San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

most title companies price fix,

2300is high but not bad, i paid almsot as much for a cheaper house.

Regarding title insurance -

1 - If you ever refinanced and look back at the refi to see who issued your title insurance. Call them up to see if they will beat whatever quote you have received.

2 - If you have never refinanced, then look back at your previous purchase and find out who was used to procure your previous title insurance. Do the same as above.

3 - Many realtors work closely with title officers and can obtain excellent pricing. Also some title officers will provide a meet or beat pricing, that is, you bring them a written quote and they will beat it.

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Other things you should know or your realtor should have already told you:

Generally a generic estimate for closing costs is about .8% but I advise people to use 1% as a good swag. Common closing costs that sellers pay in this day and age include but are not limited to:

- splitting escrow with the buyer (so 50% of escrow)
- purchasing title insurance for the buyer
- county transfer tax ($1.10 for every 1000... so if you sell your home for $1M then you will need to pay the county $1000.)
- Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement ($60-100)
- Home Warranty for the buyer ($350-500)
- Any doc transfer fees if you have any HOA at all
- Possibly a Transaction Coordination Fee ($350-450) You may or may not be charged this fee, it depends on the brokerage you use.

These are non recurring costs
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Do not forget to prorate your property tax. The property tax year starts in July 1.

Do not forget to prorate your mortgage interest as well as you pay in arrears each month.

These are recurring costs.

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So these are the basics. Also recall that the buyer may well ask for credits from you to pay for some of the buyers side closing costs as well. The above template though is a good starting point. Again, if you think about a 1% swag for your estimation that is a nice way to take care of the normal closing costs, but will not include what the buyer is asking for.

Best of luck!

SD realtor- you know your stuff..That was very helpful..thank you very much!

No worries PK - If you want I can give you the name number of a title officer who will probably do a meet and beat deal with you, that is, whatever quote you can get on paper, he will either meet it or beat it.

That would be great SD realtor..Hopefully it is not too late in the process...You can give me the name and number here or e-mail it to PDrew35 [at] aol [dot] com...

thanks

Save yourself the time and check here. I'm sutrprised SD R didnt send you here. if he didnt know about this, he can thank me for teaching him another new trick. This is will show you the rate you should be able to get.

Meet and beat pricing often involves illegal discounting as title rates are filed with the state. More often than not they will "meet and beat" by issuing a cheaper/lower quality policy. You will pay less by getting less. The rate you will find here is for an ALTA HOP policy which is the best policy issued.

http://www.clta.titlewizard.com/default....

You can get cheaper rates if you go with a lesser policy but the standard purchase contract states the policy should be an ALTA HOP.

thanks again..appreciate it much.