A lot of people, especially those that are buying a house for the first time are shocked to know about closing costs. Many people has a misconception that the only thing that you need to be prepared for when buying a house is the downpayment, and the other fees are affordable. However, in reality, once you have applied for your mortgage loan, the lender gives you a Good Faith Estimate of the closing cost that you need to pay in order to close the purchase of the house. You need to realize that it is not the actual closing cost fee but it is just an estimate, so this means that the fee could either go up or go down. You need to also be aware that there are instances that the closing cost fees jumps as high as 10% because of several things that has been adjusted during the purchasing processes. This is why as of 2010 the Department of Housing and Urban Development has set new rules and has restructed the closing cost fees and GFEs.

Basically, these new rules and structure that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has set is geared towards with how fees are communicated or presented to the borrower. In the event that the borrower is not able to pay the closing cost, this part of buying the house is on suspension mode. Meaning, nothing will move on the process until you have the closing cost fully paid. For example, you browsed at Westchester homes for sale and have decided that Westchester real estate is where you will live since you like everything about the location and neighborhood.However, as the purchasing process draws near to the end, you are not prepared to completely pay the closing costs. This will mean that unless, you have enough money to completely pay the closing cost fee, then everything is on a stop.

Often times, when you get the form which has the list fees; it's hard to check and be prepared for them because the forms are unique to each lender. As mentioned, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has changed this and has implemented a standard form that each lender would use. This new form that has been developed will let the borrower see easily which fees can be adjusted, and which fees are fixed. You can also see on this new form, which fees you can ask for a discount. This enables the borrower to have more pleasant attitude towards these fees and enables the borrowers to make a financial plan on how to meet these fees.

Adjustable fees are those fees that are subject to change. There are adjustable fees that has a limit on it's increase, like a 10% increase which is the usual and is still considered manageable. However, there are adjustable fees that comes from a third party company which the lender may have referred to you. These kind of adjustable fees has no limit, simply because the lender has no control over the pricing of a third party company.

One perfect example, that the lender has no control over the pricing and is a third party company is the group that works on title insurance policies. These third party companies that works on title insurance policies are sometimes referred by the lender; but it ends there. The lender has no control over it's price and has no authority to give you any discounts. What you can do since this is a thir party company is to reject the referral of the lender and find a third party company that will give you a better deal. This goes for any third party company that is listed on the GFE sheet; you can choose not to accept the lenders referral and look for a better deal in order to save some money.