With refi’s, I can guarantee what the total 3rd closing costs will be. Title, escrow, lender underwriting, notary, appraisal, county recording etc. If a mortgage person cannot guarantee these costs, they don’t know what they are doing. RUN and be very afraid.
Different title/escrow companies charge different fees, and some have crazy added fees, like an “email doc fee” which is a charge of $75 to $150 to print out loan docs that are emailed to them. This is about $3 or $4 worth of paper and ink. I avoid these nonsense fees.
With purchases, buyer’s usually agree to SELLER’S CHOICE of escrow. I have no idea what those fees will be until escrow provides them. BE CAREFUL what you agree to !!
Any decent, honorable mortgage provider should be able to tell you EXACTLY how much their fee is for your loan and also be able to guarantee your costs on a refi.
You should also ask if they are getting ANYTHING back in commission/rebate from the lender.
If they hesitate or stumble in answering this simple question, they are probably lying to you, and not offering you the lowest rate that you qualify for at that time.
A bank employee usually doesn’t understand this question. They will tell you that they have no fees (which isn’t true) They typically charge a higher rate to compensate for this misleading answer. This is allowed because of lobbyists in Washington for the banking industry. HLS
