Typical Closing Cost

Avoid Post Sale Shock

Typical closing cost are hard to determine, as there are far to many factors under consideration.

As this is a website for people selling their houses for sale by owner, you hopefully won't have to pay one of the largest, if not the largest, of the expenses.

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That BIG payout of course is the Realtor fee.

If you sold your house this way and lets say it sold for $275,000.00 and you paid a commission of 5% of the selling price.

You would have a $13,750.00 plus any applicable taxes bill to deduct when you met with your real estate attorney.

You would already be down to $261,250.00 and all you did was pay the commission!

Of course if you have been following the advice on this website, you sold without a real estate agent and only spent say, $1,000.00 leaving you with $274,000.00. Already you are up $12,750.00!

I say this for a reason. Picture having an extra $12,750.00 in your bank account after the sale. See yourself rolling in $100.00 bills. What would you do with that extra cash?

The second BIG payout might be a mortgage payout. This could be $0.00 or it could be say another $12,000.00! Yikes!

If you haven't sold your house yet, or perhaps haven't even placed your property for sale, you can go to Mortgage Help Here

If you have a mortgage on the property you are selling, Always, Always, Always check out the coincidence of paying out that mortgage early, before proceeding to sell.

Now that we have the BIG TWO of your typical closing cost out of the way, lets move on to some other information concerning these house closing costs.

Not Always Black and White

The first thing to realize, is that typical closing cost are anything but typical. As you have seen above, if you sell by owner, you can cut out commissions.

If you Port Your Mortgage or have the buyer Assume Your Mortgage you may be able to avoid a big payout penalty.

If you use a mortgage broker you can possibly save even more. Don't know the value or have never used a mortgage broker? Want to learn more? Just proceed to What is a Mortgage Broker to find out more.

Another thing that many people don't realize, is that you can also negotiate who pays for what portion when the property changes hands.

If you need to have a survey done on the property you are selling, you can pay for that, or write in your offer that the buyer will pay.

Will they? I don't know, but it can be done if the buyer agrees.

You could actually write in a counter offer the buyer will pay your house closing costs! Will they? Probably not, but it could happen.

You see, if two or more parties all agree, sign and have witnessed an agreement of purchase and sale and the contract is legal and binding, the choices are many. This again makes trying to give a typical closing cost difficult.

Other Typical Seller Closing Cost

So what are some of the seller's typical closing cost? Let's make a partial list.

Any amounts listed below are very rough estimates and may vary greatly due to your own circumstances and where the property you are selling is located.

Please keep in mind that these average closing costs may or may not be applicable in your area.

• Any services or utilities to be paid up to the take over date.

• Fuel oil. The tank can be measured and the buyer pay for that portion. I don't recommend this method. Write in the contract that the oil tank is to be filled and the buyer will pay for a full tank of fuel. This saves the silly arguments about it was 1/2 full, no it is only 1/3 full.

• Property taxes. If paid ahead, you the seller will get a rebate for remainder of tax year. If not paid, you will have to pay the taxes for the portion of the tax year up to the final day of ownership transfer.

• Transfer fees. (based on the property value)

• A land survey, plot plan, or real property report (Could be $150.00 to $1000.00 or more) If a full survey is required the cost will vary greatly depending on how complicated the survey.

• The attorney's fee. This will usually be less as a seller than as a buyer. (Could fall somewhere between say $500.00 to $1000.00 or even possibly more) Ask ahead of time what your real estate attorney fee will be before blindly going forward.

• Any liens against the property must be paid out by the seller.

• Discharge fee for the mortgage. (Probably somewhere between $50.00 and $100.00)

• Little stuff like faxes, long distance phone calls, photo-copies, courier, postage etc. done by your attorney's office.These are just a partial list of typical closing cost.

Bottom Line?

Although this page talks about typical closing cost, or average closing costs, there really is no such thing.

Each contract is written different. Each individual property is different. Each country, state, province and territory may have different rules and regulations. Costs will vary. Fees will vary. 

I'm going to be nice to the real estate lawyers now. :-) I found quite often after a seller or a buyer had been to their respective lawyers, they quite often only looked at one figure. How much was the total adjustments.

They may see a figure of $3500.00 and say; "Wow, my &%^$# lawyer charged me $3500.00!" Please look closer. Somewhere , when you break it down, you will see the actual fee the lawyer charged for his or her service. It will usually be far less than that total figure.

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