Closing Costs in North Carolina 2026: Buyer & Seller Guide
North Carolina’s revenue stamps cost $1 per $500 of price, and the statute puts them on the seller as transferor (G.S. 105-228.30). Six counties add a 1% land transfer tax of their own. Recording fees are fixed by statute, and a North Carolina lawyer has to do the title and deed work.
Revenue stamps: $1 per $500, and the law names the seller
The rate is “one dollar ($1.00) on each five hundred dollars ($500.00) or fractional part thereof of the consideration or value of the interest conveyed” (G.S. 105-228.30(a)). A partial $500 step is billed as a full one. A $350,000 deed owes $700; at $350,250 the stamps come to $701.
Session Law 1991-689 raised the rate from 50 cents to $1 per $500 for transfers made on or after August 1, 1991. The same subsection says: “The transferor must pay the tax to the register of deeds of the county in which the real estate is located before recording the instrument of conveyance.” The register collects it and marks the deed with the amount paid (G.S. 105-228.32).
The tax does not reach transfers by gift, by will, by operation of law, where “no consideration in property or money is due or paid,” or “By an instrument securing indebtedness” (G.S. 105-228.29). That last item is your deed of trust. A government seller owes nothing: the Article covers every person conveying real estate “other than a governmental unit or an instrumentality of a governmental unit” (G.S. 105-228.28). An overpayment can be reclaimed by a written request to the board of county commissioners within six months of payment; a corrected instrument must be recorded first (G.S. 105-228.37(a), (e)).
The extra 1% in Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Pasquotank and Perquimans
Each of these six counties’ tax office or register of deeds gives its land transfer tax as 1%, or $1 per $100 or fraction of $100. Camden (S.L. 1985-954), Currituck (S.L. 1985-670, whose 10-year sunset S.L. 1991-47 repealed) and Chowan (S.L. 1985-881, cited by its register of deeds) levy it under local acts of the General Assembly. It sits on top of the state stamps: a $350,000 sale in Dare County owes $3,500 to the county plus $700 in stamps. The Camden (S.L. 1985-954) and Currituck (S.L. 1985-670) acts count any lien or encumbrance left on the property at the sale in the base, as do the Perquimans tax office and Pasquotank’s affidavit form.
The acts word the payer differently. Camden’s and Currituck’s say the tax “is payable by the transferor.” Chowan’s (S.L. 1985-881) collection clause says only where to pay, but its enforcement clause lets the county sue “a transferor” who fails to pay. All three exempt instruments “Securing indebtedness.”
Article 60 of Chapter 105, headed “Land Transfer Tax,” was repealed by Session Law 2011-18, approved March 31, 2011. The Perquimans tax office lists Washington County as a seventh levying county, but Washington’s own Register of Deeds fee list shows only the state excise tax.
Register of deeds fees: one schedule in G.S. 161-10
The fees “shall be uniform throughout the State,” and they “are complete and exclusive and no other fees shall be charged by the register of deeds” (G.S. 161-10(a), (b)).
- Deed: $26 for the first 15 pages, plus $4 for each additional page.
- Deed of trust: $64 for the first 35 pages, plus $4 for each additional page.
- Satisfaction or cancellation of a deed of trust: “there shall be no fee.”
- A document that misses the state recording standards: $25 more (G.S. 161-10(a)(18a)).
A lawyer has to do the title opinion and the deed
G.S. 84-2.1(a) defines practicing law to include preparing deeds and mortgages and “abstracting or passing upon titles.” G.S. 84-4 bars nonmembers of the State Bar, “Except as otherwise permitted by law,” from preparing legal documents for others. Subsection 84-2.1(b)(2) lets a licensed broker complete preprinted forms, then says it does not let an unlicensed person “prepare for any third person any contract or deed conveying any interest in real property, or to abstract or pass upon title to any real property, which is located in this State.”
The State Bar’s Authorized Practice Advisory Opinion 2002-1 (adopted January 24, 2003, revised January 26, 2012) answers “No” to whether a nonlawyer may handle a residential closing. A nonlawyer who does none of the legal work it lists may present documents, direct signatures, and receive and disburse funds, but “this does not mean that the nonlawyer is handling the closing.” “The lawyer must be selected by the party for whom the legal services will be provided.” The opinion excepts a party acting pro se or under State v. Pledger, 257 N.C. 634 (1962).
For one-to-four-family homes (G.S. 45A-2), the settlement agent may pay recording costs and the stamps from trust, but “shall not disburse any other funds” until the deed and deed of trust are recorded (G.S. 45A-4(a)).
Title insurance rests on that lawyer’s opinion
No policy may issue on North Carolina property “unless and until” the insurer has the opinion of a North Carolina attorney, not its employee or agent, who conducted or directly supervised “a reasonable examination of the title” (G.S. 58-26-1(a)). Premiums are “based on the purchase price of the real estate being conveyed or the loan amount and shall not be established as flat fees” (G.S. 58-26-1(d)). Rates are filed with the Commissioner of Insurance “prior to the time they become effective” (G.S. 58-40-30(a)), and filings are open to public inspection (G.S. 58-40-35). A lender cannot make you buy the policy through a particular company or agent (G.S. 75-17).
NCHFA’s down payment help is a second mortgage
The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency’s pages, read September 24, 2026:
- NC Home Advantage Mortgage: assistance “up to 3% of the loan amount” for first-time and move-up buyers. Income cannot exceed $158,000; you occupy the home as a principal residence within 60 days of closing; the loan is FHA, USDA, VA or conventional through a participating lender, within that loan type’s sales price limits. The July 2026 program guide requires a 640 mid or low credit score.
- NC 1st Home Advantage Down Payment: $15,000 for buyers who qualify for the mortgage above and are first-time buyers (no principal residence owned in the past three years), military veterans, or buying in a targeted census tract, within income and sales price limits.
The agency calls the $15,000 a “0%, deferred second mortgage”; the guide calls the 3% a “15-year deferred/forgiven subordinate lien” at 0%. Both are forgiven 20% a year at the end of years 11 through 15 and repaid if you sell, refinance or transfer before year 15; the guide adds breach of the promissory note. It also says “No attorney fees may be charged on the second mortgage (DPA).”
Frequently asked questions
Does the buyer ever pay North Carolina’s excise stamps?
The statute says the transferor must pay, and in a sale that is the seller (G.S. 105-228.30(a)). Check your offer to purchase for any clause on this cost.
Is my deed of trust taxed when it is recorded?
No stamps: G.S. 105-228.29(8) exempts an instrument securing indebtedness. The recording fee is $64 for the first 35 pages.
Can a title company close my purchase without a North Carolina lawyer?
Not the legal part. A nonlawyer may handle signing and disbursement, but the title opinion, the deed and legal advice require a licensed North Carolina lawyer (G.S. 84-2.1, 84-4; APAO 2002-1).
Can I bring a personal check to closing?
Yes, but the agent can disburse against personal checks before they clear only up to $5,000 per closing, and only with “reasonable and prudent grounds to believe that the deposit will be irrevocably credited” (G.S. 45A-4(a)(6)). Anything more must be collected funds or a certified, cashier’s or other listed check.