Who Pays Closing Costs in Georgia? Save $10,510 in 2026

Who pays closing costs in Georgia? Both sides, on different lines. The seller is liable for the $370 transfer tax at the $370,000 median, though the contract often hands it to the buyer. Deeds record for $25, and a lawyer must run the closing. A $590 total flat fee (just $95 to list, $495 more only if it closes) keeps $10,510 of the commission. Each line and its source follow.

Most of what ranks for this search was written by lenders for buyers. It covers origination fees and appraisals, which tells a seller nothing about the deed they’re signing. This page is the seller’s column, with the Georgia statute or the county fee schedule under every number. The national version lives at seller closing costs explained, and from here on it’s Georgia only.

Who pays closing costs in Georgia: the seller’s list

Start with the number people fear most, because it’s small. Georgia charges $1 for the first $1,000 of the sale price and 10 cents for each additional $100, one dollar per thousand.¹ On the statewide July 2026 median of $370,000,¹³ it comes to $370. And under the standard Georgia contract, the buyer usually pays even that.⁵

The seller’s column is short, and this is how who pays closing costs in Georgia breaks down at the median price.

Look at the bottom row. Every seller line above it, added up, costs less than a set of tires. The commission is the only line with five figures in it, and the only one you set before the house ever hits the market. I’d tell a Georgia seller to budget $400 for the state and the county and to spend the worry on the listing agreement instead. The sellers I’ve seen pad the “taxes” line by thousands walk into closing braced for the wrong fight.

The transfer tax is $1 per $1,000, and it moves by contract

The statute is OCGA § 48-6-1. It sets the tax at “$1.00 for the first $1,000.00 or fractional part of $1,000.00” on each deed that conveys land.¹ Above that, the rate is “10¢ for each additional $100.00 or fractional part of $100.00”.¹ It applies once the price, which the statute calls the consideration, exceeds $100. The Department of Revenue calls it an excise tax on the sale, not a tax on the property.²

So the math on $370,000 is $1 for the first thousand, then 3,690 more hundreds at a dime each, which is $370. A $500,000 sale pays $500. Pay it or the deed does not record, because the clerk of superior court attaches a certification that the tax has been paid before filing.²

Now the part people argue about. The Department of Revenue is direct: “The seller is liable for the real estate transfer tax”.² Then it adds that “frequently the parties agree in the sales contract that the buyer will pay the tax”.² Liability sits with you, and payment goes wherever the contract puts it.

And the standard contract puts it on the buyer. The Georgia REALTORS® purchase and sale agreement, form F201, has a list titled “Items Paid by Buyer”. The first two items are “(1) Georgia property transfer tax; (2) the cost to search title and tax records and prepare the limited warranty deed”.⁵

I read the 2021 edition, which is the copy available to the public. The current year’s form sits behind the GAR member login, so check the closing-costs paragraph on the one you’re handed. It’s short, and it’s the answer to this whole question.

If a buyer’s offer strikes that clause and hands the tax back to you, treat it as a $370 price cut. I’d negotiate it like one. Sellers who skip section 3 find the line on the settlement statement with no room left to bargain.

The other Georgia tax at closing, under OCGA § 48-6-61, is not yours. The statute imposes “an intangible recording tax at the rate of $1.50 for each $500.00 or fraction thereof of the face amount of the note”.³ Each note is capped at $25,000.³ Lenders owe it and “may pass on the amount of such tax to the borrower”.³ A buyer borrowing $296,000, which is 80% of $370,000, pays $888, and a cash buyer pays nothing.⁴

Recording, the attorney rule and the tax proration

Georgia used to charge by the page to record a deed, and that ended on January 1, 2020. House Bill 288 rewrote OCGA § 15-6-77, striking $9.50 for a real estate instrument’s first page and inserting $25.00.⁶ The clerks’ authority calls it a “flat” or “predictable” filing fee.⁷ Two pages or twelve, the deed is $25.

