I got an unwelcome surprise in the last few days before my first home purchase was completed: The closing costs would be higher than I expected.
It was a last-minute dash, and one I could have avoided with better planning. But I’m not the first rookie buyer to make that mistake. Those expenses have nearly derailed purchases in his experience, especially during the pandemic when markets rose rapidly and people continuously pushed their upper spending limit higher without considering the effect on other costs.
I was purchasing a small condo in a very small town, so the miscalculation in what costs I would be facing was a modest amount. But for million-dollar homes, the expense can balloon to exorbitant amounts that a credit card couldn’t cover. In my case, my mortgage took unusually long to get approved, and then there were delays in getting the mortgage provider’s documents sent to my lawyer’s office. That’s why I only learned about my exact closing costs a couple days before the date of purchase.