We Buy Houses in Cleveland, OH for Cash

Selling a House in Cleveland: What to Know

Cleveland is the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Deeds and conveyance fees for every Cuyahoga County sale go through the Transfer and Recording Department of the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office, and the closing is usually handled by a title company.

• A title company acting as escrow agent usually runs the closing: it checks the title, pays off your mortgage and any liens, records the deed and sends you the rest of the money.
• In Ohio the seller pays the conveyance fee. In Cuyahoga County it is $4 per $1,000 of the sale price (the $1 state fee plus the county’s $3), plus a $0.50 transfer fee: about $600 on a $150,000 house.
• Cuyahoga County property taxes are billed in arrears: the bills paid this year, in a first half and a second half, are for last year’s taxes. That is why the closing statement usually shows a tax credit from you to the buyer for the time you owned the house.
• Ohio foreclosure is judicial: the lender files in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, and if it wins, the house goes to a sheriff’s sale. Cuyahoga County sheriff’s sales are held online only, and under Ohio law a house generally can’t be sold for less than two-thirds of its appraised value. You can still redeem the house until the court confirms the sale, but selling before the sale date is usually the better way to keep your equity.
• Check your city’s point-of-sale rules. Several Cuyahoga County suburbs inspect a house when it is sold. Cleveland Heights, for example, requires a point-of-sale certificate of inspection before you sign a sale agreement, and major violations not fixed before the transfer need an escrow (the estimated repair cost plus 25%). Lakewood requires its inspection only for non-owner-occupied rentals. Your city’s building department can tell you what applies.
• Ohio sellers of one-to-four-family homes generally give the buyer a Residential Property Disclosure Form. Some sales are exempt, such as transfers by an executor administering an estate, sales under a court order, and a sale by someone who inherited the house and hasn’t lived in it in the past year.
• Worried about deed fraud on a vacant or inherited house? The Cuyahoga County Transfer and Recording office offers a free property record alert that emails you when a document such as a deed or lien is filed on your property.

More detail on the statewide process is on our Ohio page, and selling in Central Ohio is covered on our Columbus page. This is general information, not legal or tax advice; the title company or your attorney confirms what applies to your sale.