The closing fees in Toronto Ontario are huge when it comes to buying a home. Land transfer tax is 4% so for a 450,000 purchase you are going to spend $18,000 just in land transfer fee. The other additional cost will be the legal fees which can go as high as $1500 per deal. So besides the 25% down payment which comes to 112,500 you will pay an additional 20,000 or so for closing costs. Then you have to consider the fact that once you move you will need furniture, appliances etc.

I live in Georgia and we are trying to buy a house that the bank owns and has been foreclosed on. They are asking 46,000 and the house needs repairs. Like a few windows, Central Unit, pool pump and liner. I have did some research on this but I don`t know all about this stuff. The question is What type of loans are out there for houses like this? Is it just the FHA 203K loan or is there something else? Also Does anyone know a good place to start looking for getting the type of loan I need? Thanks hope you get back with me soon!

a 1913 850 sq ft house is listed as 78,000. how much can i offer for this that is reasonable?

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First home. too early to call my agent. i received in the mail last night my package with all the information regarding my mortgage loan. i’m kind of confused with the closing and down payment part… my agent told me that i need 3.5% for my down payment but she never told me any thing about closing cost. my closing cost is $7,000.00!!! … my bf was purchasing a home (foreclosure same as me) and he was getting back $9k and that’s how he was going to pay for his closing cost… and all he needed down was 3&. will i be doing the same??? … or does every agent just work differently? my agent never told me to get ready with $7k! she told me to be ready with 3.5% for down payment. also they want a gift letter… for $7,700.00 … i told them i was going to receive that money from my mom…. my bf had to have $13k when he was buying his house!!! … can someone help me !!!! my agent did tell me that on 2009 they were going to required 3.5% down instead of 3%. there was one house i wanted but they wanted a conventional instead of an fha loan...but! they wanted 20% down!!! ...the $7k closing cost if for a $80k loan... trust me i've seen houses that i can buy for $80k and i rather go for foreclosure...the houses are newer and better priced. pojo- so basically your saying that i cant afford this?! ... well i actually can.... maybe the heating part happen to you once..but thanks for the warning. noneya- thank you for answering my question... i will be calling my agent to see whats going on...

Give us what you are paying for the home and a list of the closing costs and someone can tell you if all those fees are appropriate. Then you must ask yourself if you should be buying a house when fees like these put you into a stunned stage. Home ownership is not cheap in anyway and it honestly sounds like if the heat went out you could not pay for the cost of a new heating system. Good luck but just think about this.

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Does closing costs and down payment mean the same thing or are closing cost additional to down payment? if seller is paying 3% towards closing costs and i only have to put a 3% down payment on the house does that mean i get to move in without putting money down?

Your 3% down payment is only a portion of your closing costs. You will also have lender fees, title insurance, document prep fees, attorney fees, escrow fees, several months of taxes and 1 yr upfront insurance.

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We found our perfect first home. the price is $59,900 (we live in a small town in pennsylvania so that's really good for the 3 bedroom newly remodeled home). they give us the option of buying it outright or do a rent to own thing that uses a balloon payment. the man selling emailed me and stated that payments vary from person to person and that it depended on what we wanted out balloon payment at the end to be. my question is, we want our monthly payments to be anywhere from $300-$400 a month so we dont go completely broke once bills are paid. so should we take out a loan and buy it for the asking price or take the balloon payment? and if we take the balloon payment how many years/months do people usually pay for before they have to pay the lump sum? and in doing the balloon payment, is there still a down payment, closing cost...all that? i am completely illiterate when it comes to buying a home so i want to make sure we dont get ourselves into something we cant do.

If the house is 60,000 with a FHA loan of 3.5% down, your payment for a 30 year fixed rate at 5% should be 300 a month PLUS taxes, insurance and PMI of another 100 (estimated). So your total monthly payment would be around 400. TOTAL CASH NEEDED: 2,100 for downpayment and around 1,800 for closing costs. You must pay the 2,100 downpayment from your own pockets. But the seller can pay the closing costs. This would be the BEST way to buy. If you don't have the 2,100, you can't afford to buy the house. Under a rent to own, you could be paying into the down payment and the seller stops paying the mortgage, YOU LOSE EVERYTHING.

