Closing an Alabama property.

Alabama premiums are filed by each underwriter

Alabama is a file-and-use state. Each title insurer files its own schedule with the Alabama Department of Insurance, so unlike Pennsylvania there is no single statewide rate. Two agents can quote different premiums for identical coverage simply because they write through different underwriters.

Our Alabama calculator quotes from the Stewart Title Guaranty filed schedule. If your file is written through a different underwriter, call us and we will quote from theirs.

Where an owner’s policy and a loan policy are issued at the same closing, the loan policy is a flat simultaneous-issue charge rather than a second full premium. A prior policy on the property may also qualify the transaction for a reissue or refinance credit worth 40% — worth asking about before you assume the full rate applies.

Deed tax is charged on your equity, not the price

This is the detail that most closing-cost estimates get wrong, and it works in your favour. Alabama charges deed tax at $0.50 per $500 of value. But when a deed and a mortgage are recorded together, the tax is calculated on the down payment or equity — not the full purchase price.

On a $300,000 purchase with $240,000 financed, deed tax is calculated on the $60,000 of equity: $60. A generic calculator applying the rate to the full price would tell you $300. If the entire price is financed, the deed tax floors at fifty cents.

Mortgage tax

Charged separately at $0.15 per $100 financed, rounded up to the next full $100. On a $240,000 loan that is $360. Both taxes are set by the Alabama Code, so they do not vary between title companies.

Recording in Madison County

The Probate Judge’s office charges a flat fee for the first page and a per-page fee after that, for the deed and the mortgage separately. Every deed also requires an RT-1 real estate sales validation form, which carries its own small page fee. Our calculator includes all of it.