I just closed on a house this week and wanted to provide an overview of the services I used and the amount I saved. I haven’t seen a similar thread to this, so hopefully someone finds this of value. This purchase is in NJ. Realtor Rebates are not legal in all states.
1. Early in the process of house shopping we reached out to a realty company that offered 2% CashBack at closing if you purchased through them. The catch is that it is only valid if you find a house during an open house. Because we were shopping open houses only at the time this was fine.
2. The above mentioned realty company has a complicated system where the more houses you look at with them the more the CashBack reduces, down to 0 eventually. Instead of dealing with their complicated and uncomfortable policy we located another realtor offering CashBack.
3. When we viewed some open houses and were ready to move forward with a purchase we contacted Glen at Taylor Real Estate: www.taylorrealestatenj.com Currently he offers 2% CashBack if you see 1 house and want it, and then it is a flat 1% CashBack.
4. In NJ Title Insurance is highly regulated, there is no point in shopping around because all prices are within $50. But there is a way to get a slightly better title deal that Glen let us know about. There is a title company that offers $250-350 back as an “advertising fee” for agreeing to put a sign on your lawn for 3 weeks after closing stating who insured your title. You can read about their program here: http://www.colonial-title.com/Partnering.asp
5. We found a house we loved. It happened to be a bank owned REO. In very good condition as it was a deed in lieu of foreclosure property. Part of the deal was closing where the seller states, but for agreeing to that they agreed to pay for the title insurance on our behalf.
6. After shopping mortgages around we settled on going with www.GuaranteedRate.com in particular my rep was Joe: https://www.guaranteedrate.com/JoeCafiero if you’re in NJ or PA definitely reach out to him. Their rate was comparable to everyone else, but lender credit was a little lower than the best I found. But from the service I received and knew I would, it was worth a slightly smaller credit.
7. Guaranteed rate has no upfront cost, they even cover the Appraisal fee upfront for you. When you apply with them they provide your full credit reports with FICO scores for free. (They charge $5 at closing for that report if you close with them).
So how did things end up in the end? 3.5% 30 year. $625 Lender Credit after their fees, $1875 title insurance credit, $4400 realtor rebate. This means that with all the credits I received all fees got covered and even some of my escrow and upfront interest was covered.
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