What Are Closing Costs?
Whenever you buy a home, many pieces must come together for the property to be appraised, sold, and transferred to a new owner. While you may only communicate with your realtor and a representative from your lender, many professionals are working behind the scenes to make sure the home buying process goes smoothly. Closing costs cover all the fees these professionals charge for their services.
Since closing costs is a blanket term that covers a variety of different fees and charges, there’s no way to give someone a definite answer as to how much their closing costs will be until they actually close on the property and sign all of the required documents. However, lenders do try to be transparent about estimated closing costs by providing all mortgage applicants with a Loan Estimate (formerly known as a Good Faith Estimate) a few days after submitting an application. This Loan Estimate will list all the expected closing costs associated with the prospective mortgage loan. The Loan Estimate is the best tool available for estimating your closing costs so you can budget appropriately. Read more
A conventional mortgage loan is a mortgage loan that is not backed by a government agency. Conventional mortgage loans can be categorized in many different ways, including conforming v.s. non-conforming, fixed-rate v.s. adjustable-rate, and more.