Did I overpay on my closing costs?

[Joseph Montes]

In June, I bought a 3 bedroom/1 bath SFH in Lansing, MI on short sale for $20,000 that I am now renting. I was able to find conventional financing from a bank, getting a 30-year loan at 4.79%. I'm currently gearing up to start looking for my next property and I am in the process of evaluating everything I spent on the first deal to see if there's any room for improvement.

One of the things that's very frustrating is, especially considering that I only put $4,000 down, is the amount I paid in closing costs, which exceeded the money down at : $4,540.64. To be honest, I kind of got pulled through my first mortgage experience as the constant stream of paperwork/charges/concepts-new-to-me was pretty overwhelming. Now I've gone back and read up on and evaluated everything I was charged:

-Agent commission: $750.00
-Origination charge: $606.50 (cost to create the loan)
-Appraisal fee: $515.00
-Credit report: $6.68
-Daily interest charges from 6/25-7/1: $12.84 (prorated loan interest)
-1 Year of homeowners insurance: $262.00
-Initial escrow deposit: $125.83 (Start escrow for insurance/taxes)
-Title services: $527.80 (Check for liens on the property)
-Title insurance: $349.75 (Insurance in case there are liens)
-Gov. recording charge: $80.00 (Register property at city/county/state level)
-Gov. transfer taxes: $172.00 (Costs of taxes/stamps/deeds to register)
-Tax service fee: $85.00 (Makes sure I'm paying taxes on my loan)
-Flood certification fee: $19.50
-2013 City summer taxes: $1,027.74

My question is do you see anywhere I could have saved money? The last fee is pretty large and seemingly unavoidable given how the city assesses taxes, but what about the others? Also, let me know if any of my descriptions/understandings of what the charges are seem incorrect.

Thanks for your help!

Joseph

[Patrick L.]

On a cash deal you wouldn't need to pay any of these:

-Agent commission: $750.00
-Origination charge: $606.50 (cost to create the loan)
-Appraisal fee: $515.00
-Credit report: $6.68
-Daily interest charges from 6/25-7/1: $12.84 (prorated loan interest)
-Tax service fee: $85.00 (Makes sure I'm paying taxes on my loan)
-Flood certification fee: $19.50

And this one would be about half as much (because it's way less work for a title company without all the mortgage paperwork)

-Title services: $527.80

A cash deal would have saved you about $2,200 but if this is the only way you could buy it and you got a good deal then there's nothing wrong with paying the fees to get into the game.