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I been searching for a house since april of this year. i have about 24k for down payment,closing cost etc. it just seems like every time i am interested in a house. there is about 3-6 offers already pending. please someone give me some hopeful advice or things i can possible do so i do not receive the short end of the stick. thanks

Get a real estate agent. It costs you nothing as a buyer (the seller pays for that) and they'll do all the legwork for you in finding a place to put an offer on. If you do have a real estate agent, just keep plugging away. I was shopping for foreclosures and short sales for about 4 months, from April to August this year. I put down an offer on 5 properties that were outbid. I finally got the 6th one accepted. Keep in mind that, while everyone may think it's easy to just find any foreclosure and offer some low ball price to pick up a good deal these days, there are lots of people - and a surprising number of them with cash - trying to pick up a deal. And, the better properties actually end up in bidding wars, with the lower cash offers by wealthy investors or consortiums getting accepted over higher offers that require financing. Just keep at it. Something will turn up. Also, the rule of thumb that I have seen in San Diego County is that most of the foreclosure/short sale offers that are accepted are at or above the asking price (within about 5 or 10% above), due to the competition.

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My husband and i haven't bought a house for over 14 years, and we just signed a contract to purchase rental property. i need to know what is expected at closing. our down payment is $20,700. i know the closing costs are around $1,800, so that totals $22,500. however, when you take into account that we'll be credited $3,260 for taxes, and receiving a $700 credit from the seller for repairs, the total we're actually putting down is $18,540. we haven't bought a house for so long that i don't remember how things are done at closing. will we still write out a check for $22,500 and then get credited the $3,260 + $700 afterward...or will we actually just write the check for the difference of $18,540? our money is set up in about 3 different accounts, so if i have to write a check for the smaller amount, i won't have to transfer any money...but if it's the larger amount, i need to be prepared and transfer money so that the check is actually covered. thanks in advance! okay, sorry but my question hasn't really been answered...i do plan on asking the lender to provide me w/the info, but for now...i'm just trying to find out this: will i be writing a check for the total of all expenses...down pymt/closing costs/etc and then expect them to give me a credit for the other stuff? or will i just be writing a check for the difference? i just wanted to know how it's done. i mean...are there two transactions where i pay them...and then they pay me the credits...or is there just one check written that reflects the difference between the expenses and credits??

your attorney should be able to give you a break down of all your costs.

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My home has a $167k loan on it my current payment with taxes, insurance, and pmi is $1425. rate @ 6.75% goal is to remove pmi (been 6 years) 1st option: 6.125% 30yr fixed $1260; $1425-1260= $165 savings per mo. $5k in closing costs $5000/$165=30 months to cover the closing costs 2nd option: 6.25% 30yr fixed; first 10 yrs is an int only loan. $1110 for the first 10 yrs 3rd option: 5yr arm 5.75%, int only for 5 yrs. payment to be $1039; i would refi in 5 yrs in this case savings in 5 yrs between 2nd and 3rd options: ($1110-$1039) x 5 yrs = $4260 i plan to own the home for the next 10 yrs and plan to start renting it out at the end of the year. the broker made a good point about the int only loan in my case: the home is worth $295-310k – said there is enough equity that i don’t need to chip in on lowering the loan amount for safety in case the housing market dropped. does paying on the principal for 2k to 3k per year seem that necessary in comparison with equity?

I am not sure that I understand your questions but if your goal is to remove PMI then call your lender and tell them to take it off. If your home value is as you say $295,000 and your loan is $167,000 then your LTV is 56% PMI should be taken off after 80% LTV and sometimes they will at 87%. Because the bank will get there 56% back if the house is foreclosed on they no longer need PMI. I would not do an Interest only or an ARM. You are not looking at the risk that goes with both loans. Don't do an ARM because we are at 40 year lowe with interest rates and all ARM's do is protect the Bank not you. Interest only is a stay in debt forever loan and when you do sell you still have to pay the full balance of the loan off. If you really want to make the best move refin to a 15 year fixed rate. Today's rate on a 15 year is 5.62% My calculation of $167k for 15year at 5.62% payment would be $1,369.44 plus taxes and insurance. I don't know what you are wanting to get in rent but when you do rent it add that to the $1,369.44 payment and I bet your will pay off this house in like 5-8 years. Then when you sell in 10 years you will get $295k-310k cash at closing. The real question is do you want a little cash now (savings with the interest only loan and or arm) or a lot of cash later?

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Homes in florida are really cheap at this time,i can get a 3-2 in a decent area for 75,000,now my question is how much will i need for down payment and closing cost,.....any suggestion.....any tip,...will i need 20 porcent down because my credit history,,,,anybody can tell me whats the best thing to do in my case ,,thanks.

Under normal and usual conditions 20% is the required downpayment. If you just filed chapter 7 a couple of years ago then you don't have the 20% down and that's the exact type situation that has gotten this country and Florida and several other states into a downroll. If you don't have the 20% then don't even try for a house. You don't need 20% down "because of your credit history" but because this is the "normal downpayment required". If they do accept you your interest will be higher and you'll never pay the thing off or if they do let you have the normal interest you'd never be able to pay it off because you didn't put the correct downpayment on it. I'm not sure what you call a decent area because a lot of places are near the water and the Gulf oil problem has all of Florida concerned right now, people are losing their shirt. You didn't say what kind of money you're making at your career but I can assure you if it's like $10 an hour you certainly could "not" afford to buy a home. Since the unemployment in some areas in Florida have been up to 17% and I think we're at 9% right now and slower to recover than other states I suggest you get yourself a studio apartment somewhere and save your money.

