Closing Cost Questions

[Art Maydan]

I’m looking at my closing disclosure and the underwriting fee is $995 while fees going to the title company are $3,008 and it’s under “Services Borrower Did Shop For”. I was told by the seller which title company we’re using, so I did not shop for these. And I have trouble believing the lender does everything they do for under $1,000 while the title company makes $3K for facilitating closing and doing a title search (please tell me if there’s more they do). Does the title company and lender split that $3K somehow? If not, why is this under “Services Borrower Did Shop For”?

Also, the CD shows that I’m paying for every single closing cost, even tax stamps. In the broker exam study material I’m reading, I read that the seller customarily pays for this. There’s a seller credit for $2,730, but this was negotiated by me. Well, sort of. I bought this duplex without a broker off the market from a rehabber and I had never even negotiated for a car before.

I said $250 and he said $270 (I was willing to go to $310 and it’s a great deal at $270. This guy doesn’t know the area that well). I said $270 and you pay closing costs. He agreed to that and I was happy. That was the extent of our negotiations. When lawyers got involved, they asked for an exact amount and the seller’s lawyer came back with this figure. I didn’t argue because we’ve been trying to buy this house for 6 months and have had tons of setbacks and I didn’t want to rock the boat. Anyway, is me paying all these closing costs right? I’m enormously displeased with both my lawyer and lender, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there are mistakes in these documents.