your county appraisal district.

Q: Who pays for title insurance in Georgia?
A: In Georgia the buyer customarily pays for the owner's title policy, and the closing is conducted by an attorney rather than a title or escrow company. As with all closing cost customs, this is a negotiable contract term rather than a legal requirement.

Q: What is Florida's documentary stamp tax?
A: Florida applies a documentary stamp tax to the deed transferring the property and a separate documentary stamp tax to the promissory note. By custom the deed tax is paid by the seller and the note tax by the buyer. Ask for the actual amounts on your Loan Estimate rather than relying on a published rate.

Q: Does closing at the end of the month reduce my closing costs?
A: It reduces your prepaid interest, because that charge accrues per day from closing through month end. On a $475,000 loan at 6.95%, that is about $90 per day. It does not reduce lender fees, title charges or taxes, and your first payment arrives sooner.

Ready to get started? Masala Loans by Matador Lending specializes in exactly this. Call 713-366-4668 or get your no-haggle rate at masalaloans.com.

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