3 Hidden Costs When Buying A House

The first often forgotten cost is a home inspection. I advise every single person who buys a house to have the house inspected by a licensed professional.

This is a small expense compared to You never know what kind of problems could lie hidden in the house that you are considering purchasing. In central Arkansas, these home inspections typically cost between $300-$500 and can very in price based off of the size of the house, area, etc. In your local area, prices for a home inspection may be different so I highly advise you reach out to your local Realtor to get a good idea of how much to plan for.

The second hidden cost when buying a home can be the appraisal. Many times, when the bank orders the appraisal for the house you are buying, this is separate from your home inspection and can be billed to you before closing.

Remember, the bank sends an appraiser out to the house to do a professional assessment of it’s value since they will not give you more money than the house is worth. Sometimes these banks will charge you the appraisal fee upfront rather than charging it to you at closing. This is something that you want to make sure you ask your lender about on the front end so that you can be prepared and save up the maybe $500-$1000 that is needed.

Another small but if forgotten about, costly fee associated with buying a house are utility activation fees. In the majority of states if you allow the sellers to shut off the utilities to the house before you activate them in your name, you are going to be charged reactivation fees. In my area, despite the cost of living being very affordable, these fees can really add up and you could be leafing out several hundreds of dollars just to get utilities to your new home. In order to avoid paying these re-activation fees, ask your Realtor to find out when the seller will be turning off their utilities and make sure you get them in your name before then.