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Comment by bitJericho | Hacker News Reader

haha, you need to learn how to negotiate. (All fees are negotiable)

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15076371 and marked it off-topic.

I think they know exactly what they're doing. You can't walk away without losing your earnest money, so you've already given up your best move before negotiation even started.

It doesn't help that trying to buy a house in many markets is restricted to those who can pay entirely in cash within 2 days of listing.

In my experience, you can switch lenders if you are having a difficult time negotiating fees (the escrow is a different party).

Earnest money is used when you've already made an offer. How do you make an offer while not including the cost of the fees in the sale? That sounds like poor negotiation.

While I will confess to being a bad negotiator, have you bought a house? It's the most confusing (intentionally, I'm sure) process I've ever endured.

This comment adds no value whatsoever. Perhaps you could share your glorious secrets as to how you manage to negotiate "all fees"?

Same way you negotiate everything else: have a real willingness to walk away.

Oh please....have you ever bought a house? The loan company and title company drag their feet to provide the final numbers between 24-72 hours before closing. By this point you've filled out miles of paperwork and spent more than a day (cumulatively) on the phone. Some of those papers you signed probably listed out these fees in tiny print somewhere, so you've already agreed to pay them. If you walk away you're losing due diligence and earnest money down, which is guaranteed to be more than the hundreds you're trying to "save" in fees. You've probably also made plans to move out of your current place and on with your life after the realty and mortgage industries sucked your soul out.

Earnest money is used when you've already made an offer. How do you make an offer while not including the cost of the fees in the sale? That sounds like poor negotiation.

Fees levied by the lending company and title company are in no way tied to the offer on the house itself. These fees are not included in an offer, which is an agreement between the buyer and seller.

The offer is an agreement on the price of the house, due diligence and earnest money from the buyer, contingencies (buyer needs to sell their own house) and any concessions from the seller (repairs, money at closing, etc).

Indeed. Except you have every right to know all the fees at that time. You can include those in your offer to the seller. Or even say the seller assumes all the fees. This is part of the negotiation because you're the one making the offer.

I've never bought a house before. But I plan on reading all the contracts before I sign them when I do.

Good. But unless you're paying cash and you own a title company, expect to pay fees when closing on a house.

Well, I will be paying cash ....

Read a book.

Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN?

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