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1. what percent less than the asking price should you offer, and what's the best technique to negociate? (ie: offer less due to having to furnish the house, or buy appliances, etc?) 2. when you get a home loan, can you pay for interest plus pay toward principle if you overpay? 3. what's the best way to calculate monthly payment? (i'm looking at $160,000 home, with 6% interest rate, and $3600 in property taxes.....what would i be paying monthly to pay for all these things together? 4. how do you get your closing costs paid for? i hear all the time as part of the deal they pay your closing costs, how do you do that? 5. when you first take out a loan, how much is the closing cost? 6. is 10% down a good amount? or am i better off putting less down and having more money in the bank? thanks for your help!! i understand that home owners don't have to pay for you to funish the home, but perhaps it's a bargaining chip. i simply want an answer to question one as to what is the best way to negociate?? ie: if the home i'm looking at is listing for $160k, what should i offer? $148k and expect them to counter offer for $153k, etc? i don't need to be told i'm an uninformed buyer like the first person to answer it. i know i'm an uninformed buyer, that's why i'm asking questions!!

The best answer to this question is to find a good buyer's agent. 1) Depends upon the local market at the time 2) Depends upon the loan you end up with. Some loans have prepayment penalties which are triggered by the payment of one extra dollar. Some have prepayment penalties that aren't quite so aggressive. The best ones have no prepayment penalty at all. 3)Any loan calculator will tell you this: $160,000 at 6% with a thirty year amortization is $959.29. But you're not going to finance the entire purchase with one loan, or if you do, your rate will be much higher. 4)It's got to be part of the contract. Get a good buyer's agent before you hurt yourself. Please. 5)Depends upon the lender and the competition. Talk to at least six good brokers. My website has a list of questions to ask. 6)10 percent down is more than most first time buyers have these days. It depends upon your situation, how much you have left, the condition of the property you buy, and many other things. Your financial advisor can halp with a lot, but you need professional advice from real estate professionals as well. Hire a good buyer's agent. Talk to several brokers. There's nothing around here that cheap. I stand to gain nothing by telling you this. Get professional help. There's a technical name for those who think they can work the transaction just as well themselves: Suckers. I hear all the time from people on their first transaction who don't want an agent. But those with hundreds of transactions under their belt won't do anything without an agent responsible to them. Guess who does better in real estate?

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My fiance and i need to get out of our current home by the end of july (2008). we make enough money to pay a mortgage (he makes enough money by himself to pay the whole thing) and we have been approved for a mortgage. got the good faith estimates, and we're working with a real estate agent. we're doing a fha loan so that we only have to put down 3%. we only have 6,000 cash saved, and we need about 12,000 dollars. my boyfriend saves about 350 a week, which is 1,400 at the end of the month. (the 350 saved is after paying car payment, insurance, etc..) we can save about 4,000 dollars within the next 3 months, but we would still be short about 2,000 dollars. we're going to try to get the seller to pay the closing costs, but we still want to have enough money + more than we need just incase any unexpected payments pop up. can we take out a personal loan (about 5,000$) to assist payment in an fha mortgage loan? to pay the closing costs? our good faith estimate says that we'll need roughly 7,600 dollars cash if the seller pays the closing costs (there are still some closing fees that the buyer is responsible for) and then we rounded the number up becuase we're taking inspection fees and lawyer fees into consideration (we're saving 1,000 for each even though we may only need 500 for each. its better to save more than to find out we dont have enough!!)

You can dip into a retirement account or it can be a gift from parents or someone else. I suppose you can get a loan, but I wouldn't say that and I wouldn't want anyone running a credit check. Can you cash advance a credit card the day of closing?

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I am selling my house because i can't afford the payment since my fiance and i have broken up. i have listed it for 120,000 for the 6.8 acres and a doublewide bricked in with the title retired, and i already have some people who are wanting to buy it. neither of us are using realtors and i am wondering if i should have to pay any closing costs except doc preparation and things of that nature. the problem is i don't have the money to pay them and i am letting the house go for about 3,000 over payoff. is it okay to tell the buyer they are fully responsible? can we just raise the price if they want me to pay it so it would be covered? is that allowed?

Raise the price to cover your closing cost and theirs- then you have a little money to scale back down on....... It's easier to ask for a little more and go down then to try to have a buyer pay more.