We Buy Houses for Cash in Louisiana

Louisiana sells houses under civil law, not English common law, and it shows in the paperwork. A sale is an act of sale, foreclosure can move without a trial through executory process, the disclosure form spends a page on flooding, and in Orleans Parish the clerk collects a flat documentary tax on each transfer. Homes here range from shotgun doubles in New Orleans and raised cottages on the Northshore to farmhouses in Acadiana and camps along the bayous, and plenty of them have been through a flood, a hurricane or both. Swifty Home Buyers can make a cash offer on a Louisiana house in the condition it is in, with no agent commission and no repair requests, and close on the day you choose. Below are the Louisiana rules sellers most often ask about.

We buy houses in all 50 states. This guide covers the rules that matter in Louisiana.

Louisiana has a constitutional brake on transfer taxes. Article VII, Section 2.3 says no new tax or fee upon the sale or transfer of immovable property, including documentary transaction taxes or fees, shall be levied by the state or its political subdivisions after November 30, 2011; recordation and filing fees, impact fees, annual parcel fees and ad valorem taxes are not counted as prohibited levies. We did not find a general state transfer tax. A local charge in New Orleans still shows up in the clerk's own materials. The Orleans Parish Civil Clerk of Court describes a Documentary Transaction Tax that applies to sales, donations, transfers, mortgages and commercial leases, stating that these documents are assessed a flat tax of $325.00 (with lower amounts for small mortgages). If the tax is not paid when the document is recorded, the clerk's page says it must be paid within 30 days of the recording date, and that non-payment brings interest and a $500 penalty. The clerk's page names the parties responsible for payment as the seller, donor, mortgagor or party recording the commercial lease, so on a sale it falls on the seller; confirm with your closing notary or title company. Other parishes handle recording fees differently, so ask the clerk of court in your parish. The large seller costs usually lie elsewhere: an agent commission in a traditional listing (negotiable, and often the biggest line), mortgage and lien payoff, prorated property taxes and notary or title fees. A sale to Swifty has no commission, and we give you the full costs in writing before you commit.

A Louisiana lender can foreclose by executory process, described in Code of Civil Procedure Article 2631 as a proceeding to seize and sell property without previous citation and judgment, used to enforce a mortgage evidenced by an authentic act importing a confession of judgment. Because there is no trial first, the notice you receive matters. Under R.S. 13:3852, the sheriff's first sale date cannot be set earlier than sixty days after the date of the signed court order commanding the writ, and the notice must tell the owner that foreclosure prevention counseling through a housing counselor is free and that, for residential property, they may be able to bring the account current through a loss mitigation agreement or by paying past-due amounts plus permitted costs within the time allowed for reinstatement. A homeowner can fight the seizure by injunction under Articles 2751 through 2754, by a suspensive appeal taken within fifteen days of service of the notice of seizure, or both, and that appeal requires security of one and a half times the debt. Before the sale the property must be appraised unless the mortgage waived appraisal and the lender asked for a sale without it (Article 2723), and under Article 2771 the lender can seek a deficiency judgment only if the property was sold after appraisal. We could not confirm a statutory right to buy the home back after a sheriff's sale from an official source, so ask a Louisiana attorney before counting on one. HUD's free housing counseling line is 1-800-569-4287. If you sell before the sheriff's sale, the payoff comes out of the price and any remaining equity is yours.

• Sell as-is
• Inherited house
• Foreclosure
• Tenants or rental property

Orleans Parish (New Orleans)

New Orleans is the local example we verified of a documentary tax on a house sale. The Orleans Parish Civil Clerk of Court's page on the Documentary Transaction Tax says sales, donations, transfers, mortgages and commercial leases are assessed a flat $325.00, that owner-occupied single-family residences over 25 pages need a notarized statement to keep that rate, that payment is due within 30 days of the recording date if a billing form is used, and that late payment brings interest and a $500 penalty. The clerk's Land Records FAQ describes an act of sale as serving as the deed to the property, and adds a $30.00 building fund fee to the land records fees and a $5.00 portal fee per recording. If you are selling an Orleans Parish house, the clerk's page names the seller as the party responsible for the $325, so plan for it in your net proceeds and confirm with your notary.