Quick! Who Pays the State Deed Tax, the Buyer or the Seller?

Bonus Question:  Who SHOULD Pay the State Deed Tax?

Like most (all?) veteran Minnesota Realtors, I assumed that home sellers paid the state deed tax at closing — .34% of the sales price**, at least in Hennepin County — because that’s what state law prescribed.

Unh-unh.

Apparently, that’s merely a custom, albeit a universally observed one.

Which is why savvy new home Buyers — and their agents! — need to be vigilant that their builder is indeed paying it.

Through the grapevine, I’ve now heard of two Twin Cities builders who are shifting responsibility for the state deed tax to Buyers in the fine print of their contract.

By the time the Buyer discovered that . . . it was too late.

**On a $500,000 home sale, that comes to $1,700.



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