Help on Determining Closing Costs for Buyer

[Ted]

I am trying to get some specifics on how to determine certain closing costs for a home buyer purchasing a single family home in San Diego County. I’d like to know what are reasonable amounts/percentages that a buyer should be charged BEFORE going into escrow. Let’s say the house would sell for $900,000. I know that typically a buyer would pay:

One-half escrow fee,
Premium for Lender’s Policy of Title Insurance,
Document preparation fees,
Recording charges for all docs in buyer’s name,
Inspection fees (property, geological, etc.),
Appraisal

Is the escrow fee a flat fee or a % of sale price?
Is title insurance a flat fee or % of sale price?
What is a reasonable amount for recording charges?
Presently what does a home inspection cost?
Presently what are appraisal fees for a SF home?

Am I missing any fees or costs that a buyer in SD County would typically incur. I am not concerned with tax prorations or HOA fees as it pertains to my inquiry here.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any input!

[SD Realtor]

In general you have everything about right. What you are missing are the lenders fees with regards to origination charges, prepaid points etc…

When you get your good faith estimate those amounts should be on there.

Inspections vary with the size of the home. If you are talking a 900k home that is around 3500 sf then you are looking at 450-600 for a good home inspection. Appraisal will run 350 – 450.

You can call any escrow company to get an estimate for escrow, title insurance, recording charges. In general the cost for escrow and the title insurance will grow with the cost of the transaction. I don’t want to say it will be exactly x% of the cost. It takes two minutes to call an escrow company and get an estimate for those items.

Also don’t forget that you will also pay some recurring fees at closing such as homeowners insurance and some property taxes as well.

However with regards to non recurring expenses you got most of them. If you want to do secondary inspections like spore testing for mold, or more intrusive HVAC inspections or having someone come out and scope the drains then estimate a few hundred for each of those tests.

[sdrealtor]

Here’s another tool you can use. Quick simple and pretty darn accurate.

http://www.closing.com

[Author]

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