Alabama’s home-buying process follows the familiar sequence — offer, inspection, financing, title, closing — but the state diverges from most of the country on one point that shapes the whole transaction: who’s legally allowed to run the closing. This walks through where Alabama’s process is genuinely different, and where RefPages’ own directories point you to the county-level offices you’ll actually deal with.
Alabama closings require a licensed attorney
Most states let a title or escrow company run a routine residential closing start to finish. Alabama doesn’t. Preparing a deed, mortgage, or other closing document is considered the practice of law under Alabama Supreme Court precedent and Alabama State Bar guidance, so a licensed attorney has to prepare those documents or directly supervise whoever does. In practice, this usually means an attorney-owned or attorney-affiliated closing company handles the file: non-lawyer staff can run the closing appointment, collect signatures, and disburse funds, but a licensed attorney stands behind the document preparation and is supposed to step in the moment a legal question comes up.
What this means for you as a buyer: you’ll be closing through an attorney’s office (or a title company working under one) rather than shopping independently between attorney and non-attorney closing options the way you might in Florida or Arizona. Fees are usually comparable to a title-company closing elsewhere, since the market has adapted around this requirement, but it’s worth asking upfront whose office is handling the closing and who the supervising attorney is.
The title search, and where Alabama’s records live
Before closing, a title search gets run against the county’s recorded records to confirm clear title — no undisclosed liens, judgments, or competing claims. Alabama is unusual here too: real property is recorded by the Judge of Probate, a judicial officer who doubles as the county’s recording official, rather than by a Clerk of Court or a standalone Recorder the way most states do it. Property valuation, meanwhile, runs through a Revenue Commissioner in most counties (a handful still keep a separate Tax Assessor). RefPages’ County Records directory links to your specific county’s Probate Judge and Revenue Commissioner offices if you want to look at the record yourself.
Alabama’s recordation taxes, and who typically pays them
Alabama doesn’t have a documentary stamp tax structured like Florida’s; instead it charges two separate recordation taxes at closing:
- Deed tax: $0.50 per $500 of value (or fraction), roughly 0.1% of the sale price.
- Mortgage tax: $0.15 per $100 of the loan amount (or fraction), roughly 0.15% of the financed amount.
Both are collected by the closing attorney’s office and remitted to the county at recording — you won’t file or pay either separately. By custom, not by statute, the seller typically pays the deed tax and the buyer typically pays the mortgage tax on their own new loan; like everywhere, the purchase contract controls and either side can agree to a different split.
What sellers have to tell you — and what they don’t
Alabama follows caveat emptor: as a general matter, a seller has no default legal duty to volunteer information about a property’s physical condition. Alabama courts have carved out three exceptions — defects affecting health and safety, situations involving a fiduciary relationship between the parties, and direct misrepresentation in response to a buyer’s specific question. Outside those, the legal floor is genuinely lower than in states that mandate a detailed statutory disclosure form.
In practice, most Alabama listings still come with a seller’s disclosure form as a matter of industry custom and to limit dispute risk, and a listing agent has an independent duty under real estate license law to flag known material defects. But because the underlying legal obligation is narrower than the form implies, it’s worth being more thorough with your own inspection and title review here than you might be in a state where statute does more of that work for you.
Property tax: current-use assessment and the homestead exemption
Alabama’s property taxes run comparatively low, and two features are worth knowing before you close. First, most residential and farm property can be assessed at current use value rather than full market value if the owner applies for it — worth asking your Revenue Commissioner’s office about if the property has any agricultural or timber use. Second, once you close and occupy the home, apply for the homestead exemption with your county Revenue Commissioner — it reduces your assessed value, and homeowners 65 or older (or permanently disabled, or blind) can qualify for a much larger exemption, in some cases exempting the home from state ad valorem tax entirely.
Permits and other work before or after closing
If an inspection turns up something needing a permit — roof, electrical, a prior unpermitted addition — RefPages’ Building Permit Departments directory links to the relevant city or county permitting office. Because Alabama’s disclosure duty is narrower than a full statutory regime, it’s also worth asking directly about any unpermitted work or open permits rather than assuming a disclosure form would have caught it.