Closing costs with and without self-closing

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.?

  • CLOSING FEE: This is paid to the title company. If you’re not using one, you wouldn’t have to pay this.
  • WIRE FEE: This is technically a bank fee, paid by whoever is sending the money. As the seller, you would be receiving the money, so the buyer would pay this if they wire it to you. If they give you a cashier’s check, then this fee wouldn’t be charged at all.
  • COURIER FEE: You probably wouldn’t pay this one either… although, I’m not sure who the ‘courier’ is. As the seller, yours is the only signature that absolutely must be notarized, and you can get this done at your bank for free.
  • UPDATE FEE: Not sure what this is, but if it’s paid to the county, you’d probably have to take care of it. You can charge the buyer your own ‘closing fee’ to offset this cost.
  • TAX CERT FEE: If you’re administering the closing yourself, you’d probably pay it directly, but similar to the one above, you could easily charge the buyer a closing fee to cover this.
  • TITLE SEARCH FEE: The title search is up to the buyer to do. It’s smart to do, but not required. If they choose to do their own title search, they can pay for it. If they don’t, then nobody pays for it.
  • DEED PREP: You wouldn’t have to pay this one, because either you or the buyer would be preparing the deed (most likely, you).
  • CURATIVE FEE: If there are no title problems to cure, I’m not sure what this one is either, so you probably wouldn’t have to pay it.

Some of these fees could be state or county specific (like the ‘update fee’ 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 TTS’ 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 “junk fees.” 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.

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You can definitely shop around. As you do, you’ll find differences in costs (like you’ve already seen) and once you start working with different ones, you’ll also see a difference the quality of service… and the higher or lower cost doesn’t 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.

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