Are you contemplating listing your home for sale this Spring? Before selling your home, you should take into consideration your closing costs!
That’s right, even when you sell your home you will have closing costs. Not everything is covered by the buyer. Wolf & Shore Law Group highly recommends contacting a residential closing attorney as soon as you decide to put your home on the market so they can help you navigate the process.
Closing costs are the all the fees associated with selling and/or buying a home, wrapped into one term. There are many different types of closing costs. If you were to enlist Wolf & Shore for your sale, we would immediately provide you a brochure of potential costs you may need to cover.
We don’t want your closing to sound scary, so we’d like to break down some of the potential costs you could need to pay out before walking away with your proceeds.
In Connecticut, it is standard for the seller to cover both realtor fees. That’s right, you would pay the fee for both the buyer’s realtor and your own! This is typically 5% of the purchase price.
You will also need to be cognizant of “payoff” figures. Those are exactly what they sound like, the funds that “payoff” your outstanding bills. This could be your water bill, mortgage(s), sewer fees, property taxes (depending on if they had not already been paid), and sometimes even solar panel leases.
There are also fees associated with any liens that may be on your property. Your buyer will find any liens itemized on their title search, and then they will require that those liens be paid in full at close so as not to encumber the new owner.
As the seller, you will also need to watch out for required credits. For instance, if you don’t have smoke or carbon dioxide detectors you are required to give a $250.00 credit to the buyer. Sometimes the seller will even go so far as to credit the buyer a percentage of their closing costs as well (for example, to make the deal on the sale).
Something else that is rarely brought up when you sell your home? Permits! Before listing your home, you should go down to town hall and make sure there are no open permits on your property. Open permits can delay the closing process exponentially, as you will need to wait for an inspector to see the property and sign off any work that may have been done.
You will also have attorney fees for your closing, and likely mailing fees as well. In New Haven County, the standard closing attorney fee is around $800.00, which is paid at closing from the proceeds of your sale. It is definitely in your best interest to hire a lawyer to help you when you are selling your home. There can be an incredible amount of forms that are required to be provided by the seller at close. Without an attorney to help you, it would be easy to miss some and that could cause issues. A mortgage company could even demand the proceeds of the sale back should they find anything wrong with one page of your paperwork.
If you need help with your residential closing this Spring, Wolf & Shore Law Group is the firm for you! Give us a call and get started today. We can be reached here, at 203.745.3151, or info@wolfandshorelaw.com. You can also schedule a time to speak with our Client Intake Specialist here.
