Possession-day adjustments are the cost buyers most often overlook. The seller has usually prepaid property tax and sometimes utilities past possession, and your lawyer, whose own fee runs $800 to $1,500, calculates what you owe them for that prepaid time on top of everything else due that day.
On a condo specifically, an underfunded reserve fund is the real hidden cost, since a low reserve can mean a special assessment landing on new owners within a year or two, sometimes running into thousands of dollars per unit.
Joel Dyck flags these possession-day costs early so nothing surprises you at the lawyer's office. Get your hand-reviewed valuation from Joel Dyck.