Ways to reduce or finance closing / escrow Costs

[Jack Stewart]

Hey BP gang, was hoping to purchase a house hack in the Baltimore area and just talked to my first lender. They informed me that the money I would owe would twice as much as I expected because I had not accounted for the escrow cost. So that reduces my ability in being able to buy a place unless there some way around this. (I expected CC to be around 11k and I got the 23k total from that lender). 

I know in previous markets, the seller paying closing costs was acceptable, but in today's it is not. I read that there's maybe a grant or program out there that could assist this. Or I could possibly ask the buyer if I could incorporate them in the sale price.

Any advice? Please let me know if I could word this better - it is a little confusing.

Happy Friday,

Jack