After all of the expenses of buying a home, many new owners are shocked to see how much more they have to pay at the closing. It is important to understand these fees, especially if you are considering re-financing your home, since any savings on a new rate may disappear once you have to pay the closing costs on a new loan.

You would expect the lender to charge something for creating a new loan. Needless to say, the bank is not going to absorb these costs, but rather pass them on to the borrowers. (Although, in competitive loan markets, banks have used lower closing costs as a factor to attract new borrowers, by absorbing part of the fees.)

Depending on the state where you live, there may be even more.

If you are concerned about these costs, you may be able to lower some of them to a certain extent. In some markets, banks may be willing to reduce or eliminate fees that they themselves charge, such as application fees. But many of the fees involved in the closing of your mortgage are not under the control of the bank, such as the appraisal fee, the legal fees, etc.

One of the first steps you should take is to get a good faith estimate of the closing costs. Be careful that your lender has not offered you a great loan rate, but then padded the closing costs to such an extent that they recover the difference.

If you do find that any of the costs are not in line with market rates (you can call another bank and ask them what their fees are-this will apply in some areas, such as an appraisal or a credit search, or you can file another application and get another good faith estimate), call them on it and request to negotiate the item.

Now you understand how much your closing costs are going to be, and you have made some efforts in reducing them, you can calculate if refinancing is really going to be worth while by using an online mortgage calculator to find out the costs left on your present loan.

To the total cost of the new loan, be sure to add the closing costs, since you will not have them if you stay with your present mortgage. Now you can decide if it is worth taking out a new loan on your home.

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