About Bellingham's Fairhaven

Another common question from buyers as well as sellers is, "what are my closing costs?" Some typical closing costs in real estate transaction are

Title search fees - is the assurance of clear title to the property and title insurance to defend against any future claims made on the title by circumstances that were not picked up at the time of the title search. This fee is based on the price of the transaction. It will vary from one company to another but they usually pretty close to each other. Traditionally the seller will buy the title insurance policy to protect the buyer, and the buyer will buy a title insurance policy to protect the lender that is providing the loan for the transaction.

The appraisal fee - this fee is paid by the buyer to have a professional appraiser give their value of the property. The appraisal is based on recent comparable sales.

Prorated property taxes, utilities, and association fees - these fees are based on the percentage of the year, or month in terms of utilities such as water and sewer, that you own a home.

Insurance fee - you can usually expect to prepay the first year of your insurance premium

Recording fees - these are fees charged to record the change in ownership usually by the county.

Document fees - these can be fees for drawing up different documents involved in the transaction.

Escrow fees - this fee is usually shared by both buyer and seller and pays for the escrow company that is handling the transaction.

Credit report fee - this fee is for the lender to render buyers credit report.

Other miscellaneous fees - these can include courier fees, electronic transfer fees, flood determination fees, digital storage fees, retrieval fees, underwriting fees, wire transfer fees, tax service fees, e-mail document fees. You won't necessarily be paying all of these, but you will pay some of them.is

Loan origination fees and discount points - the loan origination fee can vary from 0.5 % to about 2% of the loan amount pays for the cost of providing loans. Discount points are percentage of the loan amount paid to buying down the loan rate, resulting in a lower monthly payment.

Sellers additional fees - the seller will also pay a percentage of the sales price in excise tax to the county, and commissions to real estate agents.

You real estate agent can usually give you a pretty close estimate of what most of these fees will be.

Welcome to Historic Fairhaven in south Bellingham for the Flavor of Fairhaven event. A day full of fun, food and friends.

Located on Fairhaven.comis a schedule of events as well as a link to the event website for you to review and plan your day. Or just come on down to the Historic District at 11:00 AM and spend the entire day going from activity to activity and restaurant to restaurant in the Regional Walk-a-about tasting the different fare at a minimal cost.

The Chef Show Down, our spin of a "Iron Chef Fairhaven style" at the Flavor of Fairhaven event starting at 3:00 PM at the Big Fat Fish Company is serious business as you can see by our competing Chef's.

Activities include: How to roll Sushi, Cupcake decorating, Dough Throw competition, Tequila tasting, Wine tasting, Desserts Flambe' and Cocktail Culture.

This event is sponsored by the Old Fairhaven Association and planned by Wendy of Avenue Bread and Pamela of The Big Fat Fish Company as an event to showcase the Historic Fairhaven Restaurants.

This is a question this often on the minds of buyers. Buyer's want to be sure they are to not going to lose their earnest money.

What is earnest money anyway? It's like a deposit to show the seller that you really interested (earnestly) in buying their property. It's usually in the form of check made out to the escrow company and held in trust accounts until the transaction closes. It can be in the form of promissory note or anything else the seller is willing to accept. The full amount of the earnest money is credited toward the purchase price of the property at closing. There is no standard amount of earnest money, it's commonly about 1 percent of the purchase price. If the buyer really wants to impress the seller they will make it a lot higher to show them that they are really earnest about purchasing their property. Or make it nonrefundable after certain conditions are met.

As far as getting the earnest money back goes, as long as the buyer is careful about meeting contract deadlines the earnest money is usually safe or refundable. As a buyer you must be aware that you need to apply for financing (if there's a financing contingency) within five days of mutual acceptance (that's the date all timelines run from.) You to have your home inspection and response to the seller within ten days. Usually the the first ten days is the easiest time to get your earnest money back because of that inspection contingency. The contingency is subjective and you don't like something in the inspection report or even the color of the front door, you can check the box on the inspection response that says "Buyer' s inspection of Property is disapproved and the Agreement is terminated. The Earnest Money shall be refunded to the buyer." As you can see you don't even have to give a reason.
After this ten days of buyers earnest money is usually in jeopardy of being forfeited to the seller.
There are other circumstances where a buyer can get their earnest money back. If there is a financing contingency and within 30 days the lender turns the buyer down for a loan they can get their earnest money back. If the appraisal doesn't meet the purchase price and the seller is not willing to reduce the price or the buyer and seller can't come to some new agreement based on appraisal the buyer can get the earnest money back.
If the contract runs until closing and the buyer decides to walk away at the last-minute and go to Costa Rica instead of purchasing the property, the seller is surely going to keep the earnest money.

If you have any other questions about earnest money or anything else to do with Bellingham real estate feel free to give me call at 360-739-6981

Looking for something to do... Check out Fairhaven.com for daily events happening in Historic Fairhaven.

Fairhaven.com is a locally owned and operated business, which offers advertising opportunties, publicizes events in Fairhaven from book readings to foot races to Festivals on the Village Green. This is your one stop site with all the happenings of Fairhaven at your fingertips. Keep your finger on the pulse of daily activites via the updated postings and pictures of the historic district.

Be sure to plan your day in Historic Fairhaven with the help of Fairhaven.com

Come to Historic Fairhaven for the reinvention of a wonderful event with a new twist; Flavor of Fairhaven.

Join us Saturday, October 17, 2009 from 11am thru the evening for a fabulous day of food, shopping and wandering the Historic district from restaurant to restaurant.

Take part in and all-day celebration of Fairhaven's plethora of food and drink offerings from over 30 participating Fairhaven food and beverage establishments. Try samples and discounted fare, or attend one of the events scheduled every hour or half hour throughout the day.

Check out this sample of participating restaurants in the district: Abbey Garden Tea Room, Archer Ale House, Avenue Bread, AW Asian Bistro, Big Fat Fish Co., Book Fare, Chef Alex & Co., Colophon Cafe, Dirty Dan Harris, Dos Padres, Fairhaven Market, Fairhaven Fish & Chips, Fairhaven Pizza, Fairhaven Pub & Martini Bar, Katie's Cupcakes, Le Chat Noir, Magdalena's, Old Fairhaven Wines, Pacific Chef, Pizzazza, Purple Smile Wines, Quel Fromage, The Rustic Coffee Bar, Skylark's Hidden Cafe, Sorellas on the Bay.

The Flavor of Fairhaven in Historic Fairhaven is bound to be a wonderful event to meet and mingle with friends!