Selling Houses

the Baton Rouge area

Selling a house in Louisiana

Selling a house in Louisiana runs on parish records and a notary, not a county clerk and a title agent. The act of sale is passed before a notary, the parish assessor holds the assessment and the homestead exemption, and the clerk of court holds the conveyance and mortgage records a closing attorney will pull on your property. Selling Houses works across East Baton Rouge, Ascension, West Baton Rouge, and the Livingston Parish communities around Denham Springs and Walker.

What is different about selling a house in Louisiana?

Louisiana is a civil law state, and the vocabulary follows from that. The document that transfers your house is an act of sale or a cash sale deed, and it is passed before a notary rather than simply signed and witnessed. In most of the state a closing attorney handles the work a title company would handle elsewhere.

Property records are kept by parish rather than by county, and they are split across two offices. The assessor holds the assessment, the homestead exemption, and the parcel record. The clerk of court holds conveyance and mortgage records, which is where a prior sale, a mortgage, a judgment, or a lien on your property is recorded.

What does the homestead exemption do when you sell?

Louisiana's homestead exemption is filed with the parish assessor against the home you actually occupy, and it follows the owner rather than the house. A buyer does not inherit yours. That matters when a buyer asks what the taxes will be: the figure on your current bill reflects your exemption, and the buyer's bill will not, unless they file their own.

Check what the assessor currently shows for your parcel before you list, because an exemption recorded against the wrong address or a stale mailing address is easier to correct now than during a closing.

Do you need a flood elevation certificate to sell here?

Not as a matter of state law, but in much of this area a buyer's lender or insurer will ask what flood zone the house sits in, and an elevation certificate is what answers it with a number rather than a guess. If you have one from when the house was built or from a past policy, find it.

The August 2016 flood put water in houses that had never flooded, across Livingston Parish and East Baton Rouge, and it changed how carefully buyers read this. If your house took water, or if it did not while the street did, know which it was and have the paperwork that shows it.

Sell your house in these Louisiana cities

Ascension Parish

East Baton Rouge Parish

Livingston Parish

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Last updated September 19, 2026