Selling a house in Ohio: the paperwork

Every document an Ohio sale commonly touches, who usually produces it, and the law behind it. In most sales the seller's own share is small, and this page shows you which part that usually is.

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15 documents · 15 questions · about a 9 minute read · free, and we don't ask for your email

3documents are usually the seller's

out of 15 in an Ohio sale

Tell us about your sale

Answer what you know. Skip what you don't. Every answer takes something off your list or explains why it stays on.

The home

Was the home built before 1978?

Older homes carry a federal lead paint disclosure. It's the same in every state.

Is the home in an HOA, condo, or co-op?

The association has to produce a package, and they can take weeks. Worth knowing early.

Is there a well or septic system?

Private water and sewer get their own questions, and sometimes their own inspection.

Is the home on the water, or in a flood zone?

Waterfront and floodplain homes pick up extra disclosures in most states.

Are there solar panels?

Owned panels transfer with a warranty. Leased ones need the lease company's sign-off.

Is it a manufactured or mobile home?

These can still hold a vehicle title, which has to be retired before the land can transfer.

You and the title

Are you married?

Some states need a spouse's signature even when they're not on the title. Many don't.

Is the home owned by a trust, LLC, or company?

An entity needs paperwork showing who's allowed to sign for it.

Did you inherit the home, or is it in probate?

How the home came to you decides which deed you can sign.

Does anyone rent or live in the home besides you?

A lease and its deposit transfer with the sale, and the tenant has to be told.

Do you file U.S. taxes as a citizen or resident?

If you don't, the buyer has to hold back part of the price and send it to the IRS.

Will you be at the closing yourself?

Signing from a distance takes a power of attorney, and it has to be arranged early.

Its history

Have you claimed on your home insurance in the last five years?

Past claims show up on a report the buyer's insurer can pull. Better it comes from you.

Is there work on the house that was never permitted, or a permit still open?

An open permit can stop a closing. Closing one out takes time you'll want in hand.

Are the mineral, oil, or gas rights separate from the land?

In some states these are sold off separately, and the deed has to say so.

Usually the seller's to produce

In most sales nobody else prepares these. Whether each one applies to you depends on your home, your title, and your buyer.

Ohio Realtors PSAIn the PSA
Residential Property Disclosure Form (R.C. § 5302.30)Pre-contract
Federal lead paint disclosure (pre-1978)Attached to PSAOn your list because was the home built before 1978

Usually drafted for you to sign

These commonly arrive already written. Read them, and ask about anything that looks wrong before you sign.

FIRPTA non-foreign affidavitClosing packet

Usually somebody else's to prepare

Commonly handled by a title company, an attorney, a lender, or the county. Listed so none of them is a surprise.

General warranty deed / survivorship deedClosing packet / Recorded post-close
Dower release (spousal signature on deed)Signed on the deedOn your list because are you married
DTE Form 100 (or 100(EX)) conveyance-fee statementFiled with County Auditor pre-recording
Settlement statement (ALTA / CD)Closing packet
Payoff statement(s)Closing packet
Title commitment / policyClosing packet
1099-SFiled post-close
Wire-fraud advisoryClosing packet
POS Certificate of Inspection / ComplianceMunicipal certificate pre-closing
Mortgage (buyer's loan)Recorded post-close
Mortgage satisfactionRecorded post-close

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How Ohio generally runs a sale

The broad shape of a sale there, as the research found it. Counties and cities add their own rules on top of all of this.

Closing model — Title-company / escrowAttorneys may be involved but are not required. UPL is policed by the Ohio Supreme Court's Board on the Unauthorized Practice of Law.

Property regime — Common-lawTenancy by the entirety was abolished for interests created on or after April 4, 1985; only TBEs created by a deed recorded between February 9, 1972 and April 3, 1985 remain valid (R.C.

Homestead + DOWER (the Ohio headline)Homestead exemption at R.C. § 2329.66. Ohio is one of the last dower states: R.C. § 2103.02 — "A spouse who has not relinquished or been barred from it shall be endowed of an estate for life...

Standard deed typeGeneral warranty (R.C. § 5302.05), limited warranty (R.C. § 5302.07), quitclaim (R.C. § 5302.11), or fiduciary deed. Survivorship deeds under R.C. § 5302.17 for joint owners.

Disclosure regime — Statutory formResidential Property Disclosure Form, R.C. § 5302.30 — state-prescribed by the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing.

Transfer tax — Conveyance feeMandatory state fee of 1 mill ($1.00 per $1,000 = 0.1%) under R.C. § 319.54(G)(3), plus a permissive county fee up to 3 mills ($3.00/$1,000) under R.C.

RON status — AuthorizedOhio Notary Public Modernization Act, R.C. Ch. 147; RON effective September 20, 2019.

Recording act — Race-notice for deeds(R.C. § 5301.25). Pure race for mortgages.

Recording officeCounty Recorder in each of 88 counties; the County Auditor separately endorses the deed and collects the conveyance fee before recording.

Local overlaysCleveland-area point-of-sale (POS) inspection cluster with pre-transfer repair-escrow requirements (Cuyahoga County).

Other things Ohio asks about

These come up in Ohio and almost nowhere else. We don't ask them above because we can't answer them for you yet, but they're worth raising with your title company.

Is the property in a POS-inspection municipality (Cleveland-area cluster)?

Before you rely on any of this

This is a compilation of published state requirements, not legal advice, and no lawyer has reviewed it or your sale. Laws and forms change, counties and cities add their own rules, and whether any of this applies to you depends on facts we don't know. Treat every item as a starting point for a question, not as an answer. Confirm anything you plan to rely on against the official source we link, and run your list past a title company or an attorney licensed in your state.

