Start your Lady Bird deed
Tell us about the property and who should receive it. A preparer reads every submission before anything is drafted.
Florida Lady Bird deed
- Legal description pulled from county records
- Enhanced life estate reservation drafted to your facts
- Homestead and spousal joinder language where it applies
- Two witness blocks with the address lines § 695.26 requires
- Read line by line by a person before it reaches you
- Recording instructions and calculated county fees
- Revisions if the clerk wants something changed
What a Lady Bird deed does
- The house skips probate
- You can still sell, mortgage or rent it
- You can revoke it or change beneficiaries
- Your homestead exemption and Save Our Homes cap stay put
- Beneficiaries take it at date-of-death value
- No completed gift when you sign it
Talk it through first
A Lady Bird deed is not right for every family. Call and describe your situation before you order.
A person drafts your deed. Not a form filler.
Most online deed sites drop your answers into a fixed template and email you a PDF within seconds. Nobody reads it. That is how a Florida deed ends up with one witness line, no witness addresses, a nominal consideration recital that manufactures a tax bill, or a legal description copied off a tax card instead of the recorded deed.
We pull the recorded legal description
Not the property appraiser’s short description. We go to the last recorded instrument in your county’s official records and carry the description forward exactly, including the plat book and page reference.
We read your facts before drafting
Married with homestead, co-owners on title, a beneficiary who might predecease you, a prior life estate deed already recorded. Each of those changes the document. A preparer looks at your answers and calls you if something does not line up.
We build to what your clerk accepts
Three-inch clear block in the top right corner of page one, one-inch margins, preparer name and address on the face, witness printed names and post office addresses. Formatting is why deeds get bounced, and it is entirely avoidable.
Sign and witness it online, from wherever you are
Florida deeds need a notary and two subscribing witnesses. That used to mean rounding up two neighbors. It does not anymore.
Remote online notarization
Under Chapter 117, Part IV of the Florida Statutes, a Florida commissioned online notary can notarize your signature over two-way audio and video. You show ID on camera, the session is recorded and retained, and you sign an electronic deed that carries a tamper-evident seal.
You can be at your kitchen table, in a hospital room, or out of the country. The notary is in Florida; you do not have to be.
Witnesses on the same call
Section 117.285 lets a Florida online notary supervise the witnessing of an electronic record. Your two witnesses can sit next to you or join by video from anywhere in the United States, with their identity verified on the recording.
We supply both witnesses. You do not need to find anyone or explain to a relative why they cannot be one, since a beneficiary witnessing your deed is a fight you do not want in your chain of title.
Prefer paper? Say so and we send a mobile notary to you with two witnesses instead. Same $400 White Glove fee. Some situations genuinely read better on paper, and a few counties are still easier to work with that way. We will tell you which one your county is.
Then it gets recorded, one way or the other
An unrecorded Lady Bird deed protects nobody. This is the step most online deed services leave entirely to you.
We eFile it for you
With White Glove, we submit the executed deed electronically to your county clerk, pay the recording fee and doc stamps on your behalf at cost, track it through acceptance, and email you the recorded instrument with its book, page, and instrument number.
Most Florida counties return an accepted eRecording in one to three business days.
Or you record it yourself
Every standard order includes written instructions specific to your county: where to send it, what the clerk’s counter hours are, what to write on the transmittal, what check to cut and who to make it payable to.
We calculate the recording fee and documentary stamp tax for your exact page count and name count so you are not guessing at the window.
Estimate your Florida recording costs
Recording fees are set by statute at $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each page after, statewide. Indexing is free for the first four names and $1 for each name after that. Documentary stamp tax is the part people get wrong.
The mortgage question, honestly
Deed your mortgaged home outright to your children and Florida charges documentary stamp tax on the unpaid mortgage balance, whether or not anyone assumes the loan. On a $300,000 balance that is roughly $2,100. It surprises families every week.
A Lady Bird deed is treated differently, because you keep every stick of ownership and no present interest passes when it is recorded. The Department of Revenue took that position in Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004, and the usual result is the $0.70 minimum.
Clerks are not perfectly uniform about it, and reciting a nominal figure like “$10.00” on the face of the deed can create a tax that would not otherwise exist. We draft around that and confirm the treatment with your county before anything is filed rather than letting you find out at the counter.
How ordering works
Four steps from the form above to a recorded deed in the official records of your county.
You submit and pay
Fill in the form, choose standard or White Glove, and check out.
