<prompt> Human: Buying a house incurs closing costs meaning costs that dont build equity, above and beyond your down payment. Some are fixed fees, others depend on the loan value or house price. While these vary by state, locality, lender and mortgage type, we can make general statements about US closing costs; these might be 2-5 of the purchase price. The buyer usually pays most of these, but sometimes not; more about that later. Example closing costs Heres a general example of closing costs in no particular location. See here for explanations of what these costs are. Fees are due at closing except as noted. Please do not comment to tell us your specific costs are different than these examples; thats to be expected. Costs associated with house financing Description Cost range Notes:--:-::-- Appraisal application fee 400 Paid up frontHome inspection 300 Paid up front; optional but criticalLoan Origination fee 700 to 1 of loan Varies by lenderProcessing fees varies Aggregate of small feesMortgage insurancefunding fee 0-2 of loan Mandatory for VA, FHA, USDA loansDiscount points to reduce interest rate 0-2 of loan OptionalCosts associated with the sale transaction Description Cost range Notes:--:-::-- Title service recording fees 1000-2000 Can shop around on theseLenders title insurance 400 Mandatory; owners policy optionalTransfer taxes 0.1 to 1 of price Vary considerably by location, can be big or smallAttorneyetc fees 0-500 Required in some statesPrepaid future charges due at closing Description Cost range Notes:--:-::-- Prepaid interest 0.5 of mortgage Covers first months interestHomeowners insurance 1000 First years costProperty taxes 0.3-1.0 of price Initial escrowHOA fees varies if you have themThat was probably confusing; its a confusing topic. To highlight key takeaways:- Many of these are fees for mandatory services. You can choose who provides them in some cases.- Some fees such as taxes and recording fees are set by law. They may also stipulate whether they are paid by buyer, seller, or both.- Some of the big upfront fees like discount points or mortgage insurance costs are based on choices you make.- You would eventually pay prepaid costs anyway so thats not extra cost to you; you just pay them at closing.- Buyers dont pay broker fees in the vast majority of cases; those come from the sellers proceeds. Heres a calculator you can use to get a more detailed breakdown for a specific scenario. Managing these costs What can you do to minimize these costs Lets first start with how to reduce the costs, and then see about how to get someone else to pay for them. You can shop around for many of these services, especially mortgage services. Get estimates of origination fees and other charges to help you decide which of several lenders has the best overall cost package. Negotiate reductions and credits by getting mortgage companies to compete for your business. You can also shop around for title services, you will save some time if you get your realtor or lender to help you first identify the companies that usually have the best rates. You can make choices to reduce your up-front costs as well. For example, you may be offered the option to purchase discount points to reduce your mortgage rate. That would increase your up-front costs. In most cases, this is better for the lender than for you, but it depends on your specific situation. You can also avoid escrow prepayment if you put down 20 and get the lender to agree to this in advance. In this case, you manage your own property tax and insurance payment. Seller-paid or lender-paid closing costs Getting someone else to pay the closing costs seems ideal for many cash-challenged buyers. Many buyers want to avoid throwing money away, which is one way to describe closing costs. This can be easier said than done, however.In sellers market, sellers have little motivation to help with closing costs via concessions, so you wont get much help there. In a buyers market, you can write your offer to request that sellers provide a a fixed amount or percentage of the sale price back to you to help pay for closing costs. Since that reduces seller proceeds, they may insist on higher sell price to compensate for this, and the house would have to appraise at this higher sale price. There are other variations on this theme where you roll some closing costs into amount financed with the lenders assistance; this can also be done for FHA mortgage insurance fees and VA funding fees. Rules for what is allowable are determined by lender regulations and government mortgage rules. These tactics can let you buy a house for minimal up-front cash, but they reduce your equity and increase your payments, too.So, the hope is this gives you an idea what to expect. Ive purchased a number of houses in various states at circa 300K prices, and Ive typically paid something like 6000-8000 or so closing costs, without using discount points or seller concessions, but including prepaid escrow. Hope this helps! Big credit to ubhfroh who provided excellent input to this. Questions welcomed.  <response>: Thanks so much for doing this these are amazing 