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: This is paid to the title company. If youâre not using one, you wouldnât 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 cashierâs check, then this fee wouldnât be charged at all.
COURIER FEE: You probably wouldnât pay this one either⌠although, Iâm not sure who the âcourierâ 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 itâs paid to the county, youâd probably have to take care of it. You can charge the buyer your own âclosing feeâ to offset this cost.
TAX CERT FEE: If youâre administering the closing yourself, youâd 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. Itâs smart to do, but not required. If they choose to do their own title search, they can pay for it. If they donât, then nobody pays for it.
DEED PREP: You wouldnât 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, Iâm not sure what this one is either, so you probably wouldnât have to pay it.
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.