Closing Costs Question

[Jacob Camilliere]

So i am in the process of buying my first investment property and was quite shocked at how high the closing costs are when i got the official numbers. is there any negotiating with the lenders on any aspects of the closing costs?? the price of the home is $182,000. please find the details of the closing costs below

[Chris Mason]

Originally posted by @Jacob Camilliere:

its a new construction townhome with a conventional loan 20% down with the builders lender. they offered $5,000 in concessions if i finance through them but im thinking i might be better off financing elsewhere. just wanted to get some perspective

 The builder offered you $5k to use their in-house lender, then charged you $1820, then the lender they bribed you to use charged another $3906. My math says your "credit" is actually negative $726.

Which is unusual. Quite often, the credit to use the in-house lender is actually quite enticing relative to what you pay for it. Not so, in this case.

And the builder has to know this, they don't operate in a vacuum. Tell 'em to pound sand with the $5k, waive the $1820, and you can find your own financing thank you very much. Which they will STRONGLY object to, since the in-house lender comes with an in-house rigged appraisal that will hit value no matter what (they will say a million other reasons for the preference, but that's the real reason). If they waive their $1820 fee, their lender's $3906, AND kick in a "true" $5k, ok then, now we're in business. 

Youtube search "car sales four square technique." It's how residential new construction sales works, and it "works" (unlike when you buy a normal "used" house on the MLS with your own Realtor, etc) because with new construction they have the in-house lender, in-house appraiser, in-house everything, just like when you walk onto a car lot.

Report back with how it goes. :)