C H A P T E R in Objective-C

Creation UPC-A in Objective-C C H A P T E R

it will not be possible to determine exactly all of the costs at the time the deal closes Therefore, a small fund is usually set aside to cover any unexpected costs that arise Typically this amount is a few hundred dollars If no unexpected fees crop up, you can expect to receive most of it back in the form of a check from the escrow company a few days after the closing What is a mortgage insurance application fee Whenever you get financing that is for 80 percent or more of the value of the property you are buying, you will be required to get mortgage insurance This is insurance from a private company that insures not you but the lender for a certain percentage of loss in the event that you fail to make your mortgage payments and the lender must foreclose Of course, you will be making the premium payments (usually around 05 percent or somewhat higher) each month as part of your regular mortgage payment However, in order to get this mortgage insurance, the lender must apply for it And there may be an application fee Here, the lender is passing that fee onto you To my way of thinking, this should be a normal part of doing business for the lender, and it should absorb the fee What is a nonrecurring cost (NRCC) Some fees may be lumped together under this heading, particularly if the seller is paying them for you Nonrecurring means that they are simply one-time charges Termite or home inspection fees are nonrecurring as are escrow and title insurance costs In contrast, interest, taxes, and insurance are normally considered recurring costs Here, you will want to be sure that the charges are, in fact, accurate You may want to take out the documentation you received from your insurance agent, for example, to see that you are being charged the correct amount Note: Sometimes these fees are estimates, particularly when the escrow officer has not yet received final demand statements Therefore, the insurance fee, for example, may be labeled as an estimate, and it may be higher than your insurance agent told you it would be You should receive a check for the difference after escrow closes

What is a photo fee There are several times during the sale and closing of a home that it may be photographed Early on the real estate agent may photograph it for the purpose of putting it in a listing as well as on give-away brochures The appraiser will take a photo of the property as part of his or her appraisal report The insurance agent will usually want a photo as part of the insurance package And so on Sometimes a fee for any of these photo shoots could show up as part of the closing To my way of thinking, any photos taken by lenders, insurers, appraisers, or others are part of their normal course of doing business, and you should not have to pay for them On the other hand, if you order a photographer out to take a picture of the property for your own purposes, you can expect to pay the costs Note: Many people who take photos, such as appraisers and insurance agents, will insist that these be Polaroids, which are much harder to digitally alter or improve What is a point When a loan is discounted, the amount of the discount is listed in points It is 1 percent of the total mortgage value For example, if the mortgage is for $300,000 and there are 3 points, they are equal to $9000 Points are a fee that can show up on escrow closing statements They are usually first seen when you apply for the mortgage It might be expressed as 7 percent plus 3 points That means that the interest rate will be 7 percent and the loan is discounted to you by 3 percent (You ll have to come up with 3 percent of it out of your pocket) You want to be sure that the points expressed when you first apply for the mortgage are the same as are charged to you when you get your closing statement (Note: With most lenders it is usually possible to decrease the points by increasing the interest rate slightly or to decrease the interest rate by increasing the points, usually significantly) What is a prepayment penalty fee This is a charge normally to a seller or to someone who is refinancing a loan It is a penalty for paying off the existing loan earlier It usually shows up in the closing cost statement The amount can be minimal, a few hundred