Real estate closings in Syracuse, Cicero and Cortland

We represent buyers and sellers in residential transactions across Onondaga and Cortland counties, reviewing the contract, handling the title search and whatever it turns up, coordinating with your lender, and sitting with you at the closing table.

The fastest way to reach us about a closing is by email at Real-Estate@cdlfpllc.com. The first conversation is free and there is no obligation.

Send us the contract early

In most of the country a title company or an escrow agent runs the closing. New York does it differently: the buyer and the seller each have their own attorney, and the attorneys do the work. A title company can insure the title, but it cannot advise you about your own deal.

In Central New York the purchase contract is usually a standard form the real estate agents complete, containing an attorney approval clause. That clause is the window in which your lawyer can change the terms. After it closes, you are bound to what the paper says.

One thing worth being clear about, because a great deal of what is written online about this is wrong: New York does not set an attorney review period by statute. The three-business-day period people cite is New Jersey law. In New York the deadline is whatever your particular contract says it is, which means the only way to know how long you have is to read the contract, and the safe assumption is that the clock started when it was signed.

What happens between the contract and the closing

Most of the work happens in this stretch, and most of it is invisible to you if it goes well:

• Reviewing and, where needed, renegotiating the contract while the approval period is open
• Ordering the title search and reading it, then clearing whatever it finds
• Ordering title insurance and reviewing the commitment before you rely on it
• Working with your lender, and checking the Closing Disclosure against what the contract promised
• Preparing or reviewing the deed and the transfer tax returns
• Attending the closing, then recording the deed with the County Clerk

Title problems are the ordinary reason a closing slips. The common ones are a mortgage that was paid off years ago but never formally discharged, a judgment or tax lien docketed against somebody with a similar name, an easement nobody mentioned, or a gap in the chain of title where an estate was never properly settled. Almost all of it is fixable, but only if there is time, which is an argument for getting a lawyer involved early rather than the week of closing.

What the State charges to transfer a house

New York's real estate transfer tax is $2 for each $500 of the price, or part of $500, four tenths of one percent. On a $250,000 sale that is $1,000. The seller pays it. If the seller does not pay, or is exempt, the obligation falls to the buyer and both become jointly liable, though the buyer can then recover it from the seller.

On a one-, two-, or three-family house, any lien or encumbrance still on the property after the sale, the continuing lien deduction, comes out of the consideration the tax is calculated on.

There is also an additional 1% "mansion tax" on residential sales where the price is $1,000,000 or more, and this one is paid by the buyer. Central New York prices reach it rarely. When a price is being negotiated anywhere near that line it is worth knowing that it is a cliff rather than a slope: at an even $1,000,000 the buyer owes $10,000, and at $999,999 owes nothing at all.

The transfer tax return — Form TP-584, is filed with the County Clerk in the county where the property sits, and it is due no later than the fifteenth day after the deed is delivered.

That is the tax on the sale. If you are buying with a mortgage there is a second, separate one on the loan, and Onondaga and Cortland County do not charge the same rate — Cortland’s went up in January 2025. What the mortgage recording tax actually costs a buyer here.

Selling a New York house when you live somewhere else

This one surprises people every year. A seller who is not a New York resident generally has to calculate the gain on the sale and pay estimated New York income tax at the closing, on Form IT-2663, filed together with the transfer tax return. It is a prepayment credited against your New York return, not an extra tax, but it is real money leaving the closing table that day, and it should be in your arithmetic before you agree to a price. It comes up constantly with inherited property and with owners who moved away years ago.

When one side is an LLC

If an LLC is the buyer or the seller of a building with up to four dwelling units, the transfer tax return cannot be filed unless it identifies the names and addresses of every member, manager and authorized person, and where a member is itself another company, that has to be traced through until actual people are named. It is not difficult, but it is not something to discover the morning of the closing.

Cortland County and the rural closings

The transactions out of our Cortland office often look different from the ones in the Syracuse suburbs. Outside the villages you are more likely to be dealing with a private well and a septic system rather than public utilities, access over a shared or private road, land in an agricultural district, or an older house that never had a certificate of occupancy issued for work somebody did decades ago. None of these stop a sale. They do need to be handled in the contract instead of discovered afterward, and a survey earns its cost more often out here than it does in a subdivision.

Questions people ask

Do I need a lawyer to buy a house in New York?

In most of the country a title or escrow company runs the closing. New York works differently: the buyer and the seller each have their own attorney, and the attorneys do the work, contract, title, and the closing itself. A title company cannot give you legal advice about the deal.

How long do I have to get the contract reviewed?

Whatever your contract says. New York sets no attorney-review period by statute, the three-business-day figure repeated on many websites is New Jersey law, not New York. In Central New York the period comes from the approval clause in the form contract, so read it and assume the clock is already running.

Who pays the transfer tax when a house is sold in New York?

The seller. New York charges $2 for every $500 of the price or part of it, 0.4%, so $1,000 on a $250,000 sale. If the seller does not pay it or is exempt, the buyer becomes responsible and the two are jointly liable, with the buyer able to recover it from the seller.

What is the mansion tax and will it apply to me?

An extra 1% on residential sales where the price is $1,000,000 or more, paid by the buyer. Central New York prices rarely reach it. When they do it matters, because it is a cliff and not a slope: at $1,000,000 the buyer owes $10,000, and a dollar less owes nothing.

I live out of state and I am selling a house in New York. What should I expect?

A nonresident seller generally has to work out the gain and pay estimated New York income tax at the closing, on Form IT-2663, filed alongside the transfer tax return. It is a prepayment against your return rather than a fee, but it is money leaving the table that day, so plan for it.

What does a title search actually turn up?

Most often: a mortgage that was paid off but never formally discharged, an old judgment or tax lien against someone with a similar name, an easement nobody mentioned, or a gap in the chain where an estate was never properly settled. Nearly all of it is fixable if it is found early.

Serving both counties

We work out of two offices — Cicero, about ten miles north of downtown Syracuse, and Cortland. Between them we cover Onondaga and Cortland counties and the towns in between.

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