Get ready to close

The idea

Closing costs are the thing people underestimate, and they're due in cash. Not financed, not spread out — cash, at the lawyer's office, on top of your down payment. Getting this wrong three weeks before possession is the most common serious surprise in home buying, which is why this worksheet checks your total against your savings and says something if it doesn't work.

Here's the full Alberta list:

Legal fees and disbursements — your lawyer's fee plus the costs they incur on your behalf: searches, registrations, courier, software charges. Ask for the all-in figure rather than the headline fee.

Land Titles registration — the transfer at $50 plus $5 per $5,000 of value, and your mortgage registration at $50 plus $5 per $5,000 of the amount secured.

Property tax adjustment — if the seller has paid the year's taxes beyond your possession date, you reimburse them for your share. This can be a meaningful number depending on the time of year, and it catches people every time.

Home insurance — first payment, and the policy must be in place before possession.

Mortgage default insurance — if you're putting down less than 20%. The premium is normally added to your mortgage rather than paid in cash. In Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan the premium also attracts provincial sales tax, which can't be added to the loan and is due at closing — and Alberta is not one of them. One more cash cost you don't have here.

Inspection — already paid, but count it in your total spend.

Moving — movers, truck rental, or pizza for friends.

Immediate setup — utility deposits, locks, cleaning, the things you discover on day one.

GST — on a new build only. Resale homes don't attract GST; new construction does, with a partial rebate available below certain price thresholds ($450,000). If you're buying new, confirm with your lawyer whether the price you agreed includes GST and any rebate assigned to the builder, because the difference is thousands.

The Alberta comparison. Run the same purchase price in Ontario or B.C. and you'd add a land transfer tax that typically runs into several thousand dollars — a cost that, in Alberta, no provincial land transfer tax means you don't pay at all. Your closing costs here are real but materially lower. The chart on this page runs your own number both ways.

The lawyer appointment. Usually a week or so before possession. You'll sign the mortgage documents, the transfer of land, and various acknowledgements, and you'll deliver your money.

Bring: government photo ID, your void cheque or banking details, proof of home insurance, and your closing funds.

How the money moves: certified funds — typically a bank draft or a certified cheque — or a bank-to-bank transfer arranged with your lawyer. Not a wire to a "closing company." That's the American process, there is no such entity here, and it's a common fraud pattern. Confirm payment instructions with your lawyer's office by phone, using a number you already have, and treat any emailed change of banking details as fraudulent until you've verified it by voice. This happens, it happens to careful people, and the money does not come back.

Insurance bound before possession, not on the day. Your lender requires proof before they'll release funds. Arrange it a couple of weeks out with the effective date set to your possession date.

Utilities and address changes. Set up in your name effective your possession date, so you're not taking possession of a cold house in January. Then work through the address change list, which is longer than anyone expects.

Moving. Book earlier than feels necessary, especially for month-end. Pack in stages: things you don't use, then things you use occasionally, then the rest. Keep one box of essentials that travels with you — kettle, toilet paper, phone chargers, a knife, the good scissors.