Real Estate Attorney Fees (Fayetteville, Aberdeen: sales, insurance, loan)

[lvhayes]

What's a reasonable or at least average amount for real estate attorney fees in the Fayetteville area?

I'm buying a 3-bedroom house for $130,000, and the realtor has quoted an $800 attorney fee for me. That sounds more than a little high, but I can't find any info online about what such fees should be.

lvhayes

[wandrew]

$.50 to $2.00 per thousand on sales price or loan amount - the higher of the two. That will give you a range to expect. That's typically for title search and services. Some say $1 to $2 per thousand of the sales amount. 800$ does seem high unless that includes filing and whatever other due diligence is required on top or the attorney's service fee as well as title insurance. Call around for real estate attorneys in the area to get ranges on your deal. I may be mis speaking, real estate is not my field of expertise...

This an existing home or new construction?

We are doing this now in Alamance - Coldwell Banker agent is doing a satisfactory job. But I'm a hard egg... should know our attorney cost soon.

[Crazyland]

I just bought a house for 150k in Aberdeen... $700 flat closing cost, $20 overnight courier fee, $275 document preparation. We didn't have to have anything else done, like a title search.
It was all paid by the seller though as part of our contract. Is the seller paying any closing costs?

[lvhayes]

The realtor (a Coldwell Banker affiliate) arranged for the attorney. The $800 fee does include title search and insurance. We're going to BB&T (our banker) for a 15-yr 75k first mortage with 4.5% interest rate and around $2,700 closing costs. The 3 BR 3 bath 1805 sq ft house was built in 1955.

It's not too late to pull out of the deal, but in light of what has been said here, it appears that the attorney fee cited is not that far out of line. Maybe the attorney's a really good one <wink!>. The last time we bought a house was 31 years ago when the attorney fee was $300, so we didn't know.

Thanks for the replies!

LV Hayes

[faabala]

That is about right. But, your lender should give you a Good faith Estimate of closing costs. It should all be listed there.

[teebopop]

Our attorney had a schedule of fees based on the appraised value of a home. Everyone who pays less than $600k had a flat rate of $485. And then everyone paying over that amount (in increments of $100k) would be paying more. I hope that made sense.

[Haazim Ali]

$800 is extremely high - normally an attorney will charge between $300 to $375 on the purchase of a house, and say $375 to $425 on the sale of a house. If it is a multi-unit the fees go up. Look for another real estate attorney that is working by himself and not with a firm. Note: attorneys will rip you off if you are ignorant or gullible.

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by faabala

That is about right. But, your lender should give you a Good faith Estimate of closing costs. It should all be listed there.

He is right.

Originally Posted by Haazim Ali

$800 is extremely high - normally an attorney will charge between $300 to $375 on the purchase of a house, and say $375 to $425 on the sale of a house. If it is a multi-unit the fees go up. Look for another real estate attorney that is working by himself and not with a firm. Note: attorneys will rip you off if you are ignorant or gullible.

He is not right.

$400-$500 for fees, with additional cost of title insurance, recording fees.
$800 is not out of this world.

[seeniorita]

It doesn't sound out of line assuming the cost of the title insurance is included. However, since your home was build in 1955, a prior title policy may exist. Title insurance fees tend to get overlooked for savings...ask about a re-issue from a prior policy which is a reduced fee (since the atty only had to search back to the date of the prior policy which most do).

[faabala]

Good point Seenorita. That issue gets glossed over often. You could save a little money.