Refinancing costs

**simpletron** · 02-03-2009, 10:52 AM

my prices are based on my home purchase last year, so maybe there are some differences for you.

Appraisal - paid to appraiser; can be shopped around for a lower price; mine 275
Credit Report - paid to credit bereaus; fixed and unavoidable; mine 15
Tax Related Fee - don't know what this is; probably unavoidable but ask exactly it is; maybe escrow related.
Processing Fee - paid to the bank/broker; somewhat negotiable
Underwriting - paid to the bank/underwriter; negotiable, but harder
Document Prep - generally fluff; fairly easy to remove; mine 0
Attorney Fee - paid to attorney; can be shopped around for a lower price; mine 450
Title Insurance - same as attorney fee, mine 500
Recording Fees - paid to the county recording office; fixed and unavoidable, mine 20
City Fees - paid to the city; fixed and unavoidable, mine 45
State Fees - paid to the state; fixed and unavoidable, mine 25

for the appraisal, attorney, and title, just call local attorneys and appraisers and they will give you quotes over the phone. I saved 175 on the attorney+title and 50 on appraisal. I paid a single fee for processing and underwriting that was .5% of loan amount(down from 1%) or 927.88. so in total i paid 2258 before escrow and discount points.

also when I added up those number I got 2806, did you leave something off?

**MonkeyMama** · 02-03-2009, 11:36 AM

I've refied a few times for around $2500. Seems to be pretty average. I'll pull out the paperwork for the last one (last month).

-------------

Title Fees $450
Recording Deeds $82 (expensive due to living trust; multiple recordings)

Escrow Fee $350 (I believe this is paid to title company in lieu of attorney. We don't use attorneys in California).

Draw Deed $50
Notary Fee $50

Appraisal $350

Credit Report $14
PRocessing Fee $450 (broker)
Administration Fee $395 (broker)
Administration Fee $350 (new lender)
Various Delivery Fees $87

Total $2628

Some of these fees look higher than usual to me, but I know we paid about the same time with a refi with our current lender, at the time, in 2003. This time we used a broker (middle man) and paid 2 administration fees (or is this normal?), but seems the rest of the fees were a little less than last time. Less "Doc prep" fees and stuff. They may have since become illegal in this state (lots of hub bub about that in the past). Anyway, even if the broker cost more, it was worth every penny!

ETA: Lender paid our tax processing fee and a flood certification fee as well. It's noted in the paperwork though it was not added to what we paid. Says, "Funded by new lender."

**maat55** · 02-03-2009, 03:43 PM

Kinda like looking at your phone bill, only bigger numbers. You would have to become a hermit to escape the madness.

**LivingAlmostLarge** · 02-03-2009, 05:51 PM

Thanks, I think I need to negotiate or shop around more.

**loulou** · 02-04-2009, 11:35 AM

I'm looking at my closing statement right now and to be honest I don't really know what fees I paid for. I am realizing that I only paid $427.25 in closing costs...the rest were prepaids. PenFed paid for the following fees:
Credit Report $12.66
Flood Report $7.00
Settlement Fee $369.00
Tax Service Fee $55.00

The only other fees listed on my closing statment (other than prepaids) are:
Title Insurance $350
Mortgage Recording Fee $105.50

These don't add up to $427.25, so there must be a credit that I'm not seeing at the moment. The other nice thing about using PenFed was that they didn't do an appraisal; they used the county's assessed value.

**Uneventoast** · 02-04-2009, 03:16 PM

Too bad none of you live around Lexington KY or Cincy...Guardian Savings Bank is offering refi for $250 closing cost with no points.

I locked in my rate about three weeks ago and I am about to refinance my mortgage at 5% for only $250.

Refinancing costs