Budget for Closing Costs – Property Taxes and Legal Fees

You probably spent a good bit of time getting disciplined to save money for your home purchase. You need to carry this financial discipline through the escrow period or you could run into problems.

Budget for Closing Costs

When you decided it was time to purchase a home, you went through several steps to get your finances in order. You probably reviewed your credit report, cut down on credit card balances and reigned in your spending. A monthly budget was probably also an item you stuck to, probably with some aggravation.

Closing costs are one of the most important yet frustrating things when buying a home and can hit you by surprise if you have not done your research. Know the area that you are purchasing in and the requirements for it.

Once you have an offer for a home accepted, you must keep budgeting for the closing costs associated with the purchase. Here are a couple of odd little fees that can show up and drive you nuts if you are not careful.

Property Taxes, Legal Fees and Such

Being required to pay property taxes can be a nasty little surprise. After all, you do not even own the home yet! The requirement, however, comes from the nature of how property taxes are paid. They are not paid every month, so the seller has prepaid the taxes beyond the period they will own the home. They will want that money back! You can negotiate this point as part of the purchase, but you need to be aware it is out there.

In some states, it is a legal requirement that you have a lawyer represent you in a real estate transaction. Regardless, attorneys are expensive and you need to have money set aside to pay their fees. In truth, retaining a lawyer is a good idea since they tend to sniff out any questionable issues in the transaction. Fees can run you from a couple hundred bucks to thousands of dollars.

In addition to the above, there are a lot of small fees associated with closing. They can run from several hundred dollars paid to the escrow company to $20 or so for notary fees and so on. If you do not keep an eye out, they can add up quickly to a few thousand dollars.

Closing on a home can be aggravating with all the costs you have to pay. It will all be worth it when you walk into your new home the first time.