How do you read the closing statement on a new Miami condo?

A closing statement has four parts, and a buyer reads them in order. The top: the purchase price, less the deposits already in escrow, less any credit the contract gives, plus the options and upgrades the buyer signed for. The middle: the charges the purchase agreement allows the developer to pass on, named in its closing cost clause, and the association's charges under the declaration. The bottom: title, recording and government lines, prorated taxes and assessments, and the lender's lines when there is a loan. The last line: the figure to wire. Every number on the page traces to one of five papers the buyer already holds, the purchase agreement, the deposit receipts, the option addenda, the title commitment and the lender's Closing Disclosure, and a line that traces to none of them is a question, in writing, before the wire. On a resale the same page adds the estoppel certificate; on a developer sale it does not.

The price as the purchase agreement states it, which is the first check: a price that differs from the contract by any amount is explained before anything else is read. Beneath it, the deposits, as credits, which the buyer matches to the escrow receipts stage by stage, and the options and upgrades, which the buyer matches to the signed addenda; an option the buyer declined, or a credit the developer promised at the gallery and never wrote down, surfaces here. Where the home is sold furnished, the statement, or a bill of sale beside it, shows how the price is split between the home and the furniture, because that split decides what the deed conveys and what the lender lends on. Read from offer to recording on a furnished Miami condo, where your deposit actually sits and finishes and customisation at Nobu.

The closing cost clause of the purchase agreement is the authority for every developer line, and a buyer reads the two side by side. The common lines are the developer's fee, stated as a percentage of the price in the contract; the documentary stamp tax on the deed, which custom puts on the seller in a Miami-Dade resale and which a developer contract commonly shifts to the buyer; the title premium when the developer chooses the title agent; and a share of the developer's own closing costs the clause names. From the declaration come the association's lines: a working capital or capital contribution to the association's first account, stated as a number of months of the assessment, and the first assessment itself, prorated from the day of closing. A line the clause does not name is not owed. Read what closing actually costs, what a Miami closing costs and closing costs and developer fees at Cipriani.

The owner's title policy, at the promulgated rate on the price, and the lender's policy if there is a loan, with the endorsements listed by name; the settlement or closing fee the agent charges; the recording fees for the deed and the mortgage; and the documentary stamps and intangible tax on the note when there is a lender, which are the borrower's. Prorations divide the year: the association assessment from the day of closing to the end of the period, and the property tax, which on a new building in its first year is often the tax on the land or the unfinished building, prorated between developer and buyer by the contract's formula and then reset in the first full year. The title commitment is the check for the title lines; the budget is the check for the assessment; the contract's proration clause is the check for the tax. Read owner's title insurance on a new Miami condo and why property tax resets when you buy a Miami condo.

A second document that must agree with the first. When there is a mortgage, federal rules require the lender's Closing Disclosure to reach the borrower three business days before closing, and it carries the loan amount, the rate, the lender's fees, the prepaid interest and the escrow deposits for taxes and insurance; the settlement statement carries the same closing from the agent's side. The buyer lays the two together and chases every figure that appears on one and not the other, or on both at different amounts, with the lender and the agent in writing. A cash buyer has one document and the same discipline. Read cash or mortgage for Miami pre-construction and mortgage when a Miami preconstruction closing is delayed.

Four things, as mechanics. The figure at the bottom is confirmed by phone with the closing agent on a number the buyer already has, never from the email the statement came in, because wire fraud lives in the last day before closing. The statement is signed, which is the buyer's acceptance of every line, so an open question is resolved before the signature, not after. The deed is delivered and recorded in the county, and the recorded deed and the owner's title policy follow weeks later into the ownership file. And the signed statement is kept, with the receipts, the addenda and the commitment, for the day of resale, when the next buyer's agent and the tax adviser ask what was paid for what. Read what to ask before you wire, why international wires get held and the ownership file for a Brickell condo. The desk reads the statement against the five papers with the buyer before the wire; the words of the closing cost clause are counsel's.