Carl
Level 15

Investors & landlords

Your cost basis on the property is

What you paid for it when originally purchased as shown on your original sales contract you signed, plus any fees you paid associated with that original purchase. The fact you may have borrowed money to pay for any of it is irrelevant.
For example:

You contracted with the seller to pay $200,000 for the house.

You put $40,000 down and took out a loan for $160,000.  This changing nothing "AT THIS POINT".

You paid $5000 in closing costs. Now your cost basis in the property is $205,000.

The fact you borrowed money to pay "any" of it is irrelevant. Your cost basis is $205,000.

If you paid "points", which is basically interest you paid in advance, that gets added to the cost basis. Take note that points paid is sometimes separate from interest paid for the period of time between the closing date of the purchase and when your first payment is due.

Typically, your cost basis is the total amount paid on the closing date of the purchase. It does not matter if it was paid with money out of your pocket, or with money you borrowed.

Where these numbers are on your closing documents depends on what flavor/version of the ALTA statement you were given at the closing. There are four types of ALTA statements. To determine which you have see https://atgtitle.com/what-alta-statement-is-how-it-works/