Closing Costs
 

Surely a subject that will generate significant emotions......

We are currently in the process of completing on a house here in the states and have been hit with 'unexpected' closing costs.Anybody else had experience with 'unexpected closing costs'. And in the UK almost no closing costs!

When you say "unexpected" what do you mean? What costs did you incur that you were not aware of?

Your lender would have provided a good faith estimate that indicates approximately what the closing costs are.

Hi
Its the sellers you should feel sorry for. We recently completed on a house . Our closing costs were $1200 and our sellers were $22500.

Maybe I can help you here, as I am a realtor. Is this a new or resale property? Your lender should have shared this information with you before you signed anything.

Let me know if I can assist you further in anyway.

Re: Closing Costs
 

I don't quite understand what you're asking about.

Are the costs themselves an unexpected surprise or the amount of costs?



NC Penguin

Sorry should have been more specific:

Some of the costs we were not expecting were:

$200 for the Oil in the Oil Tank
Pro-Rata Mortgage Insurance (it sure pays to close late in the month)
Hazard Insurance
etc, etc.

The question/statement really was how different outlaying such a large sum at the end of a home purchase than we were used to in the UK.

I think you've been hit by the saying, "caveat emptor". If you don't ask the questions and get answers, then you might end up with some (possibly nasty) surprises.

I think some of the costs you describe might be mandatory so these are unavoidable.




NC Penguin

jxab12,

Did you use a Realtor to help with your purchase? These items should have been mentioned by the Realtor, especialy the prorations for oil. You we're lucky thqt you only had an oil proration and not a whole host of others too. The other costs should have been disclosed by the mortgage company.

I'm not saying that you did this, but I am a Realtor and it doesn't seem to matter what is disclosed to the buyer and seller, they always act surprised by the closing costs like they were never told.

Garyf was right, if you thought your costs were high, you should see the sellers costs (unless they did a for sale by owner).

I have to admit, the costs to buy/sell property in the US is much higher that in the UK. But remember, the US brokers get much more involved in the process with the open houses, doing showings etc, that the owner is expected to do in the US. Don't forget also that there is a whole system of sharing listings (MLS) with other brokers and then sharing the commissions.

Is it the same in the US and UK, where the selling fees are a % of the house value?
If so.... garyf, if it's not too personal for you, would you mind telling us the value of the property OR Realtors Poshpaws or 1Skydive, would you please confirm what the average % is.

ALSO... 'sold by owner' is not so common in the UK (well... as far as I know).. is it more common in the US?

I think the percentage may vary from area to area, but when I was selling the general rate was 6% here. There was one joker though who qouted us a selling price well below everyone else (and our eventual selling price) and wanted to charge 7% for the privilage. That's not all you pay for though, there are lots of other charges and taxes (?) heaped on aswell.
Sold by owner is more visible here, although I'm not sure exactly how successful it is for most people. I've heard of several people who initially did fsbo only to use a realtor later when they had no interest.

whatever,

In answer to your questions, for sale by owner is getting more and more popular and sellers are becoming increasingly aware of the great cost to sell their home through a realtor. I'm not saying it's not worth it, but they are just trying to save some money. In most cases the fee is a % of the selling price, but there are some companies that offer a fixed cost deal and those companies are becoming more prevalent (in my area anyway, I'm in the North East).

As far as the "average" cost. It's funny that you ask, Realtors are forbidden to discuss "average" or "common" percentages becasue each transaction is supposed to be either negotiated or based on an office policy. Having said that, I have seen anything from 3% to 7%, of course, I see a lot more of the 5-6%. But again, as sellers are becoming more savvy and wanting to save money, seeing a negotiated rate of 4% is not uncommon (again, this is in New Hampshire and i can't speak for other areas).