Thursday, February 28, 2019

NICKELS and DIMES

This morning (Weds) was a snow day.   After two days of two hour late start days.  Portland only gets snow once or twice a year and it just cripples the city.  The boys played outside for over two hours and when they returned, chaos reigns.  Even though there is a nice warm fire in the living room, I had to come into my sanctuary due to the noise level.  Thus the blog begins!


It's not over until the fat lady sings, but a traveling notary met me at Starbucks to sign the closing papers.  Granted, I have not sold a house for ten years but what a joke ... and NOT nickels and dimes.

The HOA wants $286 for "processing fees".  I have an email into them to see exactly what this is.  All they do is change the name on Lot 14!  We do have a binder full of CCRs and bylaws and rules ... but they are all posted online.



THEN Document Services of Maui charged $505 for HOA documents.  The same ones that are online and available for a ream of paper?


Next is an "estimated" cost of $200 for a mobile notary fee.  WHAT?  I could print the 30 pages, take them to my bank and have them notarized for FREE.  And she was an hour late and spent another hour telling me her life story.

Then all the other nit picky things ...$365 for 10 minutes of termite inspection.  $575 for 40 minutes of land survey.  Conveyance fee, escrow fee, title insurance, deed preparation, etc.  All these nickels and dimes amounted to $40,000.  Incredible.

The last and final beef is the closing is February 28 (they zap the money from the buyer) but I don't get the money til March 5.  Who gets the interest on that????


4 comments:

  1. $40,000 in closing fees? A big chunk of that has to be the realtor fees? Or did you mean $4,000? It is amazing what it costs to sell stuff. I went threw that with some "collectibles" I've consigned to an elite auction house.

    You can bet you won't be getting that interest. It's another hidden fee.

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  2. FORTY thousand. Yes, $31,740 in sales commissions. I wonder who does collect that interest? Mr. Ralph hated that as his company did a LOT of wire transfers. These days every transaction should be instantaneous ... or maybe held for 24 hours. But certainly not a week.

    Anyway .... glad it is done! One thing off the list!!

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  3. Gasp!!! $40,000!!! That's crazy. As for that interest, they did that to us, too, the last time we moved. My realtor called to tell us a few things and mentioned that she'd already gotten her money. I said, "How nice for you." I couldn't help it. It took four or five days before we got ours.

    I hate selling or buying a house more than almost anything I've ever had to do. When we moved to MD 35 years ago, my husband's company bought our house and moved us for free. I had no idea how lucky I was because my biggest move to that point was across town from a small apartment to our first house. We just rented a truck and did it ourselves. H's company and the movers treated us well when we moved to MD. I was so young, I just thought things always went smoothly like that. I now know better.

    You will put this behind you fast. Once it's over, we tend to move on. It will feel good to have wrapped up this loose end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's how I've always moved ... by the company! Until we downsized to the condo and bought the Maui nugget. What a difference! SOOOO glad we did that while he was here to help.

      Totally NOT nickels and dimes any more. And my net number is so totally beyond my wildest dreams. Comfy for a good, long while!

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