How to Calculate Closing Costs
July 28, 2009Closing costs? Yikes. Complicated subject. That is, until now. One of our all-time favorite real estate related websites is www.closing.com and it provides answers to the most detailed of closing cost scenarios. Here’s how it works:
- You tell Closing.com the address of the property you’re looking to buy or sell and the property type (condo, single family, etc).
- Plug in the purchase (or sale) price, down payment, interest rate, and whether you intend to occupy this property or rent it out.
Plug in some basic info...
That’s it. Closing.com will spit back a monthly payment estimate, and it knows the tax rate for the zip you entered. Next, it will lead you to some title insurance and home warranty providers. Select (or shop) policies to arrive at the final screen, your Estimated Closing Costs Report. Handsomely laid out, this report will detail the line items associated with closing. You can enter additional numbers into blank fields, for example, if you want to plug in $500 under “Pest Inspection”. Closing.com also seems to understand the transfer tax in San Francisco, which is generally paid by the seller (unless buying into a new development or a probate sale).
Monthly payment breakdown
The best part about Closing.com is that people thinking about buying, selling or agents wanting to give their clients more specific numbers, can use it for free without signing up for anything, and print out reports. The reports clearly label “Monthly Payments”, “Total Closing Costs”, and “Cash to Close”. Pretty nifty.
Enjoy it!! For more gadgets, click HERE.
Sample report with clearly labeled sections
