Reducing Closing Costs

Buying real estate is a time consuming process. Unlike a car where simply exchanging a check for a title then a 5 minute trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles, real estate requires title checks, tax research, and most often mortgages and interested parties that need to be ordered on the deed. It is not uncommon for it to cost several thousand dollars for closing costs when purchasing a home.

Many of these costs can be reduced. It is worthwhile to look into ways to reduce these costs because every dollar saved there can be applied to the down payment which will reduce your monthly payment for years and possibly get you a better interest rate on your loan saving you many thousands of dollars.

While every state has specific laws regarding real estate transactions there are some common items to look at for places to save. The first is in choosing an attorney. While there is in fact a lot of paper work, it is all very repetitious for an attorney. It is very unlikely you will get “better” representation from an expensive attorney than a cheaper one. The fact is a secretary will be doing all the work in both cases and the attorney will only be used for 15 minutes while signing papers at closing so paying $1000 instead of $300 serves no real purpose.

Ask the real estate agent what fees are being added to closing. Often times there are fees for simply picking up or dropping off papers with the tax office. Does it make sense to pay somebody else $100 service fee to stand in line 5 minutes at the tax building? The trick to reducing these costs is in the terminology. Anything that says “service fee” implies you are being charged to do something that you may well be able to do yourself.

Transfer of deed is a common place for high service fees. Many locations you can easily do yourself or even arrange online. Get a Quick conveyancing Quote from In-Deed Online . This can save you several hundred dollars and is often faster than waiting for an attorney’s office to do it. So long as it has the lien recorded most banks do not care which person files it.

You should insist on the seller paying for the survey when required. They are selling the property – it is up to them to prove what is being sold to show it has been portray correctly to you and your bank. Also, if you pay for the survey and then never end up closing on the property the survey is useless to you. If the seller has it done it is typically good for 12 months so they have lost nothing.