Closing Costs in New Jersey-Help Please!! (real estate, HOA fees, insurance)

[wcladley]

Hi All,

I am moving to NJ from North Carolina and am closing on a modest condo (cost is under 160K). I was shocked when I received a closing cost estimate of over $9,000. Is this normal?

The following looks suspect.

1. I have put 4 months worth property tax payments in escrow with the lender, and give the lawyer another two months for immediate payment to the township.

2. Title search and insurance are over $2,000.

3. I have to pay 6 months of HOA fees as a membership fee for entering the community. Nothing can be done here, but still, this is outrageous.

If anyone has experience with these costs, let me know. I was counting on NJ closing costs being around 6K, but 9K is absurd.

Thanks,

WC

[TimtheGuy]

Originally Posted by wcladley

Hi All,

I am moving to NJ from North Carolina and am closing on a modest condo (cost is under 160K). I was shocked when I received a closing cost estimate of over $9,000. Is this normal?

The following looks suspect.

1. I have put 4 months worth property tax payments in escrow with the lender, and give the lawyer another two months for immediate payment to the township.

2. Title search and insurance are over $2,000.

3. I have to pay 6 months of HOA fees as a membership fee for entering the community. Nothing can be done here, but still, this is outrageous.

If anyone has experience with these costs, let me know. I was counting on NJ closing costs being around 6K, but 9K is absurd.

Thanks,

WC

If you are putting 20% or more down, you do not have to escrow for your real estate taxes. Fyi-escrows are not closing costs.

I have heard that NJ closing costs are on the high side.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by wcladley

Hi All,

I am moving to NJ from North Carolina and am closing on a modest condo (cost is under 160K). I was shocked when I received a closing cost estimate of over $9,000. Is this normal?

The following looks suspect.

1. I have put 4 months worth property tax payments in escrow with the lender, and give the lawyer another two months for immediate payment to the township.

2. Title search and insurance are over $2,000.

3. I have to pay 6 months of HOA fees as a membership fee for entering the community. Nothing can be done here, but still, this is outrageous.

If anyone has experience with these costs, let me know. I was counting on NJ closing costs being around 6K, but 9K is absurd.

Thanks,

WC

That 6 months of HOA fees is outrageous. I think I had to pay a one-time fee of a couple of hundred dollars.

I bought a $180,000 condo in June of 2010, and my closing costs were $6,000. I'd call the lender and argue over some of that.

[TonyStarksNJ]

Remember its just an estimate. You wont know for sure until you get the settlement sheet a few days before closing. I closed on a house in August and my estimate was a lot higher then it ended up actually being.

[cw30000]

You made a bad choice for moving to NJ.

If I have to do it again, I would never buying NJ.

Don't get me wrong. I think NJ is great. But the tax is simply too high. The tax code here is worst than NY. At least NY pick up your tab if you loss money. In NJ, when you make money, they want a share, when you loss, you are on your own.

[bradykp]

Originally Posted by wcladley

Hi All,

I am moving to NJ from North Carolina and am closing on a modest condo (cost is under 160K). I was shocked when I received a closing cost estimate of over $9,000. Is this normal?

The following looks suspect.

1. I have put 4 months worth property tax payments in escrow with the lender, and give the lawyer another two months for immediate payment to the township.

2. Title search and insurance are over $2,000.

3. I have to pay 6 months of HOA fees as a membership fee for entering the community. Nothing can be done here, but still, this is outrageous.

If anyone has experience with these costs, let me know. I was counting on NJ closing costs being around 6K, but 9K is absurd.

Thanks,

WC

between the taxes in escrow, first month's payment, title insurance...etc., it's easy to get to $10,000 in CCs. sounds reasonable to me.

[MontclairNative]

I've been out of the mortgage biz for a while, but 2 months escrow was more typical. Better to estimate on the high side.

[manderly6]

You should have known about the HOA fees from day 1.

[jm1031]

We closed on a house in December, 2011. Part of what we had to pay at closing were the property taxes due February 1, 2012. Our attorney told us that it is standard practice that you must pay any charges that are due within 60 days from the closing date at the closing.

Remember that if the seller has already paid the property taxes due in the quarter when you close, you will have to reimburse the seller at closing for the portion of the quarter that you'll own the house. If the taxes are $3K a quarter and you close February 28, you'll have to pay $1K back to the seller for the month of March.

We put 20% down and our lender waived the requirement that we escrow. If you are required to (or want to) have an escrow account, 4 months of property taxes sounds about right, based on the estimate we got.

The title search charge is (I think) connected to the price of the house. We paid a bit less than $300K and our title stuff, including our owners' policy, was about $1700.

As far as pre-paying HOA fees, sorry, can't help with that. We haven't lived anywhere with an HOA in years.

FWIW, the initial estimate we got for closing costs (including pre-paids) was about $9K, which included the escrow. Our costs (including our attorney's fee) ended up at about $6200.

Good luck.