Which party (buyer or seller) in a transaction pays which closing cost is not regulated by law.
Sellers typically pay county transfer taxes. City transfer taxes are typically split 50/50 between buyer and seller.
What about title and escrow fees?
However each county has their own custom.
In San Mateo County buyer pays for owner title policy. In Santa Clara County seller pays.
Buyer generally pays for lender title policy (ALTA).
So if you sell in San Mateo County and move to Santa Clara County, you typically will pay no title and escrow fees.
Please note
Here is a chart that shows who pays what on a county by county basis.
Thanks to Sam Benson of RealEstate680 bringing my attention to the chart.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Uri // Mar 6, 2009 at 3:45 am
Hi Arn,
Thanks for the great blog. Regarding this post, although this may be the custom in each county, isn’t this all negotiable, especially in a buyer’s market like we’re in today?
2 Arn Cenedella // Mar 6, 2009 at 8:30 am
Hi Uri
thanks for the comment and clairification, i should have done a better job making clear YES everything is negotiable. so a buyer and seller can structure a transaction anyway they want to. the seller will look at his net bottom line. sellers often pick up all closing costs or a dollar amount of closing costs. i recently have Wachovia sell an REO to one of my first-time buyer clients and pay $7,000 of their closing costs.
so YES you are exactly right.
i am feeling the market is starting to solidy a bit but that being said the buyers are still in the drivers seat.
Arn
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