A preparer calls you
We pull the last recorded deed, confirm names and beneficiaries, and flag anything that looks off.
You sign
Online with your notary and two witnesses, or in person with a mobile notary, or on your own with our instructions.
It gets recorded
We eFile and send back the recorded copy, or you take it to the clerk with the fees already calculated.
Lady Bird deed, or something else?
Florida has no statutory transfer on death deed for real property. That is why the Lady Bird deed carries so much weight here. It is still not the answer for everyone.
Lady Bird deed
You keep the right to sell, mortgage, or revoke. The property passes at death outside probate. Homestead protections and the tax cap survive. Usually the $0.70 minimum doc stamp.
Quitclaim to the kids now
Fast and usually a mistake for estate planning. You lose control, you cannot undo it, doc stamps hit the mortgage balance, and your children inherit your old cost basis instead of a stepped-up one.
Plain life estate deed
The older version, without the enhancement. The remainder beneficiaries vest immediately, so you cannot sell or refinance without their signatures. Rarely what a Florida homeowner actually wants.
Deed into a revocable trust
Better when there are several properties, minor beneficiaries, staged distributions, or an existing trust that should hold everything. We prepare that deed too, and we will say so if that is the better fit.
Joint ownership with survivorship
Florida does not presume a right of survivorship between co-owners, so it has to be spelled out. It also exposes the home to your co-owner’s creditors and divorce during your lifetime.
Leaving it in the will
A will does not avoid probate, it directs it. Florida homestead can pass outside probate in some circumstances, but a court proceeding is usually still involved. The Lady Bird deed is what keeps the house out of that.
Florida Lady Bird deed questions
The ones we get on the phone most often.
How much does a Florida Lady Bird deed cost?
$225 flat for preparation, review, and recording instructions. $400 for White Glove, which adds the online notary session, both witnesses, county eFiling, and the recorded copy back to you. County recording fees and documentary stamp tax go to the clerk and are separate from both, usually well under $50 on an ordinary Lady Bird deed.
Can I really do the whole thing online?
Yes. Florida authorized remote online notarization effective January 1, 2020, and section 117.285 lets the online notary supervise your witnesses over the same video session. You need a device with a camera, a government-issued ID, and about twenty minutes. Most Florida counties accept the resulting electronic deed for eRecording.
Does a Lady Bird deed need two witnesses?
It does. Section 689.01 requires two subscribing witnesses on any conveyance of Florida real property, with no exception for family transfers or gifts. Since January 1, 2024, section 695.26 also requires each witness’s printed name and post office address on the face of the deed. Templates written for single-witness states fail both requirements, and clerks reject them.
Will it affect my homestead exemption?
No. You keep a life estate, which is a qualifying ownership interest, so the homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes assessment cap continue during your lifetime. If you are married and the property is homestead, your spouse normally needs to join in the deed, and we build that in.
Can I change my mind later?
That is the whole point of the enhancement. You can sell the property, mortgage it, rent it, revoke the deed, or record a new one naming different beneficiaries, all without asking anyone’s permission. Your beneficiaries have no present interest and no say.
Do I need the legal description or parcel number?
No, the address is enough to start. We pull the legal description from the last recorded instrument in your county’s official records rather than from a tax bill, because tax records often carry a shortened description that will not hold up in a chain of title.
Are there downsides I should know about?
A few worth naming. Some title insurers hesitate on a Lady Bird deed that names one child and leaves out siblings. Multiple beneficiaries who then have to agree on a sale can create friction. And if your estate is complicated enough to need staged distributions or provisions for a minor, a trust is a better tool. We would rather tell you that on the phone than take the order.
Are you attorneys?
No. We are Florida legal document preparers, title professionals, and notaries. We prepare the document you direct us to prepare, at your instruction. We cannot advise you on which choice is legally best for your family, and if your situation calls for that, we will tell you to see a Florida attorney.
Order your Florida Lady Bird deed
$225 flat. Drafted and reviewed by a person, ready in 24 to 48 hours.
Or call 1-877-540-6104
Noble Notary & Legal Document Preparers
Florida Lady Bird deed preparation and legal document services. We are non-attorneys. We do not provide legal advice and cannot tell you which document is legally best for your situation. No title insurance is issued and no abstract of title is performed. Recording fees and documentary stamp tax are set by your county clerk and the Florida Department of Revenue and are paid separately.
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