Have you bought a house lately?

[MoneyGuy]

Who's bought in the last while? I need to know what the closing and related costs are when someone buys a house. It's been a long time since I've bought. Hah, my last house purchase was before some of you were born. What costs does a buyer have beyond the purchase price?

[troutman]

PM sent

[Winsor_Pilates]

I think you're looking at around $800-$1000

[MoneyGuy]

It's not for but for a client who is asking. Thanks to the fish guy and others for the posts and PMs.

[Russic]

My wife and I recently bought a house and when sitting down with our real estate agent (who rocked) she took a look at our down payment and immediately asked us to cut $3000 out and put it into a savings account. That then became our "holy **** I didn't realize we had to pay for that" fund. Things like lawyers, house inspectors and such all came out of that account.

Our designated savings was a little high as we were first time buyers and that fund really helped with those moments when I'd look at my wife and say something along the lines of "what do you mean I have to buy a ladder?". Living in apartments and condos for the 3 years prior we obviously hadn't built up a whole lot of gardening and maintenance tools.

What was nice about the whole situation was that we aimed high and saved more than was needed. That way if it really hit the fan we were covered and if it didn't we would emerge after the dust had settled and we would have a nice little buffer account (ours actually still has about $1700 in it).

One thing that really took us by surprise was the property taxes because not only did we set it up to be tacked on to our monthly mortgage, but we had to pay a lump sum for several months to close out the year. That was a $600 cheque that we certainly did not plan for.

[Circa89]

New or pre-existing?
I was kind of shocked when I had to install sod, landscaping, a deck, a fence etc.
10-15 thousand later I realized a pressure treated piece of timber sure adds up.

[Finny61]

Yeah we built out here and now I might be looking at a job transfer to Ontario and we may be selling but yeah all the things I've done sure add up, huge fence, big deck, sod the lawn, haven't even got to the trees yet and man they can cost a pretty penny. But yeah easily at $10K just in that alone.

[Nage Waza]

We spent 800 on a lawyer for their 'work', the real estate agent took their cut in selling my condo (about 6,000 on a 300G condo) and then 500 on moving. We also had to pay off the whole year of property tax, in my case 220 a month for June to December (this is for the new property).
Of course you might have espenses associated with things you might need for the new place.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Nage Waza

We spent 800 on a lawyer for their 'work', the real estate agent took their cut in selling my condo (about 6,000 on a 300G condo) and then 500 on moving. We also had to pay off the whole year of property tax, in my case 220 a month for June to December (this is for the new property).
Of course you might have espenses associated with things you might need for the new place.

I'm sure that you would be changing the tone of that remark if something had gone wrong though...

[onetwo_threefour]

Muuuwaaahhhaaaaaa.....

I just love taking people's money and then doing nothing... NOTHING!!... as their lawyer... Candy from a baby!!!



(Especially in this market, where purchasers are getting cold feet in droves,and we have to try to save every third deal it seems)

[ok, ok,....I get it]

Originally Posted by onetwo_threefour

Muuuwaaahhhaaaaaa.....

I just love taking people's money and then doing nothing... NOTHING!!... as their lawyer... Candy from a baby!!!



(Especially in this market, where purchasers are getting cold feet in droves)

lawyers.........

[nfotiu]

Man, we get screwed in the US in this area.

We paid 6150 in closing costs on the house we bought a few months ago.

What is all this crap we pay down here?? Where does this money really go?
Appraisal fee $400
Credit report $11
Tax Related Service Fee $78
Document Review $425
LOL Flood Cert $6
Attorney fees $495
Title Insurance $1682
Recording fees $3054

Come on, Tax Related Service Fee??? They were just making things up.

plus $2500 in prepaid insurance/taxes/etc.

[Nancy]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Man, we get screwed in the US in this area.

We paid 6150 in closing costs on the house we bought a few months ago.

What is all this crap we pay down here?? Where does this money really go?
Appraisal fee $400
Credit report $11
Tax Related Service Fee $78
Document Review $425
LOL Flood Cert $6
Attorney fees $495
Title Insurance $1682
Recording fees $3054

Come on, Tax Related Service Fee??? They were just making things up.

plus $2500 in prepaid insurance/taxes/etc.

One benefit of living in Canada is that we have a land registry system that is based on the Torrens model of land registry where the government keeps an official record of all landholders that guarantees title... this largely eliminates the need for title insurance* and simplifies title searches. (*There are other flavours of title insurance available in Canada, but they're not the same as the title insurance you buy down there.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrens_system