The seller is overseas. How do they sign a Florida closing?

Because the document has to be recordable in a Florida county. A deed that was validly signed somewhere else is worth nothing to the transaction if the clerk will not record it or the underwriter will not insure over it.

Two separate requirements, in two separate chapters. Fla. Stat. § 689.01(1) governs the signing: an instrument conveying an interest in Florida land must be in writing and signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, by the party conveying or by that party’s lawfully authorized agent. No seal is needed. Fla. Stat. § 695.03 governs recording: to be entitled to record, the execution must be acknowledged by the party who executed it, proved by a subscribing witness, or legalized or authenticated in one of the forms that section lists.

Those are cumulative. A deed with a perfect acknowledgment and one witness has an execution problem; a deed with two witnesses and no acknowledgment cannot be recorded. Both have to be right before the document leaves the signer.

So the question is never just "can they sign?" It is "will this signature, notarized this way, be accepted here?"

Florida authorizes remote online notarization, which lets a signer appear before a Florida-commissioned online notary by audio-video link rather than in person. For a signer abroad, this is often the cleanest route: no consulate appointment, no courier, and the signing can be scheduled around the time difference.

The statute answers this directly, and the answer is no. Under Fla. Stat. § 117.209(3), an online notary public physically located in Florida may perform an online notarization "regardless of whether the principal or any witnesses are physically located in this state at the time of the online notarization", and § 117.209(4) provides that the validity of the act is determined by Florida law regardless of where the principal was. The notary has to be in Florida. The seller does not have to be anywhere in particular.

The chapter contemplates the overseas signer expressly: § 117.201(6) provides that for an online notarization of a principal not located within the United States, a passport issued by a foreign government without a US immigration stamp may be used to verify identity — which is the identification a seller abroad is most likely to hold.

On document types, the only act part II carves out is solemnizing the rites of matrimony (§ 117.209(1)). There is no statutory exclusion for a deed, a mortgage or a closing document.

Two practical limits apply regardless of what the statute permits. The lender has to accept a remotely notarized document, and so does the underwriter. Both positions are confirmed in writing before the signing is scheduled.

Neither position follows from the statute. That the notary is in Florida and the act is authorized under Florida law does not settle whether a given underwriter will accept a signing where the seller is overseas, or whether a particular lender will. So we put the specific file to our agency representative and to the lender as soon as we know an out-of-country signer is on it, and before anything is scheduled — the country the signer will be in, the platform, the documents — and we get the answer in writing.

A US consular officer can take an acknowledgment. This is well-established and widely accepted, and it avoids questions about foreign notarial forms.

The cost is scheduling. Appointment availability varies enormously by post, and in some countries the wait is long enough to drive the closing date by itself. The signed originals then have to travel back, which adds courier time.

The fee itself is fixed and public: item 41 of 22 CFR 22.1 sets a consular notarial service at $50 for the first seal, and each additional seal provided at the same time in connection with the same transaction at $50 as well. A deed, an affidavit and a FIRPTA certificate signed at one appointment are three seals.

A signer can appear before a notary where they are, but a foreign notarial certificate is not automatically in a form Florida accepts. Depending on the country, an apostille or a chain of authentication may be needed, and civil-law notaries produce a different instrument than a US notary does.

Fla. Stat. § 695.03 lists who may take an acknowledgment in a foreign country: a commissioner of deeds appointed by the Secretary of State to act in that country; a notary public of that foreign country, or a civil-law notary, who has an official seal; or a United States ambassador, envoy extraordinary, minister plenipotentiary, chargé d'affaires, consul-general, consul, vice consul or other US diplomatic or consular officer posted there.

So a local notary abroad is a route the statute contemplates, provided that notary has an official seal and the certificate is in a form the statute recognizes. The Hague apostille is not itself what § 695.03 asks for — it authenticates the foreign official's signature and seal rather than supplying the acknowledgment. For a country party to the 1961 Hague Convention it is the ordinary way to evidence that the seal and signature are genuine; for a country outside the Convention the equivalent is a chain of legalization through that country's foreign ministry and the US embassy.

We confirm what our underwriter will accept for the specific country before this route is relied on. The statute sets the form; the evidentiary requirement on top of it is the underwriter's to set.

A foreign seller raises a separate question with its own consequences: federal withholding on the disposition of a US real property interest by a foreign person. It is a tax matter, not a title matter, and it is administered by the IRS.

FIRPTA is federal, and the buyer is the withholding agent, not the seller and not the closing agent. Under IRC § 1445, a buyer acquiring a US real property interest from a foreign person must withhold 15% of the amount realized — generally the gross sales price, not the seller's net proceeds and not the gain.

Two reductions apply where the buyer acquires the property as a residence and will use it as a residence for at least 50% of the days it is used during each of the first two 12-month periods after the transfer:

• amount realized of $300,000 or less — no withholding;
• over $300,000 and up to $1,000,000 — withholding at 10%.

Three forms carry it. Form 8288 is the withholding agent's return, filed with the remittance. Form 8288-A is completed for each foreign seller; the IRS stamps Copy B and returns it to the seller, who uses it to claim credit. Form 8288-B is the pre-closing application for a withholding certificate, used where the seller's actual tax liability will be less than the statutory withholding.

Our role is procedural. We collect the seller's FIRPTA status in writing, hold the withholding out of the seller's proceeds where the buyer directs, and remit and report on the buyer's behalf. We do not give tax advice and we do not determine whether a seller is a foreign person for FIRPTA purposes. A foreign seller should have a CPA or a tax attorney on this before the contract is signed — a Form 8288-B takes time the closing calendar does not always have.

A foreign seller should be talking to a CPA or a tax attorney about FIRPTA early. The withholding affects the seller's net proceeds, and discovering it at the closing table is a bad day for everyone.

Where FIRPTA applies, where the seller is an entity organized abroad, where the signer holds power of attorney for someone else, or where a foreign document's validity is genuinely in question. Those are legal and tax questions, and a Florida real estate attorney and a tax professional should be answering them.