Cash to close calculator with Virginia closing costs

Buyers fall in love with the payment and meet the cash to close number later, and that’s where the surprises come from. This cash to close calculator builds the closing-day number for a Virginia purchase: down payment, lender and title fees, state and local recordation taxes, prepaid interest, a year of insurance and the starting escrow, minus your credits and the earnest money you already put down.

How to use the cash to close calculator

• Home price, down payment and program. FHA, VA and USDA upfront fees are financed, so they raise the loan amount, not your cash. VA uses the first-use funding fee.
• City or county. Sets the tax rate used for the escrow deposit.
• Example interest rate. Drives the prepaid interest line.
• Lender fees. Origination, underwriting, credit report. $1,500 is a placeholder; your Loan Estimate has the real number.
• Title and settlement. The settlement agent’s fee and title insurance. The calculator adds Virginia’s recordation taxes and clerk fees on their own line, so don’t count them twice.
• Appraisal. It’s usually paid when it’s ordered. If you’ve already paid it, add it to the earnest money box so the closing-day number comes out right.
• Homeowners insurance. Your yearly premium. The first year is paid at closing.
• Seller credit and lender credit. What’s written in your contract and on your Loan Estimate.
• Earnest money already paid. It comes off what you bring.
• Closing day of the month. Sets the prepaid interest.

Virginia closing costs calculator: the recordation tax math

This is the line national calculators miss. Virginia taxes the deed and the deed of trust when they’re recorded:

• State tax: 25 cents per $100 on the deed (the price) and on the deed of trust (the loan), rounded up to the next $100, under Va. Code 58.1-801 and 58.1-803.
• Local tax: one-third of the state tax, under 58.1-814. Most localities levy it, and the calculator assumes yours does.
• Clerk and recording fees: $113 for a typical deed and deed of trust, from the Supreme Court of Virginia’s circuit court fee schedule as revised in July 2026. That includes a $3 open-space fee on each, which only some localities charge.
• Not included: the seller’s grantor tax, because the seller pays it.

Recordation on the default $350,000 purchase

	State and local tax on the deed ($350,000)	$1,167
+	State and local tax on the deed of trust ($332,500)	$1,108
+	Clerk and recording fees	$113
=	Virginia recordation taxes and recording	$2,388

The deed tax uses the greater of the price or the assessed value, so a higher assessment means a slightly bigger line.

Every other line of a Virginia closing, title insurance included, is on my page about Virginia closing costs.

Prepaids, escrow and your closing date

• Prepaid interest runs from closing day to the end of that month. The calculator counts a 30-day month: 16 days when you close on the 15th ($947 on the defaults), one day on the 30th ($59), the whole month on the 1st ($1,776).
• The first year of insurance is paid in full at closing.
• The starting escrow deposit (the starting escrow line on the pad) is three months of property taxes and two months of insurance, a month of taxes more than I usually see collected on a purchase. The real number depends on when your county’s bills are due (June 5 and December 5 in Chesterfield and Henrico, January 14 and June 14 in Richmond city), so treat it as a planning number on the careful side. More on property taxes and escrow.

How to read your result

Cash to close on the default $350,000 home

	Down payment (5%)	$17,500
+	Lender, title and appraisal	$4,550
+	Virginia recordation taxes and recording	$2,388
+	Prepaid interest (16 days)	$947
+	First year of insurance	$1,500
+	Starting escrow deposit, taxes and insurance	$1,029
−	Earnest money already paid	$3,000
=	Remaining cash to close	$24,914

The money in the deal is $27,914, about 8% of the price.

Hypothetical example at an example rate of 6.5%, rounded. Not a Loan Estimate.

Credits only cover costs. On the defaults, a $20,000 seller credit gets used only up to the roughly $10,414 of real costs, and you’d still bring $14,500, the down payment minus your earnest money. The calculator doesn’t check your program’s limit on seller money, though. A conventional loan with less than 10% down caps it at 3% of the price, $10,500 here. FHA allows 6%. VA caps seller concessions at 4% but lets the seller pay normal closing costs on top. The caps, and how to ask, are in my cash to close guide.

Before you write that ask into an offer, read the financing side of a strong offer, then check the monthly side in the mortgage payment calculator.

Questions people ask me about this

How much cash do I need to close on a $400,000 house?

With this calculator’s other defaults (5% down conventional in Chesterfield, closing mid-month, $3,000 of earnest money), about $28,000 on closing day and about $31,000 in all. My planning rule for a conventional loan with 5% down is 8% to 10% of the price, or $32,000 to $40,000, and when I need a fast number I run it at 10. I’d rather you overshoot it.

Does cash to close include the down payment?

Yes. Cash to close is everything you bring: the down payment, closing costs, prepaids and escrow, minus credits. Closing costs are one piece of it, which is why the number is always bigger than the down payment alone.

Can a seller credit cover my down payment?

No. A seller credit pays real costs only, like closing costs, prepaids, points or a buydown. It never pays the down payment and never comes back as cash, which is why the calculator caps credits at your actual costs.

Who pays the grantor tax in Virginia?

The seller, unless the contract says otherwise. It’s 50 cents per $500 of the price, about $350 on a $350,000 sale, so it isn’t in this calculator. The buyer customarily pays the recordation taxes on the deed and the deed of trust.

What day of the month should I close on?

Near the end of the month, if nobody else is covering your prepaid interest. On the defaults, closing on the 30th instead of the 15th cuts prepaid interest from about $947 to $59. If the seller is paying your costs, an early-month closing is fine, because the credit absorbs it.

Sources

• Code of Virginia, Title 58.1, Chapter 8, recordation and grantor taxes
• Supreme Court of Virginia, Circuit Court Fee Schedule, rev. 07/26
• Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.1-02, interested party contributions
• HUD Handbook 4000.1 (Update 18), interested party contributions
• VA, VA funding fee and loan closing costs
• Chesterfield County Treasurer, real estate tax due dates