Closing Costs

There are certain costs associated with closing the sale of a house. These fees are split between the buyer and the seller, as spelled out in the sales contract.

As I negotiate the sales contract for you, I will not only work to get the sales price you want, I will also work to limit the number of closing costs for which you will be responsible.

I will walk you through the closing costs, answering any questions you may have explaining which costs are decreed by law to be yours and which are negotiable.

Good Faith Estimate

Borrowers will receive a GFE (Good faith estimate) of closing costs disclosure, from their lenders. GFE is enforced by, RESPA (Real estate settlement procedure act), enacted by HUD (Department of housing and urban development) which is a federal agency.  RESPA disclosure applicable only to Federally related loans on the "First Trust deed or Mortgage" used to purchase Single family residential property of 1-4 units.  GFE must be given to the borrowers for the eligible loans at the time the loan application is completed and submitted to the lender, or borrower can receive it up to 3 business days from the time the application completed.

There are certain loans exempt from RESPA disclosure, among those to tell a few are: (Second deed of trusts, Refinancing loans, Assumption of existing loans, Loans for improvements, Any loan that does not lead to transfer the title of the property, Loans to purchase Multifamily residential property of 5 or more units, Commercial loans, Industrial loans, Land contract of sales, Vacant lots, etc.)

Federally related loans include: (all FDIC insured loans, Conforming loans which are naturally traded to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, FHA insured loans, VA guaranteed loans, etc.) 

For loans which are not Federally related, mortgage loan brokers use the Mortgage loan disclosure statement (MLDS), comparable to GFE and pass out to borrower for reveiwing of all costs and fees associated with their loans. MLDS also should acertain that all costs and fees comply with article 7 of real estate law.                  

Last but not least, GFE disclosure reveals the estimate closing cost of items which are attributed to the transaction as following: