Legal-Ease: Who pays what closing costs

Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney with Schroeder Law LLC in Ottawa. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at lee@leeschroeder.com or at (419) 523-5523. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.

Spring is often the busiest times for home sales and closings. As you go into your home sale, it’s good to know what is customary regarding the closing costs.

Federal law requires that the buyer of the home receive an estimate on closing costs (if they’re borrowing money for the purchase of the home) several days in advance of the closing.

Spring is usually the busiest season for home sales. Many of those home sales are “closing” this month. Whether someone is buying or selling a house, farmland or commercial property, it is important to know what is customary concerning allocating the closing costs between the buyer and the seller.

Closing costs are usually defined as the transaction costs to transfer the property from seller to buyer, to administer payment of the existing liens against the property and to protect the buyer’s lender’s lien/mortgage interest in the property. Allocation of closing costs should be identified in the purchase contract and can always be negotiated. However, the purchase contract does not always include such allocation for many understandable reasons.

Read Lee’s full article on in the Lima News here: Legal-Ease: Who pays what closing costs

Source: LimaOhio.com, Legal-Ease: Who pays what closing costs by Lee R. Schroeder, May 31, 2014

Posted in Buying a Home, Homeowner Law, Real Estate Law and tagged , , .