How to Use the Cash-to-Close Worksheet

What this worksheet does

The Cash-to-Close Worksheet adds the down payment and the itemized amounts that you enter, then subtracts lender credits and earnest money already paid. It is a planning worksheet from your own figures. It does not choose a location, loan type, PMI amount, tax rate, title charge, or lender fee for you.

Use the latest figures from a lender, closing agent, insurer, inspector, and local records. For a US mortgage application, the lender's Loan Estimate and later Closing Disclosure are the documents to compare with this worksheet. The CFPB explains both documents in its Loan Estimate guide.

Enter the figures in the same order as your documents

1. Enter the purchase price and the down payment. The worksheet shows their difference as the loan amount before any lender adjustments.
2. Copy each known cost into its matching field: origination, discount points, appraisal, title and settlement, recording, prepaid property tax, prepaid insurance, inspection, and other costs. Enter 0 only when a line genuinely does not apply or is not yet known.
3. Enter lender credits only when the lender has disclosed them. Do not use this field for a hoped-for rate reduction or a seller contribution that has not been agreed.
4. Enter earnest money already paid only when it will be credited at closing.
5. Review the total itemized costs, credits, and estimated cash to close. If entered credits exceed the entered requirement, the worksheet flags that situation rather than assuming the excess can be refunded or reallocated.

A useful example

For a $500,000 purchase with a $100,000 down payment, enter the actual amounts you have for appraisal, title, recording, prepaids, inspection, and any other cost. If $2,000 of earnest money has already been paid and the lender discloses a $1,000 credit, enter both separately. The result is only as complete as those entered line items; it is not a percentage-of-price estimate.

What to verify before acting

• Compare every line with the current Loan Estimate or Closing Disclosure, including services you can shop for.
• Ask the lender or closing agent how a credit can be applied. Credits are not interchangeable with cash in every transaction.
• Confirm local transfer taxes, title charges, escrow, insurance, and any lender or program-specific fees that are not yet entered.
• Treat the result as a conversation checklist, not an approval, quote, or guarantee of final funds needed.

Related tools: Mortgage Calculator, Property Tax Estimator, and Rental Analyzer.