<prompt> Human: Hey guys! I am SO confused with this home buying stuff and hoping someone can help me out.Background: I make 120,000year in salary and have roughly 20-35k a year in bonuses. I live in Florida no income tax. I save 12 in my 401k and max it with my bonus each year for a total of 18,000. I have 62,000 student loan debt. I own my car and have no other major bills on that end.I currently rent for 2200month in south florida and am buying a house in central Florida. This house is 295,000 and brand new lennar home. They are telling me to use their lender to save 12,000 in closing costs otherwise I have to come out of pocket. I have saved up 25,000 in cash for a down payment on the house and with a 5 conventional loan thats basically more than I would need. While it will put me with less than 5,000 in cash, the move in date is November to February depending on completion and I will get my bonus check in December again.My questions:Bank of America pre approved my loan saying im 24 Debt to Income ratio on this setup and was told that is very good. My credit score is very high 832 and Im told my income is good as well. They offered me a preapproval at 4.00.Lennars people are telling me the best they can do is 4.375 but they give me 12,000 in closing costs. Should I just fork out the extra 12,000 and go with Bank of America? That lending company doesnt seem to care about the fact that I feel that 0.375 is way too high of a difference for someone like me. Ive never defaulted, have a great job and have never been late on a credit card, rent, and paid off all other debts early carstudent loans etc. HELP?!Any tips for this process would be great.EDIT 526: Thanks for all the tips guys! It looks like Lennar is putting some of that 14.5k into escrow for 3 months of taxes and 3 months of fees etc. We are going to go with Lennars lending company and refinance in the future if needed. We plan to pay this off in 15 years anyway, so the difference in the interest long term shouldnt be huge.  <response>: Im going to sort of agree with a lot of people here, but you need to make sure youre doing an apples to apples comparison between the two. With all of the numbers flying around, its easy to get mixed up... and they are trying to do this to you intentionally as well, which doesnt help.Closing Costs is an important number, but doesnt actually help you figure what kind of deal youre getting. It just says how much money youre bringing to the table when you sign the paperwork.Theres a couple different parts to the closing costs. You need to exclude several of them to be able to make an accurate comparison. Theyll throw in a lot of numbers that they estimate, and those estimates will throw the numbers off wildly. So heres a few key parts of the deal:TaxOther Prepayments: These are payments by one side or the other of the property tax, because one side owned the property half the year, the other side owned the property half the year. So you split the cost. If the seller has already paid it for this year, they get a credit, if they havent paid it yet, theyll need to pay you for it. Either way, this is just some formula, and will be the same either way. Subtract this amount off whatever estimate you get, because how people estimate this varies wildly. Same with HOA dues.Escrow: This is money the bank wants you to put down so theyre sure they have money to pay your property tax and insurance. How these get estimated varies, but will be the same either way. Either way, this is your money, its just how much the bank is going to hold to start off with. If they hold too much, then your payments will lower in a year. Either way, this is your money, so it doesnt matter.Homeowners insurance: this is the first years premium for your homeowners insurance. Again, its an estimate. Again, they tend to vary.So... Take the closing cost - Prepayments - escrow - homeowners insurance. See if theres other fees that are the same between the two that you need to remove from both to make the comparison fair. Surveys come to mind. Thats how much the closing companythe bank is actually charging you to close the deal. Look at that number. Thatll help you pick which closing is right for you.What if Lennar is charging you an extra 10000 in fees... all the sudden that big deal isnt such a big deal. Or you only get that extra if you use their insurance company which charges you 2x what the other guy charges. Understand what the different fees are, how the total is calculated, etc. A lot of the time they tack on documentation fees, and administration fees, and processing fees. Thats just all money that goes to the closing company.Find a good homeowners insurance company. Thats going to be 100month or so of your mortgage, and rates vary wildly. Go with them, dont go with the ones your lender suggests, they are often bad. I personally like Amica, but YMMV. Ask them for a Good faith estimate or an estimated hud 1 statement. Itll aid you in comparing apples to apples. I bet if you get the estimated HUD-1s, blank out personal details and post it, you could get some good advice.Getting this sorted correct can easily save you 1000 dollars, so spend your time on it.Edit: Oh, also exclude the amount youre actually putting down on the house, the initial mortgage payment, and the first months mortgage if they are collecting it. Youre trying to figure out who is giving you the best deal on closing, not on the actual loan itself. Then add the loan calculations in manually yourself so its done the same way. If for some reason theyre actually paying you a bunch to close with them... sweet. Consider closing and then refi-ing your loan as soon as you close. Yes closing on a house and immediately re-fing is silly. Welcome to homebuying. 