I checked the three biggest metro counties rather than trust a roundup. Fulton lists “Deeds or any instrument pertaining to real estate $25.00”.⁸ Gwinnett charges a “$25.00 filing fee per document” and lists deeds at $25.00.⁹ Cobb’s schedule shows deeds at $25.00 for the first page and $0.00 for each page after.¹⁰ Nobody assigns that $25 to a side; it rides with the deed, and the contract decides who pays it.

Now the line a flat-fee company should be the first to tell you about. Georgia does not let you run your own closing. In 2003 the Supreme Court of Georgia approved a State Bar opinion on this. It wrote that “it is the unauthorized practice of law for someone other than a duly-licensed Georgia attorney to close a real estate transaction”.¹¹ The same rule covers preparing the deed for a seller, borrower or lender, and the Court traced the policy back to 1932.¹¹

Witness-only closings, where a notary or signing agent presides over the paperwork, do not satisfy it.¹¹ So whether you list with an agent or sell by owner, a Georgia lawyer runs the table. Under the F201, the buyer picks that attorney, and the attorney represents the buyer’s lender.⁵ The seller pays the closing attorney only for two things: title curative documents, and the extra work if you don’t attend in person.⁵

Attorneys set their own fees, so I won’t quote one. My advice here runs against my own interest. If anyone selling you a listing package implies you can skip the lawyer in Georgia, walk away. That plan falls apart the week of closing. The broader question of whether you need a lawyer to sell a house has a state-by-state answer. Georgia’s is yes.

Property taxes are the line that surprises people. The contract prorates ad valorem taxes, meaning the county property tax, “as of the date of closing”.⁵ In Cobb County, “tax bills are mailed each year by August 15 to the January 1 property owner”, and payments are due by October 15.¹²

Close a Marietta house in late August and the bill is already out in your name. It isn’t due yet, and it still gets split at the table. Bring it to the attorney and read the proration on your closing statement before you sign.

Commission is the closing cost you actually control

Every statutory line in who pays closing costs in Georgia adds up to a few hundred dollars for the seller. Add a tax split you’d owe in any year. The commission is different, because no legislator set it. It’s a fee you agree to in a listing contract. The F201 simply directs the closing attorney to pay the brokers “out of the proceeds of the sale”.⁵

Use the real median: Georgia REALTORS® put the statewide July 2026 median at $370,000, up two percent from a year earlier.¹³ The same report shows 9,482 closed sales, 56 days on market and 5.2 months of supply.¹³ That sits below the $434,100 national median NAR reported for the same month.¹⁴

Those percentages are illustrative, because I don’t have a Georgia survey of listing rates to cite and I’m not going to invent one. The arithmetic holds at any rate: a percentage of $370,000 against a flat $590 total.

How does a $95 listing get the same exposure? A flat fee MLS listing in Georgia puts your home on the local MLS, and from there it syndicates to Zillow, Realtor.com and the rest. In metro Atlanta that usually means FMLS, the largest MLS in the state, which serves more than 57,000 real estate professionals.¹⁵ Atlanta sellers have a flat fee MLS Atlanta page, and Cobb sellers a Marietta page. The listing looks like an agent’s listing because it is one.

In Georgia the state’s share of your sale is $370, and the contract usually hands it to the buyer. The commission is the closing cost, and it’s the one line you get to set.

I’d list at a flat fee in this market and put a few hundred of the saving into a photographer. Fifty-six days on market is long enough that a listing which shows badly costs more in price than any commission saves. The paperwork side is covered in the how to sell a house by owner in Georgia guide; this page is only about the money.

Where a flat fee listing does not save you money

I’d be selling you something if I stopped there. A flat fee removes one line from who pays closing costs in Georgia, the listing side, and it leaves the rest alone. Four of them can bite.

The attorney stays, because the Supreme Court’s rule doesn’t care how the house was listed and neither does the buyer’s lender.¹¹ Get the attorney’s quote early.

