How to Estimate Closing Costs as a Homebuyer | Buyer’s Net Sheet
A lot of times, my clients are always asking me “Hey! How do I know how much cash do I need to bring in to close this deal outside of my down payment?” Today, I’ll walk you through how exactly I estimate these closing costs using the Buyer’s Net Sheet Tool of my go-to company, Placer Title Company.
This estimator that I’m going to share with you shows very detailed and granular closing costs estimates. It also requires you to know some information that you might not know until the home seller accepts your offer, but I’m going to walk you through all these areas so you can go back later and fill those in.
Step 1: Go to Placer Title’s Website and click on Buyer’s Net Sheet.
Step 2: Type in your personal Information and the property information under the “Buyer/Property Information” tab.
Step 3: Go to the Non-Recurring Closing Costs tab.
You will notice that some of these non-recurring closing costs have already been pre-set to show what is usually being done. Costs that have not been pre-set on this form that’s also typical in East Bay include the following:
- The seller pays for the County Transfer Tax.
- City Transfer Tax is usually split between the buyer and seller 50/50.
- The buyer takes on the Escrow fees and Owner’s Title Insurance.
Some items have also already been pre-filled but you can also remove them or add to them to make the details closer to the actual value as you see fit.
Step 4: Fill in the Recurring Closing Costs tab questions.
Step 5: Proceed to the Credits and Closing Tab
Tax Proration will be a little bit complicated if you don’t have your tax bill yet for the property and you don’t know when exactly the day is that you’re going to get to close the deal. Normally, escrow and title will get that to you before you close but if you want to do the math and figure out how many days of that six month period are going to be prorated, you can put those in here.
Personally, I prefer to leave it blank for now because the closing date can be a really fluid thing, especially now, during the Covid era.
Step 6: View your estimated Closing Costs
After the 5th step, all that’s left to do is click view printable version at the bottom of the Credits and Closing tab and you’ll be able to already see the estimated amount you need to get across the finish line for this deal.
I hope my tips on how to estimate your closing costs as a homebuyer has helped you.
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