The question most on people’s mind when buying or selling a home is “How much is it going to cost me?”
Buying
The truth is that using a realtor to help you find that dream home doesn’t cost a penny! That’s right; the buyer does not pay a thing for a realtor. When purchasing a home, you will pay fees and costs but most of them are associated with your loan. Upon making a purchase offer, you will pay an option fee of generally $50 – $100 dollars and earnest money typically about 1% of the sales price. Both of these checks will be cashed at the time, but you will be given credit back for them both at closing. You would only lose either of these sums if you backed out of the contract. Beyond that, you will have the title company’s escrow fee (approx. $250) and a few small charges generally less than $100. The bulk of the money that a buyer pays is to their lender so it is important to use a lender that you trust. Ask us, we can help you with that, too!
Selling
When selling your home, unfortunately, you have more costs than when purchasing. It generally costs you approximately 9% of your sales price to sell your home. Here is an approximate breakdown of your costs:
Commission: 6% of final sales price – 3% to the listing agent & 3% to the buyer’s agent
Title Policy: Flat Fee determined by the TX State Board of Insurance based on sales price
Deed: $ 95
Home Warranty: $435 (Could be more if your home has a pool or is over 5,000 sq ft)
Escrow Fee: $250 – the title company’s fee to close the transaction
Pro-Rated Taxes: Because Texas property taxes are paid in arrears, you will owe taxes from January 1 through the day of closing. The actual dollar amount will depend on the tax assessed by your County Tax Office. If you have an escrow account with your mortgage holder, this amount should be refunded to you approximately 4-6 weeks after closing so make sure they have your forwarding address!
Here’s an example:
Sales price $200,000
Commission $12,000
Title Policy $1,377
Deed $95
Home Warranty $435
Escrow Fee $250
Pro-rated Taxes $3,700 (hypothetical figure for the purpose of this example only)
Total Costs: $17,857
Net Before Current Loan Payoff $182,143
We would love to meet with you to determine your home’s current market value and will work up a closing cost analysis at that time with your specific information.