Selling & Buying Home Questions (incentive, 1%, agent, sale)

[GuitarPlayr]

I put an offer in on a new house yesterday and have a few questions since I am new to the selling process.

I had heard that the seller usually covers closing costs for the new buyer in Texas. I found this odd because when I bought my house I paid for closing cost. What is the story on this and what amount will I be paying based on a sale price of roughly 185k??

The house I put the offer in on will take 5-6 months to build and there is a 4k-5k incentive for using their lender MTH Funding. My credit score at last check was 780. Below was what I was quoted via email when I inquired about the current interest rate and locking in when we are looking at 6 months out. My fear is that the interest rates could rise. Is the below standard right now? My current loan is through Wells Fargo so I will call them tomorrow and see what they say.

[SIZE=2]Below are our current rates and information regarding long term locks.

30 day lock = 5.375% with 1% origination fee
60 day lock = 5.5% with 1% origination fee

Long Term Locks...

Rate Lock term Additional Up Front Fee

5.5% 90 days .5%
5.5% 120 days .625%
5.5% 150 days .75%
5.5% 180 days 1.0%

The additional up front fee is due the day of the lock request. There is
also an additional fee of .5% to have a one time float down option. This
fee is also due at the time of the lock request. The rate would float down
to the current 60 day lock rate once you are within two weeks of your
closing date (unless the current 60 day rate is higher than the locked
rate).
[/SIZE]

[rjrcm]

While closing costs paid by seller is fairly common, at least around here in AZ, seller only pays closing costs if asked for in the offer and accepted. Did you specify seller pays closing costs in your offer? Was the builder offering to pay? Otherwise you are responsible. Your lender should give you a good faith estimate of closing costs, but generally expect around 3% of price, or about $6K. Your "incentive" may cover most of this.

[aneftp]

Honestly it really depends on the area and the market conditions.

In Maryland, I purchased at peak 2005. All buyers paid the majority of closing costs at the time.

Now fast forward to 2009. I sold my home at a huge 6 figure lost. In addition I offered to kick in an additional 10K in closing cost for the buyer to move the property quickly.

I also purchased another home in Florida earlier this year. In Central Florda, the buyer routinely pays closing cost. So I ended up paying about 13K in closing costs in my new home.

But the sellers down in Florida also can offer to pay for closing cost. My friend just closed on a home and the homeowner (who had his home all paid for) offered my friend 10K in closing cost assistance.

So closing costs are usually paid by the buyers but market conditions can dictate whether the sellers will ask the buyer to help out with closing costs.

[GuitarPlayr]

Thanks for the help all. I am going to call the agent tomorrow and get some details. I can see helping in closing costs but not covering their prepaids.

Thanks again for the help!