Practice Areas

Residential Real Estate Representation in Farmington, Connecticut

The lawyers as Jackson O'Keefe provide comprehensive legal advice regarding residential real estate transactions to individuals throughout Farmington Connecticut. The firm will protect your interests, from the negotiation of the sale or purchase through the closing of the transaction. Contact the firm to schedule a confidential consultation.

The firm will negotiate, review and prepare all documents required to complete your residential real estate transaction, including

  • Buy/sell or purchase agreements
  • Mortgages and mortgage documentation
  • Notes and other financing agreements
  • Easements and covenants governing use of the property
  • Closing documents, including settlement statements

Jackson O'Keefe will also review all title documents to confirm that there are no liens or encumbrances that affect your ownership of the property. The firm will also attend the closing on your behalf, to answer any questions that arise and ensure that all necessary documents are properly executed.

The attorneys at Jackson O'Keefe understand that the purchase of residential real estate may be the single largest expenditure of your life. You need to know that all the details have been carefully examined and properly resolved.

Cromwell Farmington Connecticut Closing Costs

The bundle of fees associated with the buying or selling of a home are called closing costs. Certain fees are automatically assigned to either the buyer or the seller; other costs are either negotiable or dictated by local custom.

Cromwell Farmington Connecticut Buyer closing costs

When a buyer applies for a loan, lenders are required to provide them with a good-faith estimate of their closing costs. The fees vary according to several factors, including the type of loan they applied for and the terms of the purchase agreement. Likewise, some of the closing costs, especially those associated with the loan application, are actually paid in advance. Some typical buyer closing costs include:

  • The down payment
  • Loan fees (points, application fee, credit report)
  • Prepaid interest
  • Inspection fees
  • Appraisal
  • Mortgage insurance (typically 1 years premium plus an escrow of 2 months)
  • Hazard insurance (typically 1 years premium plus an escrow of 2 months)
  • Title insurance
  • Documentary stamps on the note
  • Seller closing costs

If the seller has not yet paid for the house in full, the seller's most important closing cost is satisfying the remaining balance of their loan. Before the date of closing, the escrow officer will contact the seller's lender to verify the amount needed to close out the loan. Then, along with any other fees, the original loan will be paid for at the closing before the seller receives any proceeds from the sale. Other seller closing costs can include:

  • Broker's commission
  • Transfer taxes
  • Documentary Stamps on the Deed
  • Title insurance
  • Property taxes (prorated)

Your lender is required by the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) to provide a good faith estimate of your closing costs. This estimate is an itemized list of fees you'll pay to get a loan. Mortgage closing costs cover things like appraisals, attorney fees, title insurance, taxes, and other expenses associated with getting a loan.

A property appraisal is generally required by a lender before loan approval to ensure that the mortgage loan amount is not more than the value of the property. An appraiser is needed to make this determination.

A survey of the property is usually required to verify that boundary lines for your property, easements, and fences are where they're supposed to be.

In some cases, there may be a lien on the property, or some historical dispute to your right of possession. A title search fee is paid to the title company for doing detailed research on the property records for your home. The title company will look at prior deeds, court records, property and name indexes, and many other documents. This is to ensure that there are no liens or problems associated with your ownership of the property.

You'll need homeowner's insurance, which covers the costs of rebuilding should an insured event occur. In some cases, your first year's insurance may be paid at closing. Other fees that you may see include attorney fees, courier fees, pest inspection, plat drawing, underwriting, flood-zone certification, document preparation, and others.

Negotiating Closing Costs

In addition to the sales price, buyers and sellers frequently include closing costs in their negotiations. This can be for both major and minor fees. For example, if a buyer is particularly nervous about the condition of the plumbing, the seller may agree to pay for the house inspection.

Likewise, a buyer may want to save on up-front expenditures, and so agree to pay the seller's full asking price in return for the seller paying all the allowable closing costs. There's no right or wrong way to negotiate closing costs; just be sure all the terms are written down on the purchase agreement.

Prorations

At the closing, certain costs are often prorated (or distributed) between buyer and seller. The most common prorations are for property taxes. This is because property taxes are typically paid at the end of the year for which they were assessed.

Thus, if a house is sold in June, the sellers will have lived in the house for half the year, but the bill for the taxes won't come due until the following year! To make this situation more equitable, the taxes are prorated. In this example, the sellers will credit the buyers for half the taxes at closing.

Cromwell Farmington Connecticut Refinancing

Refinancing your home can be an excellent way to bring down your monthly mortgage payment, raise cash, or consolidate debts with high interest rates. However, you need to do your homework before deciding to refinance. One important factor is the difference between current interest rates and the rate of your original loan. You also need to take into account the amount of time it will take to recoup the costs of refinancing.

