Understanding closing costs

[Mila Makhanova]

Hi BP community, 

I'm buying my first apartment and would like to get comfortable with the closing costs:

• what's the best way to calculate them (is there a rule of thumb? Certain percentage of the purchase price, say 5% or so)
• which closing fees are refundable and non-refundable;
• are all of them required and which ones are the most important once;

For 1 bedroom condo with an asking prince of $300,000 i have received a pre-approval letter with below closing fees:

• Bank attorney fees $700 (are these usually fixed or percentage driven fees?)
• Appraisal Fee $365 (reasonable?)
• Application fee $100 (seems reasonable?)
• Commitment fees $615 (never heard of it? is this refundable?)
• Tax service $77 (not sure what this is for?)
• Flood Certification $3.25 (not material, but just curious what it's for)
• Title Insurance Owners/Lender $2,334.00 (One of the larges on the list, is this absolutely required? If yes, how important is this)
• Recording fees $550 (refundable? Required?;
• NYS Mortgage tax $2,616.00 (how do they come up with this number?)

So a total of $7,362.50

This is my first time buying a place and timing is obviously critical, so if you could shed some light on these topics, I would really appreciate. 

Thanks, 

Mila