Started out as a response to Claus and morphed into questions of my own...

What about the option of a 30-year fixed on a 95 LTV with the lender buying out the PMI (LPMI)? If I understand this correctly, the buyer pays a slightly higher APR in order to avoid direct PMI payments which would mean that the buyer has a slightly more favorable tax situation due to the higher P&I and no PMI. Is this feasible, am I missing something here? We were shooting for a 80/15/5 but my wife's credit was making the 2nd trust rate quotes I was getting lousy at about 9+% so our broker suggested this as an alternative. He also said that although we could probably get the 80/15/5, it was a bit iffy-er than the 95 LTV but that we should decide on what worked best for us.

On another note, I saw on the T&L Disclosure that our broker's commission is 1% above an existing $250 processing fee which I find excessive particularly since others are running about 3/4% with a processing fee of about $200. Is that fee at all negotiable? He's seems to be doing his job in finding loan options for us but so are the others.

Finally, we have found a settlement company that is cheaper than one previously suggested. Problem is that I'd like to go with the first one because they are *slightly* more convenient than the less expensive one. Can some of their fees be reduced to keep the business? The fact is that the cheaper company is only a mile from the other, charges me $200 less than the first and, perhaps more importantly, would charge the seller $250 less so they have an incentive here too.

All insight appreciated!

- D