Expenses

I recently taught a seminar on the types of expenses to expect in a standard real estate transaction PLUS some that are not so standard but common enough to mention. I really enjoyed it and was glad to field questions confidently from the crowd.


What's pretty important is that you save up a little more money than you think you'll need. You never know when you may need to split the cost of a water heater or something similar to make the deal happen.


I once represented a woman who was buying her second home. Her first home was finnanced FHA so the seller paid 3% of her closing costs (one of the stiputlations of an FHA) so when she was financing conventionally this time, she was flabbergasted at her closings costs. She put 5% down on a home and was not only shocked by the downpayment but was shocked by the rest of the closing costs.

Sometimes, as Realtors, we don't necessarily know the questions to ask. In this case, this was a person who had closed on a home in the past and she should have received a good-faith estimate this time from her lender so she wasn't warned.

Like the boy scouts say, be prepared!