Your down payment gets you the keys. These costs get you to closing day.

On a $700K home in Kitchener-Waterloo, closing costs can easily land between $15K and $20K. The biggest one is land transfer tax. KW doesn’t charge a municipal land transfer tax like Toronto does, but you’ll still pay the provincial one. If you’re a first-time buyer, you can get up to $4,000 of it back.

The one that surprises people most? If you put less than 20% down, your mortgage insurance gets added to your loan, but the 8% PST on that insurance has to be paid in cash on closing. On a typical first-time purchase, that’s about $2,000 nobody mentioned.

Three things to do before you start booking showings:
Get a quote from a real estate lawyer.
Ask your mortgage broker for a full closing cost estimate, not just your monthly payment.
Keep a separate savings bucket just for closing.

Save this, and send it to anyone buying in the next year.

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