Who is paying the various expenses of the sale, including closing costs?
Sellers customarily pay for the real estate commission, standard title insurance, transfer stamps, one-half of the escrow fee and their portion of the year’s taxes and assessments. Buyers customarily pay for one half of the escrow fees, transfer stamps and their loan fees. Occasionally sellers and buyers decide to share the expenses of buying and selling. This must be negotiated during the purchase offer time and often depends on local real estate market conditions, other terms of the purchase contract, the seller’s cash and timing considerations. Seller concessions, as they are known in real estate jargon, for at least part of the closing costs, are more common in a buyer’s market than in a seller’s market. These concessions typically occur during the offer- counteroffer-acceptance cycle. On rare occasion a seller will make further concessions during the closing time period. Any concession after the purchase contract is mutually agreed upon must be in writing and agreed to by all part
