Closing costs on sale by owner

[John Morgan]

I’m buying a house from someone I know doing a “for sale by owner” deal off market. What’s an approximate guess on our closing costs for this? It will be a cash deal. He doesn’t want to pay a cent of it. I’m getting it for a steal so I’ll have to pay everything above and beyond the sales price. I wish I could just write him a check, change the names on the deed and call it good. But I know there are mandatory things a title company must do for the transaction.