Calculating Closing Costs

[Devin P.]

I have a property under contract using a Fannie Mae Renovation Loan. When doing a soft assessment of the property I originally used 4% of the total cost of the property for closing costs. 2% of that being "transfer taxes". I found out that I am saving money purchasing a Fannie Mae home, since they are exempt from transfer taxes. The total cost of the loan is 180,000 principal with 35k added to its "required" renovation budget. I was planning on using my own funds for renovation, but apparently the type of loan I have requires a security of the renovation work being included in the loan.

So that puts my total borrowed money at 215,000. 4% of 215,000 is 8,600.

I received a rough draft of expected closing costs and total money due at closing which forced me to re-run different number scenario and loose profit.

Here are the numbers.

Purchase 180,000

Renovation Allowance 34,500

Estimated Prepaid 3280.51

Estimated Closing Costs 9844.00

Total Loan Amount 171,600 (after 20% down is calculated)

Origination 4,719

Appraisal 535

Appraisal Update/ Inspection 800

Credit Report 85

Permit Fees 650

Title - Title Update 400

Total 2470

Survey 350

Title - Closing Protection Letter 125

Courier 125

Incoming Wire 30

Lenders Title Insurance 640

Settlement Fee 445

Title Search 200

Total 1815

Taxes and Gov Fees 525

PrePaids

Home Owners Insurance 12 mo 720

Interest 460

12 Mo Prop Taxes 1884

Total 3064

Escrow 217

Title- Owners Title Insurance (opt) 315

TOTAL CLOSING 12,796

From what I have read, that seems high, especially since I am suppose to be saving 2% on transfer taxes. I talked to them about subtracting the pre-paids and not putting the property into escrow since I will be flipping the property. Add another 2% to that if I did indeed have to pay transfer taxes, and that's another 3,600 putting closing at 16,396. I understand the type of loan I have versus conventional That is over 7% on closing costs for the property if I did have to pay transfer tax. I budgeted for 8k originally and thought I would be saving money by avoiding transfer tax, but it looks like that's not the case. Can anyone offer any insight or tell me this is "normal". Would help me properly calculate closing costs for future investments.