Closing Costs For Buyers & Sellers

If you’ve recently bought or sold a house, you’ll know that right after you sign on the dotted line (or click “sign here” on DocuSign) that you will need to start budgeting for your closing costs. Hopefully, your real estate agent and mortgage broker have already helped you prepare for these costs so that they won’t be a surprise. Closing costs are different for buyers and sellers.


Closing Costs For Sellers

Congratulations! You’ve sold your house! Hopefully, you have made a nice profit, and the closing costs are just a drop in the bucket.

  • Legal Fees: Your lawyer does several crucial jobs to make sure your transaction closes swiftly. They will clean up any outstanding issues on the title, such as old liens. They will take receipt of the purchase price balance from your buyers on the day of closing. Lawyers will send the buyer’s lawyer a list of adjustments that the buyers owe you on closing (for example, if you overpaid your property taxes beyond your closing date).  Lawyers all charge a different amount, but, on average, these legal fees could be $2000 for one transaction and more money if you’ve bought and sold at the same time.

  • Staging Costs: If you have arranged to pay for staging yourself, you’ll need to settle the bill for staging soon after you do the deal.

  • Realtor Commission: Realtor Commission: As the seller, you will likely be paying the listing agent and the buying agent. You will have already arranged this commission before the agreement. When buyers make a purchase, they often include a bank draft with the offer that the listing brokerage holds in trust. On the day of closing, the brokerage will use this money to pay out commission. If there is money left over, the listing brokerage will issue you a cheque. If the buyer’s deposit wasn’t enough, and the listing brokerage will invoice your lawyer for the outstanding commission and you will pay the balance through your lawyer.


★ For more seller resources check out:


Closing Costs For Buyers

Congratulations! You’ve just bought your home! It often feels like you have just spent the most amount of money in your life. Then the closing costs creep up, and it can feel overwhelming.

  • Legal fees: As with sellers, your lawyer plays a crucial role in making sure your deal closes smoothly. Your lawyer will do the requisition searches to make sure that the title is clean. They will also be in charge of preparing the land transfer tax affidavit and forwarding the money from you to the seller. Estimate about $2000 for this cost. It can be more or less depending on several factors.

  • Land transfer tax: Ontario charges every buyer a land transfer tax when they purchase a home. If you live in Toronto, you get a second municipal transfer tax as well. The tax is on a sliding scale based on your purchase price. But, to give you an idea, the total land transfer tax on a purchase price of one million dollars is $32950. If you are a first-time homebuyer, you may qualify for a first-time homebuyer rebate.

  • Moving Costs: Moving costs can get expensive depending on how big the truck needs to be, how much stuff you have and how far the distance between the two homes is. Estimate between $1,000- $5,000 for moving.


★ We have an extensive library of resources to help buyers navigate the process. Check out these posts that are a must-read for anyone entering the market:


No one likes thinking about these extra fees that can start to add up! But, budgeting for them early makes them far more palatable. Let us know if you have any questions.

As always, stay safe.

Robyn VanderVennen
The Kim Kehoe Team