When should you refinance?

Some common reasons homeowners refinance include:
Lower monthly mortgage payments
Convert an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) to a fixed-rate mortgage
Raise funds for family expenses (i.e. college tuition)
Pay off high-interest loans
Home improvements

The old rule of thumb is that you should refinance your home if interest rates fall more than 2 points below your existing mortgage rate. That's because refinancing usually involves most of the same closing costs (loan origination fee, prepaid interest, etc.) as the original loan. For anything less than 2 percent, the savings on your monthly mortgage payment might not be significant enough to be worth your while.

Savings vs. time

For some homeowners, though, the 2 percent rule is not as important as the time needed to break even on the refinancing. For instance, if it costs $3,000 to refinance a house, and the monthly mortgage payment is lowered by $90, it would take almost 3 years for the savings to cover the costs of refinancing.

If all the information (survey, title search, etc.) for your old loan is still current, however, the lender may be willing to waive many of the fees. In addition, you may be able to roll the closing costs of a refinance loan into the new note. In other words, you don't avoid the closing costs, but instead pay them back over time along with the rest of the loan. If you consider this option, be sure to calculate the potential savings vs. the expense of paying off a higher principal balance.

Keep in mind that refinancing usually lengthens the time it takes to pay off your house. If you are 3 years into a 30-year mortgage and then refinance with a new 30-year loan, you'll end up making payments on the house for 33 years. Nevertheless, if the monthly savings are substantial enough, you still could end up paying much less over the long haul with the new loan.

Cromwell Farmington Connecticut Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs)

Timing can also be a factor in switching from an ARM to a fixed-rate loan. For example, rising interest rates might influence you to covert your ARM into a fixed-rate loan if you plan to stay in your house for several more years.

Conversely, you may plan to movie in a year or two, and find a lender who is willing to offer you dramatic interest rate savings with an ARM. In this case (and as long as the closing costs are minimal), it might make sense to switch from a fixed-rate loan to an ARM.

Equity

Refinancing with a new loan doesn't mean you have to give up all the money you've paid towards your old mortgage. With each payment, you build up a certain amount of equity in a property--which is the amount you've paid on the principal balance of the loan.

For example, if you have a $100,000 loan at 8 percent, you would build about $2,800 worth of equity in the first 3 years. Thus, if you refinanced, the new loan would only amount to $97,200.

Cromwell Real Estate Lawyer

At JacksonO'Keefe, we have been practicing in the real estate arena for over 50 years, in both weak and strong markets, and have been involved in real estate transactions ranging from construction projects to the purchase or transfer of homes and vacant lots. We represent:

  • Owners and Property managers,
  • Developers, Builders, and Contractors,
  • Lenders, Realtors, and Title companies,
  • Real estate investment trusts (REITs),
  • Residential and commercial property associations, and
  • Buyers and sellers in varied transactions and disputes, ranging from commercial properties to single-family residences.

We address our clients legal needs in the areas of:

  • Commercial and residential land development;
  • Cellular tower leases, site agreements, and related issues;
  • Sales, financing, capitalization and work-outs for commercial/office, residential/apartment, industrial/warehouse, retail/shopping center, condo/townhouse, and mixed use projects;
  • Construction contracts and disputes;
  • Mechanic's and materialman's liens;
  • Hotel/Motel/Resort properties;
  • Commercial and residential lease negotiations;
  • Deed restriction violations;
  • Collection of delinquent assessments;
  • Creation of homeowner associations and documents;
  • Vendor contracts;
  • Evictions;
  • Property management;
  • General forms and business documents preparation.

The attorneys at Jackson O'Keefe are committed to providing professional representation as effectively and efficiently as possible. The firm manages cases carefully to minimize expense and protect the interests of its clients. The firm has represented individuals throughout the area for over 50 years. Contact the firm to discuss your residential real estate transaction.

Jackson O'Keefe
Hartford CT Real Estate Attorneys

Jackson O’Keefe handles residential real estate matters throughout the State of Connecticut, including clients in West Hartford, Farmington, Avon, Simsbury, Old Lyme, Ellington, Tolland, North Haven, Wallingford, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, Cromwell, Bethlehem, Moodus, East Haddam, Hadlyme, Madison, Middletown, Hartford, Southington, Plantsville, Hartford County, New Haven County, Middlesex County, New London County and Litchfield County.

Hartford Office
36 Russ Street
Hartford, CT 06106-1571
Phone 860.278.4040
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Southington Office
97 North Main Street
Southington, CT 06489
Phone 860.276.8100
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Fax 860.527.2500
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Providing clients with timely and cost-effective results