Apostille for Real Estate Transactions: What You Need to Know

International real estate transactions frequently require apostilled documents. Whether you are buying property in Colombia, selling in Spain, or transferring ownership in Brazil, the documents involved — powers of attorney, corporate resolutions, title documents, and personal identification records — often need to be authenticated for use in the destination country.

Related: How the Hague Apostille Convention works

Documents Commonly Apostilled for Real Estate

• Powers of attorney: If you are authorizing someone else to act on your behalf in a foreign real estate transaction, the power of attorney typically needs to be notarized and apostilled.
• Corporate resolutions and articles of incorporation: For transactions involving a US company purchasing or selling foreign property, corporate documents may need apostille.
• Personal identification documents: Some foreign notaries and registries require apostilled copies of passports or other identification.
• Title documents and deeds: Depending on the country, US-issued title documents may need apostille for recognition abroad.
• Affidavits and declarations: Sworn statements related to the transaction may need notarization and apostille.

Powers of Attorney for Real Estate

The most common real estate apostille request is for a power of attorney. If you are in Miami and need to authorize a representative in Colombia, Spain, or another country to complete a real estate transaction on your behalf, the power of attorney must be notarized by a Florida notary and then apostilled by the Florida Secretary of State.

Miami Dade Apostille coordinates this process — including remote online notarization if you cannot appear in person — and submits the notarized document to the Secretary of State for apostille.

Certified Translation for Real Estate Documents

Real estate documents in English typically need to be translated into the official language of the destination country before they will be accepted by foreign notaries and registries. Miami Dade Apostille provides certified translations and can coordinate the apostille and translation together.

Non-Hague Countries

For real estate transactions in countries outside the Hague Apostille Convention — such as the UAE — embassy legalization is required instead of apostille. This adds steps and time to the process. Miami Dade Apostille handles embassy legalization for non-Hague countries.

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