I asked a title company to send me a list of what made up the closing costs. Here is everything with the exception of the property transfer tax. My question is if I am the seller and do a self-closing, which of these fees would I be saving?
|CLOSING FEE|$750.00|
|WIRE FEE|$25.00|
|COURIER FEE|$25.00|
|UPDATE FEE|$35.00|
|TAX CERT FEE|$50.00|
|TITLE SEARCH FEE|$225.00|
|DEED PREP|$75.00|
|CURATIVE FEE|$100.00
@syasturi Ask yourself which one has less liability on your behalf.?
Some of these fees could be state or county specific (like the âupdate feeâ for example). If anyone else knows what these are or has a different understanding than what I explained above, feel free to chime in.
Seth, I am so impressed by the very detailed answer you have given me! Thank you for taking the time.
The list of costs I asked about was given to me by the title company that works with Tax Title Services in the state where I am planning to sell some lands. In other words, Tax Title Services gave me the name, and said it was the title company it works with. Since submitting the question, I wrote to several other title services whose name came up on Google. I was curious as to whether other title services accepted TTSâ certification.
Several have not yet written back to me, but Closed Title wrote back saying sure, they know TTS and they are fine with it. That is good to know. I asked them for a list of costs and they sent this:
We charge $595 closing/settlement fee plus title insurance (dependent on sales price and fixed by the state). We charge a $99 digital platform fee. Title search fee, but that is a pass through cost as well. The fee depends on the county we are searching. And those are our only fees.
Of course there will be additional state tax fees, county recording fees but those are all pass through fees and dependent on the transaction.
We do not charge the junk fees below.
Not only is its fee significantly lower, but it refers dismissively to most of the items on the list as âjunk fees.â Seth, no wonder you were scratching your head about the fees on the list.
As someone who buys delinquent tax properties, I know I need to use Tax Title Services or US Tax Deed Solutions. Each works in tandem with a particular title company. However, this tells me I can look around for other title companies that accept their certification and perhaps offer better prices.
You can definitely shop around. As you do, youâll find differences in costs (like youâve already seen) and once you start working with different ones, youâll also see a difference the quality of service⌠and the higher or lower cost doesnât necessarily correspond to better or worse service.
Usually, what you are really looking for is the right individual at the title company office who is fast, responsive, and knows how to solve problems, that person is who will ultimately determine most of your experience with that title company.
Very good advice! Thank you, as always.
Did you find someone for your website needs?
Hi @syasturi, In this recent video, I tried to address some of your questions about closing costs. I hope some of this helps!
I just watched it.
THANKS SO MUCH!!!
I canât tell you how much I learn from you about the nitty gritty technical details we absolutely need to be familiar with.
In my experience this looks like a list of possible fees & youâre not going to pay them unless it applies to your transaction. To expand on some of the ones that were questionable.
Update fee: this is charged when youâre processing a second title so the company only has to do an update to the title search rather than the full title search. Most companies limit this to 6 to 12 months anything older is a title search fee. If youâre getting an update you wouldnât also pay a title search fee.
Curative fee- this comes in to play if there is an issue that has to be resolved before they can issue title. So it only applies if and when there is an issue. Most of the time if there is an issue it would be on the sellers end. Example of something to cure, an older mortgage with a missing satisfaction, there is a cost to research and then record the satisfaction to make the title transferable.
Courier fee is normally fedex or ups if a document has to be sent out to have it signed. Would only apply if that was the case.
Tax cert fee this really depends on the state. In some states like MD you have to get a tax certificate from the county before they will record the deed, so this really in that case lumps in with the recording cost. In other areas Title Companies might use a third party service to verify taxes and charge you a pass through for it.
Great info! Thanks for sharing this @Nicole!