When I was researching how much cash should I set aside for buying, the range was pretty wide to say the least. Down payment was the easiest to figure out. The rest were pretty variable – home inspection, appraisals, home insurance etc, and I learned that things can also vary by state so I stayed super conservative with the down payment in case big surprise items pop up. I finally had a chance to sit down and take stock of everything.
| Down Payment (3%) | $11,250 |
| Loan Origination Fee | $1,895 |
| Appraisal Fee | $375 |
| Credit Report | $83 |
| Flood Certification | $7 |
| Tax Service | $85 |
| Inspection | $1,121 |
| Title & Escrow Services | $2,199 |
| State Tax/Stamps | $1,804 |
| Recording Fee | $101 |
| Homeowner Insurance | $1,464 |
| Prepaid Interest | $444 |
| Initial Escrow | $1,246 |
| Total Cash | $22,073 |
The more or less standard costs associated with home buying process ended up at about $22K for me. But I also had additional costs like extra rent payment (~$2.5k), new appliances ($~3k) etc that I previously hadn’t factored in. This is the most cash I’ve ever spent in a month timespan but even then I was pleasantly surprised that the number ended up being not as scary as expected (for context, at one point I thought I couldn’t buy unless I have $95k in cash saved up).
I’ve been in the house for a few months now and the list of things to fix keep adding up (that’s a post for another day) but overall I feel incredibly lucky that nothing has been major so far.
FIRE on the way 