What are the typical transaction costs involved in an acquisition?

Depends on the following:
- Property type (1 family, condo, co-op, commercial, etc..)
- Property location (state, county, city)
- Transaction value
- Seller (resale or sponsor)
- Loan size
- Bank fees
- Attorney fees
For an NYC condo above $1m from sponsor with <80% mortgage financing guesttimate is 6-7% of transaction value

I think that the bigger brokerage sites (Corcoran, Elliman) have a link on their site where they give you estimates, percentages, etc. on this subject.

ps - I find it amazing that a question like this gets so little response and yet everyone is out there on this real estate site talking about Lehman or macroeconomic tsumanis or how you are a moron is you buy or a moron if you rent.

I am more familiar with coops. Transaction costs are lower than new condo construction. Typically, nothing carries more closing costs than new condo construction. For a coop resale, some of the costs to the buyer are:
http://www.elikaassociates.com/closing_costs.php
or see
http://www.corcoran.com/guides/index.aspx?page=ClosingCosts

New condo purchases are usually in the 5% to 6% area of the cost of the apartment. Some new condo construction are offering to pay part of the closing costs which would bring down your cost. Coops have lower closing costs but watch out for the flip tax or a fee when you sell as a percentage of the sale or profit.

Gleeclub, I think a question like this gets so little response because it's been asked and answered a few times in the recent past. All it requires is a little searching. Like many members on this board I am happy to help when I can add something of value. In this case, I think others have chimed in with enough info that the original poster can get a reasonable idea.

Make long story short, transaction costs never exceed $3,500

what motivates you inoeveryting? You fascinate me in a way.

a correction, the 5% to 6% fees is for an apartment prices over one million dollars. It includes the mansion tax. You could knock off 1% for anything prices below about $990,000.

semerun
about 14 hours ago
ignore this person
report abuse Gleeclub, I think a question like this gets so little response because it's been asked and answered a few times in the recent past. All it requires is a little searching. Like many members on this board I am happy to help when I can add something of value. In this case, I think others have chimed in with enough info that the original poster can get a reasonable idea.

its true, people these days think they can just go to google and get the answer in a second. If that doesn't work, they ask others to figure it out for them.

When I was growing up, we had encyclopedias and actually had to flip pages to find things and then cross reference to other pages manually (no hot links).

mduchess, closing costs are far more than you would think. Every situation is different but one thing is for certain that many, many, many hands will be there at the closing table taking a lot of money. The one that gets me is the "title insurance guy". My advice would be to reserve 8% for closing costs. You may not find out the final closing cost bill until you get your 30-day closing notice in which case you don't want a nasty surprise, i.e. you have to borrow to meet closing costs. I've seen this happen where a person puts everything into the down payment and underestimates closing and then needs more money just to get through closing. It ain't pretty.

Hi ClintonB,

My comment was not geared toward googling a question like this (although that should have helped as well), but rather specifically doing a search on these talk pages. When I was new to this board, I did a lot of reading of past topics on this board so as to not waste the time of others. Obviously not everyone thinks the way I do. Sometime in the last week or two someone else asked this question, so it was just a mattter of looking for the info.

The age of encylopedias wasn't so far off, and like you I remember having to do the leg work of researching.

Perhaps the answer is for Streeteasy have an FAQ section for NYC real estate- things are are generic to the entire real estate market as well as specific but common experiences to NYC real estate.

mduchess,

you might find my site helpful.

The answer to your specific question is here:

http://www.frontporchllc.com/2006/05/im-buying-for-the-first-time-how-badly-am-i-going-to-get-socked-on-closing-costs/

but you can also wander around the site using the search box on the right-hand nav bar.

ali r.
{downtown broker}