Points are prepaid interest. :)

Legal Shield (formerly pre-paid Legal) quoted $300 which is a 25% discount to what they usually charge. 

Have you considered enrolling in a pre-paid legal service?

It seems half of my total closing costs were prepaid items, i.e. prepaid taxes, prepaid homeowners association for 1 year, prepaid interest.Including all of these prepaid items decreases the gross yield if I include them. 

It prevents issues afterwards such as "I gave two months security", or "I prepaid my rent last month".This is something your closing company should be able to handle, if not, your own attorney can draw one up. 

I purchase a home I was living in that was foreclosed on and because I was so difficult with the bank they would not sell me the home it sat on the market and auction after auction with no bids because we had a 5 year  pre-paid lease and the only way we could be evicted by law was is if a owner occupier bought the house .

However, we are trying to see if there is a way to reduce this monthly expense.The only alternative option that we have found is a secure pool phone box that uses a pre-paid wireless cell phone.

If you don't think your teen can handle a credit card, there are other options available like prepaid cards or debit cards that are linked with checking accounts that can be monitored by the parents.

My first project took six month because the contractor I used was slow, incompetent, and in the end, walked away from the project with $10K of work & materials I pre-paid (stupidly) for and didn't receive.

@Alexis Hassun Escrows for taxes and insurance are something to be concerned about if you do not escrow but that is not a 'cost of doing the loan' and nether is the prepaid interest.