These counts describe a typical sale, not yours. Which documents you need turns on facts about your home, your title, your buyer, and your county, and one unusual answer can add several or remove them.

Who prepares each document is what usually happens, not a rule. Practice differs between states, between counties, and between one title company and the next, and your contract can move work from one side to the other.

Keighbor is not a real estate brokerage and does not represent you. Nobody here is your agent. We don't negotiate, set your price, recommend a course of action, or take a commission. We provide software that helps you organize your side of the sale.

The full Ohio reference

The rest of the research, with every citation kept. This is the same material our own product is built on, and nothing is held back for paying customers. It describes the law as the research found it, not as it applies to your sale.

ALWAYS-required documents (every transaction)

PSA. Ohio Realtors form (member) or attorney-drafted.
Deed. R.C. Ch. 5302; general-warranty statutory form § 5302.05 or survivorship deed § 5302.17 as applicable. Non-titled spouse signs to release dower for any married seller (§ 2103.02).
Residential Property Disclosure Form (R.C. § 5302.30; current Division of Real Estate version only).
DTE Form 100 conveyance-fee statement (or 100(EX) if exempt).
Federal lead paint disclosure (pre-1978).
FIRPTA affidavit; 1099-S; wire-fraud advisory; payoff statements; ALTA settlement statement.

SOMETIMES-required documents (trigger-gated)

Dower release (the star trigger). Married seller, any titling → non-titled spouse must sign the deed to release dower (R.C. § 2103.02).
Property held in trust. Trustee's certificate / certification of trust; trustee deed.
LLC / corp. Authorizing resolution / operating agreement.
POA. Recorded with the deed.
Foreign seller. FIRPTA only — Ohio has no state nonresident real estate withholding.
Inherited / probate. Fiduciary deed; letters testamentary or of administration; small-estate procedures under R.C. Ch. 2113.
HOA / condo. Ohio Condominium Act, R.C. Ch. 5311 — no statutory resale-certificate mandate as strict as Illinois'; resale disclosures are largely contract-driven, though the association typically provides a statement of unpaid assessments.
Well / septic. County health department; some POS ordinances add septic inspection.
Tenant-occupied. R.C. Ch. 5321 landlord-tenant.
Solar / recent insurance claims (CLUE) / open permits. As standard.
Waterfront (Lake Erie) / historic district / manufactured home. Riders as applicable.
Mineral / oil-gas (major). Utica and Marcellus severed interests and active leases are common. Dormant Mineral Act, R.C. § 5301.56, lets a surface owner reclaim a dormant severed mineral interest via a 20-year lookback for "savings events," certified-mail notice of intent to declare abandonment, and a recorded affidavit of abandonment. Key case law: Corban v. Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C., 2016-Ohio-5796; Dodd v. Croskey, 2015-Ohio-2362 (holder's 60-day cure window).
Manufactured / mobile home. Affidavit of affixation (R.C. § 4505.11).

Prescribed-language items (substance-over-form)

Residential Property Disclosure Form — state-prescribed under R.C. § 5302.30; current Division version required (no substitutes). Contains the statutory (K) rescission-notice language ("you may rescind the purchase contract … provided the document of rescission is delivered prior to all three of the following dates: (1) the date of closing; (2) 30 days after the Owner accepted your offer; and (3) within 3 business days following your receipt …").
Survivorship deed statutory form language, R.C. § 5302.17.
Federal lead paint verbatim Lead Warning Statement.

Local / municipal overlays

Cleveland-area POS inspection cluster (Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, University Heights, Lakewood, Parma, East Cleveland, Euclid, Garfield Heights, Gates Mills, and others). Process: the city inspects before transfer; violations are classed; uncorrected "Class A" violations require an escrow held until repairs are completed and a Certificate of Compliance issues, and title generally cannot transfer until the buyer's signed acknowledgment and escrow are in place. Cleveland Heights: escrow must be at least $1,000 and equal to 125% of the city's estimated repair cost, disbursed only on written city authorization; owner must correct within 90 days (extensions for progress); the POS Certificate of Inspection is valid one year for transfer. Escrow percentages vary by city (Garfield Heights 150%; Shaker Heights certificate valid 24 months; some cities require independent contractor estimates). Not all Ohio municipalities require POS.

Notable examples only; not exhaustive.

Post-closing obligations

County Auditor endorses and collects the conveyance fee; Recorder records the deed; DTE 100 filed.
1099-S. Filed by closing agent.
Mortgage satisfaction. Recorded (R.C. § 5301.36).
Capital gains / OH income tax. Ohio taxes gain as ordinary income on a graduated scale; recent budgets have compressed brackets, so verify the current-year top marginal rate with the Ohio Department of Taxation at the time of use.

Federal overlays (cross-reference)

Cross-reference master methodology § 8 (FIRPTA; 1099-S; federal lead paint; wire-fraud advisory; FinCEN Residential Real Estate Rule and its 2026 vacatur — see § 10).

Recent changes flagged (2023–2026)

No enacted change to the R.C. § 5302.30 form regime in the window; always pull the current Division of Real Estate version.
Dower reform failed again — proposals have repeatedly stalled (most recently gaining traction in 2020 before dying); dower under R.C. § 2103.02 remains fully in force, so the spousal release requirement stands.
FinCEN Residential Real Estate Rule (31 CFR § 1031.320). Effective March 1, 2026; vacated nationwide March 19, 2026 in Flowers Title Companies, LLC v. Bessent, No. 6:25-cv-127-JDK (E.D. Tex.); reports not currently required. A conflicting M.D. Fla. decision (Fidelity National Financial, Inc. v. Bessent, Feb. 20, 2026) had upheld the rule — treat as unsettled pending appeal.

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