Mortgage costs in Nova/MD (sales, real estate, insurance)

[ManWithoutQualities]

I know mortgages are full of all sorts of variables, but I was just wondering if these ballpark figures sounded reasonable to those of you with more experience than me (I am a first-time home buyer). The amount of the loan is $540K, amount of house is $550K.

Lender fees: $10.5K
Title/settlement charges: $8K
Prepaid/reserves: $7.5K

The lender fees include both an origination fee and a discount fee, which as I understand it is to purchase points (reducing the monthly payment).

I'm not trying to nickel-and-dime anyone, I just want to make sure I'm not being too casual about the fees. Also, I understand that this might be difficult to reverse engineer without knowing all the circumstances (my apologies if it is!). I hope this isn't a ridiculous question that I'm asking, but anyway: Are these amounts more or less normal, or should I be trying to negotiate some of this? And if so, what, and why?

Thanks in advance!

[eyeball]

Hard to say about the lender fees without a breakdown, but those title/settlement fees seem awfully steep. I haven't bought in VA yet, so someone else can correct me if I'm wrong. I ran your sale price through the figures on here:

Closing Cost Estimate for a home in Northern Virginia

The max I came up with was somewhere around $5,500. Can anyone verify if that website is accurate?

[Margery]

Originally Posted by eyeball

Hard to say about the lender fees without a breakdown, but those title/settlement fees seem awfully steep. I haven't bought in VA yet, so someone else can correct me if I'm wrong. I ran your sale price through the figures on here:

Closing Cost Estimate for a home in Northern Virginia

The max I came up with was somewhere around $5,500. Can anyone verify if that website is accurate?

The website was close, here are my figures:

Owners title ins: $2420
recording of deed:$1870
recording deed of trust (mortgage) $1850
settlement fee, title exam, survey, termite inspection:approx $700-$800

Already you are close to $7,000 and that does not include courier fees to take the documents to the courthouse for recording.

You may be able to save some money on title insurance if this is a re-sale and not a new home. Ask the title company to find out what company insures the present owner, they may be able to get a re-issue rate. This can save you a few hundred dollars, every little bit helps.

I have to ask you if you have a real estate agent, if so, you should be going over these figures with your agent and get an explanation. The prepaids/reserves seem high but I'm guessing your mortgage insurance premium is in there also since you are not putting 20% down or taking a second mortgage to reduce the first mortage to 80% of the sales price.

Congratulations on becoming a homeowner!

[Skapov]

In general, all the closing costs etc. should be about 3% of the sell price, and so for a $550k house that's $16,500. Why are those lender fees above $10k? Most lender charge an origination fee of 1 point ($5,500 in your case), and so your figures seem kinda high. Are you getting an FHA loan? If so, the funding fee of 1.75% ($9,625) could explain your high number.

I would try to get a Good Faith Estimate and scrutinize it in detail.