Posted by dealmaker on August 01, 2005 at 16:26:55:
Not sure what state you’re in, but in my view, people often call every charge that shows up on the HUD-1 as “closing costs”, but let’s look at the actual categories:
Section 700-Commissions, not applicable here.
Section 800-loan fees, not applicable on the HUD-1
Section 900-lender fees, again N/A
Section 1000-lender required reserves, he may want you to escrow some taxes and insurance with him. I do when I seller finance.
Section 1100-title charges, these should all be on him
Section 1200-recording and transfer charges, sometimes (almost alwayss)they throw in “junk fees” for finding out how much the taxes are.
Section 1300-additional junk, generally things like surevey and termite stuff that didn’t get paid out of pocket.
Legal fees for drawing contracts, no reason one of you can’t do this, I’ve been doing it for years and the title companies have never balked at accepting mine.
Tax credits and debits, prorating prepaid or postpaid taxes. You don’t want this to go away, as the buyer you’re generally getting a credit.
Title policy, he already said he’d pay.
Escrow fee, often has to be paid if they’re not getting paid for drawing up the contracts.
Depending on where you are your attorney can probably do all this for a few hundred on your end.
Get it done right.
dealmaker