What are closing costs is a question I get almost every day. Many home buyers are not aware that in addition to their down payment, they will also need money for closing costs and are very shocked when they find out just how much they will need in order to settle on their home.

Closing costs are fees paid at the time of settlement (when you sign the papers for your new home). These fees could include, points, origination fees, title search, insurance, taxes, appraisale fees, insurance, recording fee, notary, credit report, endorsements and conveyancing to name a few.

These fees are common but can add up to thousands of dollars.

Closing costs are foreign to most people so I figured i would list what you can expect to pay at closing. Keep in mind that not everything may be on your settlement sheet that I list or perhaps you may have more items depending on where you live.

I will break the fees up to make it a bit more simple:

Items Payable In Connection With The Loan such as:

• any loan origination fees
• loan discount points
• appraisal fees
• credit report
• any inspection fees not already paid
• mortgage application fee
• flood certifciation fee
• tax service fee
• underwriting fees

Items Required By Lender To Be Paid In Advance:

• any interest per day from the day of closing to the end of the month
• mortgage insurance
• hazzard insurance premium

Reserves Deposited With Lender (lso known as escrows:)

• hazard insurance for 3 months
• mortgage insurance for 2 months
• county property taxes for 7 months
• school taxes
• city taxes

Title Charges:

• settlement or closing fee
• abstract or title search
• title examination
• title insurance binder
• document preparation fee
• notary fee
• attorney fees (if you used an attorney)
• title insurance
• lender's policy
• owner's policy
• closing service letter fee
• record mortgage

Government Recording And Transfer Charges:

• recording fees deed/mortgage
• city/county/tax/stamps
• state tax/stamps
• transfer tax

Additional Settlement Charges:

• survey
• pest inspection
• fed ex mortgage pkg/payoffs
• reimburse seller for taxes paid through the end of the year
• gas balance due
• water service balance due
• reimburse cert fees/use and occupancy
• real estate office conveyancing fee
• commission

This list is not only for buyers or only for sellers. I have included what a buyer and a seller can expect to pay.

You should have an idea of all of these costs prior to settlement because you should have met with your lender and received a Good Faith Estimate.

I do hope this helps you understand a bit better about what closing costs are.

Real estate is the only profession where people clearly do not value a Realtor's time. Just because many Realtors do not charge an hourly fee for their time and choose to be paid out of the proceeds at settlement, consumers feel they can just waste a Realtor's time.

This is the fault of Realtors because many Realtors need business, any business, so they will run out at all hours of the day or evening to meet with consumers at the drop of a dime, putting no value on their time.

If a Realtor doesn't put a value on their time or services, don't be too surprised when you get what you pay for.

Lawyers put a value on every single thing they do such as talk on the phone, write or respond to emails, write letters, attend a meeting with you, file faxes, copies etc. Consumers just know that if they need to hire an attorney, it will be costly and so they know not to waste an attorney's time. If Realtors put a value on their time, consumers wouldn't be so quick to just want to go out and view homes before they were actually ready to buy a home or list their home.

A Realtor's job is to provide representation for a buyer and seller. From the initial consultation at either a listing presentation, which by the way, can take up to three hours to the initial meeting with a buyer, the clock starts ticking. Every showing, every email, every text, every phone conversation, meetings to put together an Agreement of Sale, follow-ups for changes, faxes, printouts of properties everything should have a fee attached to it. As a general rule though, Realtors do not charge but instead choose to get paid when and if the buyer or seller goes to settlement and even on the day of settlement, sometimes the Realtor doesn't get paid. But a seller will choose to have five different Realtors out to their home to see which Realtor will charge the least to them, knowing that they won't be charged for their time.

I worked extremely hard to obtain my real estate license and then my broker's license. I go to continuing education classes, keep up with all the current laws, rules, trends and take ethics classes. People feel that anyone can go get their real estate license and therefore anyone can become a Realtor. And due to that way of thinking, consumers just do not value a Realtor's time.

If Realtor' actually charged for their time, consumers would then do their homework ahead of time and make their choices wisely of who to have out to their home. They wouldn't play the Realtor roulette game. Buyers wouldn't call every single Realtor in the area to take them to see every home they see listed for sale. Instead they would want to find the best buyer agent their money could pay for. After all, buying a home is probably the most valuable asset you will purchase.

There are hundreds of bad to mediocre Realtors out there who are willing to work like a dog for free and could care less about a buyer or seller's best interests. A Realtor who is an expert at their craft will put a value on their time and will provide professional services and if the buyer or seller wants great representation, they will be willing to pay for the service the same way would pay for an attorney.

If an attorney doesn't win a case, they still get paid so if a buyer or seller doesn't go to settlement for whatever reason, why shouldn't a Realtor be paid? They still did all of the work.

I'd like to pose these questions to you. Do you value your Realtor's time? More importantly, does your Realtor value their time? The next time you meet with your Realtor, keep track of the time you spend with him or her. How many times do you speak with your Realtor per week, per day, per hour?

If you had to pay an hourly fee to hire a Realtor, would you treat Realtor's differently or change the way you do business with them or even the way you go about finding one? I invite you all to comment.

Renee Porsia is a Realtor in Philadelphia. Visit her website to learn more or follow her on Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/reneeporsia.

You have to be living under a rock if you haven't heard of Twitter lately. Everyone is tweeting these days, even celebrities.

But why would a celebrity want to use Twitter? Don't we give them enough attention already? Aren't they always whining every day that they have no privacy? Why then would they go on Twitter and tell whoever wants to listen what they are doing or where they are eating dinner? Obviously for the attention. You want attention or you don't want attention? I can't tell.

I myself am following many celebrities on Twitter. It seems as though all they do is tweet amongst each other, which makes me ask the question, why can't they just call each other?

You may have heard recently that Ashton Kutcher was in a race with CNN to get to one million followers. Of course, once the word got out, Ashton was able to pass his goal. And strangely enough, when people tried to unfollow Kutcher, they received a message that said there was an error. I myself was following Kutcher and read his tweets. His tweets weren't words of wisdom but I wanted to know what all the hype was all about. I attempted to ask Kutcher a few questions as well as what his name on Twitter meant (aplusk) and never received anything back. Of course having over one million followers, perhaps my questions got lost in the mix. Does having so many followers defeats the purpose of Twitter in the first place, which is to network? If you have so many followers that you can't keep up with them, what is the use?

Celebrities are now taking over Twitter, from Miley Cyrus to Nicole Richie. Some are saying how Twitter is quickly becoming a celebrity playground. I guess fan pages aren't enough for celebrities anymore. Now they want to take over the social networking world. The more followers on Twitter or the more friend requests on Facebook, the more popular the celebrity, even if they don't talk to anyone other than their elite group of peers.

The best thing about these social networking sites is that we can choose to unfriend or unfollow these celebrities. After all, I am looking to network with people, not to be a groupie. I give everyone a chance though. If I attempt to talk with a certain celeb a few times and they do not respond, I then unfollow them and I think that is what everyone should do. If they do not want to network with "regular" folk then nobody should follow them.

Renee Porsia is a Realtor in Philadelphia. Visit her website to learn more or follow her on Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/reneeporsia.