I don't know if these were your fees as a buyer or seller. A couple of thoughts--

The wire fee may be the cost your lender charged to wire the funds for a mortgage to the escrow company(buyer) or may be the cost the escrow company was charged to wire the mortgage payoff to your lender(seller).

On the recording fees--the actual mortgage documents are often not sent to the escrow company until the last minute. In my area the county charges by the page. If the title company doesn't often receive the docs until the last minute, and a HUD-1 has to be prepared earlier, it could further complicate, and delay closing, if the company waited until the acutal documents are received to figure out exactly how many pages need to be recorded. I'm pretty sure there is also something recorded that shows a mortgage was paid off.

I don't know what the endorsement is for in your areas.

Here we use title companies--the fee is about $300 instead of the 660 the escrow company is charging. (sorry--I'm in the midwest)

As for the notary fee--yes, it seems a little lame on the part of the escrow company.

I don't know what the value of the property being bought/sold was, but in my opinion it's pretty cheap overall considering this is probably one of the biggest finanacial transactions most people undertake.

I wish notary fees here in Miami wer 40. I am a seller and have a contract on my house the agent sent me ballpark figures of closing cost, he note that the notary was going to be $350.00!

Our buyer (who worked in the mortgage industry) called around to different companies to get pricing. Then he called our escrow company and told them their fees were too high. He got a 10% discount and because they gave it to him they had to give it to me too!

happy2bme: I honestly can't think of any scenario in which a $350 notary fee would be reasonable for a single sale! What does it take, like an hour or maybe two of mostly waiting around? Take a look at the link below to see the notary requirements for FL. The coursework is 3-hours and is offered free online! The notary application is only $39 and the other requirement is that you have to be 18 years old. So where are they getting those fees from? I don't know how much $350 matters to you, but maybe you should ask why you're getting charged that much.

rrah: Yes, the fees are small in relation to the total price of the house. But it makes me feel worse when I have significant cash outlays EVERYWHERE else, too. Inspections, lender fees, realtor fees...all stuff that I'm never going to get back. I guess I mostly have a problem with the escrow companies not being very up-front with their charges. By the way - the fees I listed were for me as a buyer. The seller also got charged a wire fee (probably to pay off her lender), and my wiring the money into the title company's escrow shouldn't create a charge because I am separately paying my bank to do the wire. Like I said, I chickened out and didn't question it....that's my own fault.

I think the escrow companies count on people not making a fuss. Especially because they are doing that nickel-and-dime thing where each charge is not that substantial in itself. I'm not saying all their charges are bogus, because of course the county does actually charge for recording and courier costs need to be paid to Fed-Ex/UPS. But I can bet you that, at least in my case, they have loaded some profit margin into both the recording and courier fees.

I vote that escrow fees should be the only compensation for their services - any other charges should be strictly third-party charges with no padding. They could modify their escrow fee as needed if they somehow (I doubt it) haven't built enough profit margin into the current fees. I don't know how it works in all the other states, but in CO and CA, the title companies are the escrow providers, so keep in mind that they are already making a lot of money off the insurance premiums. I suspect that they would still do just fine if they provided escrow services free of charge with the purchase of title insurance.

Nobody has said what they think about the title insurance premiums. Anyone know where the heck the money is going?

I think Im gonna take that 3hr notary course....but I will make a little fuss when I get the closing statement, all the fees seem high to me...

I once had a buyer for a new home, & the builder insisted on using one certain title company for closing.

When I got to the closing I realized why:

He had *no* title company "junk fees", but the buyer's side of the statement was extremely high.

$5 *per page* fax fee, $1 per page photo-copying fee, etc.

The title company had given the seller a "discount" by adding his costs to the buyer's side of the closing statement.

Had the buyer not had a moving van waiting in the driveway on a Friday afternoon, I don't know that we'd have closed.

The closer was unmoving:
those were the fees, & the seller had to get his money before the buyers moved in.

(Seller had signed his side of the closing that morning & "left town" for the week-end.
Closer had the keys to the house & had instructions to hand them over when the mortgage company funded the loan.)

On Monday morning I called the state board of insurance & was told that title companies can charge anybody anything they want as long as they don't inflate the actual premium for the title policy.

I now close with title companies I know, & when I have buyers who want to buy a home where the builder insists on closing with a certain title company, I get figures from that title company *in writing* & *before the contract is signed*.

You do have to be careful, if you don't know, they aren't going to tell you. Some of the fees vary and are based off purchase price. May be we should ask for receipts proving they paid the notary, wire transfer, and courier fees...lol. It amazes me how fast those little fees add up.

Title insurance fees here (NJ) for more expensive newer homes can be $6000-$7000. I can not imagine where this amount of money is going. How many claims really get filed on the basis of title insurance? These companies must be making a fortune...does anyone know where all this money goes?

Im about a week from closing and the fees we were quoted has doubled. Do I have a right to call the company ans ask why? My husband said I shouldnt stir the pot but even my loan officer said the rate was extremely high. Not sure what I should do

Yes, call and ask.