Buyer-broker pay is the big one. If you agree to pay the buyer’s agent, that becomes the largest line on your side after your own listing fee. Nothing in Georgia law makes you offer it. Plenty of sellers still do, because it can widen the buyer pool. That’s a pricing decision, and you should make it on purpose. The for sale by owner guide covers how to handle the request.

Credits are the third: the F201 has a blank for a “Seller’s Monetary Contribution” that the buyer may use for any of their costs.⁵ A credit you agree to is a seller cost no statute assigned you. It lands on your side of the sheet the moment you say yes, and in a market at 5.2 months of supply, buyers ask.¹³

And the honest one: none of this matters if you overprice. Statewide, homes took 56 days to sell in July, up 10 percent from a year earlier, and closed sales fell 21 percent.¹³ If you can’t price the house off real comps, I’d rather you pay an agent. An overpriced house sits, and every month it sits costs a mortgage payment and a weaker seat at the table, which eats $10,510 fast. Price it off the comps, list it on the MLS, and keep the money.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who pays closing costs in Georgia, the buyer or the seller?

Both, and the contract decides most of it. Under the standard GAR contract the buyer pays the transfer tax, title search, deed preparation, lender fees and the intangible tax. The seller’s side of who pays closing costs in Georgia is the property tax proration, any credits agreed to, and the commission.

How much is the Georgia transfer tax on a $370,000 sale?

$370, because OCGA § 48-6-1 charges $1 for the first $1,000 and 10 cents for each additional $100, which is one dollar per thousand. The seller is liable by statute, but the GAR contract routinely shifts payment to the buyer. It’s the smallest line in who pays closing costs in Georgia.

Do I need a lawyer to sell a house in Georgia?

Yes, because the Supreme Court of Georgia held that only a licensed Georgia attorney may close a real estate transaction. That rule is the same whether you use an agent or sell by owner, so the attorney is a fixed part of who pays closing costs in Georgia. Budget for the quote.

Does the seller pay the intangible tax in Georgia?

No, because the intangible recording tax is $1.50 per $500 of the buyer’s loan amount, and the lender may pass it to the borrower. A cash sale has no note to record, so nobody pays it. On the seller’s side of who pays closing costs in Georgia, this line is zero.

What does it cost to record a deed in Georgia?

$25, regardless of page count, since House Bill 288 replaced the old $9.50 first-page fee with a flat $25 on January 1, 2020. Fulton, Gwinnett and Cobb all list deeds at $25.00. It is the easiest line in who pays closing costs in Georgia to pin down.

Does a flat fee MLS listing change who pays closing costs in Georgia?

It changes one line: the listing commission drops from a percentage of the price to $590 total ($95 to list, $495 more only if it closes), which keeps $10,510 at the July 2026 median. Everything else in who pays closing costs in Georgia, meaning the transfer tax, recording, attorney, proration and any buyer-agent pay, stays where the statute and your contract put them.

Sources

1. O.C.G.A. § 48-6-1, Transfer tax rate (2025 Code of Georgia)
2. Georgia Department of Revenue, Real Estate Transfer Tax
3. O.C.G.A. § 48-6-61, Intangible recording tax; rate; maximum tax (2025 Code of Georgia)
4. Georgia Department of Revenue, Intangible Recording Tax
5. Georgia Association of REALTORS®, F201 Purchase and Sale Agreement, 2021 edition (public copy)
6. Georgia General Assembly, House Bill 288 (2019), as passed
7. Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority, House Bill 288
8. Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts, Fee Schedule
9. Gwinnett County Clerk of Superior Court, Recording Fees
10. Cobb County Superior Court Clerk, Real Estate Fees & Forms
11. Supreme Court of Georgia, In re UPL Advisory Opinion 2003-2, 277 Ga. 472 (2003)
12. Cobb County Tax Commissioner, Property Taxes
13. Georgia REALTORS®, New Listings, Sales Decrease While Prices Remain Stable in July (July 2026 report)
14. National Association of REALTORS®, Existing-Home Sales, August 11, 2026
15. First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS), About